I am going to work together with an architect who works in FormZ.
The idea is that I take his output and make 3D visualisations in Blender.
FormZ can export .obj
, .dfx
and .3ds
files. Those file formats can be imported into Blender right? Are there any (dis)advantages in using either one of those file formats (or put more simple; what is the preferred format) when my objective is to create 3D visualisations of architectural designs ?
Aliasguru commented:
It depends on what version (free, jr or pro) and what OS your contact is using, but seen from the Blender side, OpenCollada and FBX would be the neatest choices.
As Aliasguru pointed out I should have included FBX and OpenCollada. So my question should be: FormZ can export .obj
, .dfx
, .3ds
, .fbx
and OpenCollada files. Those file formats can be imported into Blender right? Are there any (dis)advantages in using either one of those file formats (or put more simple; what is the preferred format) when my objective is to create 3D visualisations of architectural designs ?
After reading the answers on my question and doing some more research myself it seems that OBJ and FBX are the best candidates for exchanging 3D models. It is my understanding that OBJ is only able to exchange geometry data and FBX can do that but also exchange materials/textures data. So it looks like that FBX is the best candidate for archviz workflow with OBJ as a second best. Are the experts supporting this view ??
As advised I am now testing the files created in formZ. It appears that with OBJ and DXF you can only exchange geometry data and not materials/ UV's/ textures. I am not sure If I would want that but now I cannot see how the architect thinks the building should look like.
It appeared that the client was using a very old version of formZ and therefore no FBX export was possible. After testing I was most satisfied with the DXF format as it did exchange the geometry data the best.
As regard to the bounty ... in fact everybody helped me with their advises but the best advise was to do a lot of testing.