I’m modeling in modo and setting up materials to the resulting geometry in max.
I’m looking for a way to (kind of) automatically update the geometry in max
whenever I change it in modo. (I do want to keep the materials created in
max.)
First I tried to use an FBX file as an XRef, but apparently that’s a no go.
Then I imported the FBX file in max, changed it in modo and reimported with
the FBX importer’s “Update scene elements” option. Nothing happened,
regardless of what mode I chose. I only got the new geometry after I
deleted the old one. o_O
The FBX import log shows no errors (only a warning for “Invalid UV index table”).
The best solution I could come up with is like this:
Export geometry from modo.
Open GeometryOnly max file, delete old mesh, import new one.
Open final max file which contains an XRef to GeometryOnly.max.
I guess a macro could be made for this but it’s still not a very elegant
solution.
There was a project I saw years ago where people were interactively working on Max scenes on multiple computers. That may have some insight.
If I were to do something like this, though, I’d just write my own solution for updating/creating a mesh. Then just put a .NET file watcher on the file in Max and update your scene mesh when the file updates. The difficult part would be writing the modo->max mesh conversion (how are the modo meshes stored?), and then figuring out how to selectively update verts (obviously if the vert count is the same it would be easier, but what happens when it changes?).
Fortunately (near) realtime sync between the two apps is not essential, I just
want to reduce the manual labor (and chance for human error) to a minimum.
Like one export button in modo and one import button in max or something.
Btw, apparently in the FBX importer the “update scene elements”
means “update animation”…