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Breaking up "Groups" of Objects

E

ejwells

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unitedstates
I have been updating some of John Stinstroms Military bases for use in FSX and P3D. One thing that he does to make placement easier is to group objects together (usually 8-10) and then place that group rather than placing each one individually. I understand his reason for doing so however when updating and matching to a satellite image the buildings are way off. Is there any way to "ungroup" those objects?

Thanks
 
You can check in the ModelConverterX Hierarchy Editor if each building is a separate object. If so, you can export (Export Object) each of them as separate MDL files and then place them individually. If not, you would probably have to export the entire object to a 3D CAD program like GMAX, 3DS Max, or Blender (or Sketchup if that is possible) and then export each building as a separate MDL file. For GMAX and 3DS Max this can be 3DS (or OBJ?) format.
 
Thanks Tom,
I checked in MCX and found that the buildings are not separate objects. My expertise (if you can call it that) in 3D is solely in Sketchup which, it just so happens, can import 3DS files. I have a major task ahead of me if I decide to pursue the project, but at least I know it can be done so thank you for the suggestion. I may take the smaller groups first and see how those progress. If I can then build proper libraries of individual objects I'll be able to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
 
I looked at Dryess AFB and and tried it with exporting a Collada .dae from MCX. With that the textures were OK in Sketchup, although they needed to be converted from DXT3 to 32 bit before they would show up. Also I had to edit the .dae (it's a text file, you can drag it into Notepad or open it with Notepad ++) to give Sketchup an exact path to the .bmps. That worked, I got the model in Sketchup preserving the mapping. I deleted all but one model and exported that from SU as "model_1.dae", in MCX you can use Transform > Move to center the object on the grid, assign it a GUID, and export as an FSX .mdl. The only problem was the export from Sketchup didn't maintain the original texture filenames, it gave them all names like "__auto_1.bmp" and "__auto_2.bmp", etc. You can of course change the texture .bmp in MCX but it would be a bit of a task to figure out which .bmp from the original scenery was supposed to replace "__auto_2.bmp" for example. In the end I think you'd have to want to do it pretty bad because it looks like it'll be a royal PITA, lol. In the case of Dryess I chose one of the smaller groups of buildings to play with, some of the others were quite large and no doubt had many more textures associated with them.
 
Jim (as I remember) has given you more information, so no need to comment on that. But it looks like your import into Sketchup has resulted in very small models, probably because Inches is the default scale, when MCX and 3DS files are assuming Meters. So either use Meters at import, or enlarge the buildings by the Meters/Inches ratio.
 
Thanks for the additional info guys. It just solidifies my decision to let this one go. Because John's Randolph AFB worked out so well I was asked to take a look at Brunswick. But as Jim stated. . ."you'd have to want to do it pretty bad". . . .
and I don't, lol. Thanks again to both of you!
 
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