Howto:Work with AC3D files in Blender: Difference between revisions

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Many Flightgear aircraft modelers prefer Blender as their 3D editor. There is good support for import and export of flightgears native AC3D fileformat to and from Blender. This page gives an overview of those options.
Many [[FlightGear]] [[aircraft]] modelers prefer [[Blender]] as their 3D-modelling editor. FlightGear primarily uses the [[AC3D]] file format (<code>.ac</code>) to model aircraft, [[scenery]] models, and many other things.  There is good support for the import and export of the AC3D file format from Blender. This page gives an overview of those options.


== Blender version 2.4 ==
== Blender versions 2.4 and older ==
This Blender version support import and export of AC3D out of the box. Just go into user preferences and enable the addon scripts.
For these versions, Blender supports both the import and export of AC3D files out of the box. Just go into user preferences and enable the addon scripts.


== Blender version 2.5 to 2.62 ==
== Blender versions 2.5 to 2.62 ==
For these version you can use these scripts by Majic79:
For these versions you can use one of these scripts by Majic79:


* [https://github.com/majic79/Blender-AC3D/tree/BL2.62 Majic79's Blender 2.62 import and export scripts. (updated 2012)]
* {{github source|proj=majic79|repo=Blender-AC3D|branch=BL2.59|text=Version for Blender 2.59 (repository)}} ({{github zip file|majic79|Blender-AC3D|branch=BL2.59|text=ZIP file download}}).
* {{github source|proj=majic79|repo=Blender-AC3D|branch=BL2.60|text=Version for Blender 2.60 (repository)}} ({{github zip file|majic79|Blender-AC3D|branch=BL2.60|text=ZIP file download}}).
* {{github source|proj=majic79|repo=Blender-AC3D|branch=BL2.62|text=Version for Blender 2.62 (repository)}} ({{github zip file|majic79|Blender-AC3D|branch=BL2.62|text=ZIP file download}}).


== Blender version 2.63 and later ==
== Blender versions 2.63 and later ==
For version 2.63 till 2.74 you have more choices of scripts.
For version 2.63 onwards you have a choice of several scripts.


=== Majic79 addon ===
=== Majic79 addon ===
When exporting with this addon, notice that you should set UV and texture inside the material, not just inside the UV editor. See here on how to do that: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URMjoFSm5pk Video showing how to apply UV texture for Majic79 addon]


Inside Blender when you want to see the textures, be sure to set the shader to GLSL (or for 2.7 just set view mode to materials).
Current maintainer: [[User:Necolatis]]


When exporting/importing, this addon will tessellate the meshes into quads/triangles.
Tested with Blender version 2.63 to 2.78a


Report bugs here, be sure to include problematic AC/blend files: [https://github.com/majic79/Blender-AC3D/issues Majic79 AC3D issues]
You can follow the [http://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=13442 Forum thread] for more information.


* [https://github.com/majic79/Blender-AC3D Majic79 scripts for import/export in newer Blender versions. (updated 2015)]
'''Notes:'''
* Before you export a model with this addon, make sure that you set the UV map and texture inside the material, not just inside the UV editor.  See the video tutorial [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URMjoFSm5pk here].
* Before you export make sure to exit Edit Mode or some of your last changes won't be exported.
* Inside Blender when you want to see the textures, be sure to set the shader to GLSL (or for 2.7+ just set view mode to materials). Alternatively set textured solid in solid view.
* To see textured surfaces as they will be shown in Flightgear, go into the material texture and set the blend type to "Multiply" instead of the default "Mix" (the importer will also do this automatically). An example plane that will look very different if this is not done is the FGAddon aircraft ASK-13, notice the wingtips.
* If you wonder where to put the scripts you could open blender's user preferences (''CTRL ALT U'', or ''File->User Preferences'') tick e.g. Import/Export and extent the informations concerning an existing script. Usually this throws the path. For Ubuntu 14.04LTS/Blender 2.79b e.g. it's: ''/usr/share/blender/scripts/addons/''.
* Be aware that Blender only has greyscale for emission and ambient colors. If you want to export/import a color for those, import/export options gives you capability to choose to use Blenders mirror color for that.
* The importer will not fail if it does not locate a texture, instead it will issue warnings. Pull down the top bar to see if there was any, they will be orange lines.
* The exporter will not fail if it tries to save a texture without data, instead it will issue warnings. Pull down the top bar to see if there was any, they will be orange lines. Notice that since AC3D only support 1 texture per object, if multiple textures are attached to an object in Blender the last of the textures that has any data, if any, will be the one that get exported, but it will still warn about the missing data in the others, so take care.
* Orientation: The default settings in the plugin correspond to the FlightGear coordinate system (-X forward and Z up, also see: [[Howto:3D_Aircraft_Models]]). The default settings are: Forward -Z and Up Y.
 
You can report bugs with the addon [https://github.com/NikolaiVChr/Blender-AC3D/issues here], but please include problematic .ac/.blend files and their textures.
 
: {{github source|proj=NikolaiVChr|repo=Blender-AC3D|text=Repository}} ({{github zip file|NikolaiVChr|Blender-AC3D|text=ZIP file download}}).
 
Notice that the above link is to Necolatis (Nikolai) latest version, as the Majic79 github hasn't kept up with the updates and seems dead.


=== Mr. No addon ===
=== Mr. No addon ===
When exporting with this addon, make sure you set the texture inside the UV editor.
'''Notes:'''
* When exporting with this addon, make sure you set the texture inside the UV editor.
* When using this script, it is very important that everything is textured. The addon will silently fail if this is not the case.
* This script does not work reliable when nested groups are being used in the imported AC3D model (example [https://github.com/NikolaiVChr/flightgear-saab-ja-37-viggen/blob/FG-v3.4/Aircraft/JA37/Models/Instruments/Altimeter2/altimeter-metric.ac here]).
* The importer cannot handle the token 'subdiv', its just ignored.
* The exporter does not always export the rotations/location matrix of objects correctly.
 
: [http://www.mediafire.com/?m4f9m95qj9e5qq0 Download link (MediaFire)]
 
=== FG2blender (PAF Team) ===
 
Authors: f-jjth, run
 
The PAF team (Patrouille de France), a French group of FlightGear enthusiasts have also made an AC3D Blender script. Their last commit dates back to 11 December 2013 and it feels like their FG2Blender project is abandoned. The PAF team is essentially active on their [http://equipe-flightgear.forumactif.com/ own French speaking forum]. There's no trace or documentation available, so the notes below are speculative and incomplete. It would be interesting to test these scripts and check if the work of the PAF team can be merged with the work of [[User:Necolatis]] as this is actually the only AC3D script that is still maintained.
 
'''Notes:'''
 
* According to the source code, the script seems to be able to export animation.


When using this script, it is very important that everything is textured. The addon will silently fail if this is not the case.
[https://sourceforge.net/p/pafteam/fg2blender/ci/master/tree/ Repository] ([https://sourceforge.net/p/pafteam/fg2blender/ci/master/tarball Zip file download])


* [http://www.mediafire.com/?m4f9m95qj9e5qq0 Mr. No import/export script for newer blender versions. (updated 2012)]
== External links ==
[https://sites.google.com/view/ac3dfileformat/home AC3D file format]


==External links==
{{3d}}
[http://opencity.sourceforge.net/html/ac3dfileformat.html AC3D file format]


[[Category:Modeling]]
[[Category:Modeling]]

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