ShapeShifter 3D can import files created in other 3D modeling programs and saved as Wavefront .OBJ or 3Dstudio ASC files. Most files are compatible, but due to the wide variance between OBJ and ASC files saved by different programs we can not guarantee compatibility with all objects. If you have a file that does not translate correctly please submit a problem report using the Support area of the ShapeShifter 3D site at xtras.tabuleiro.com. Our support staff will make sure your file is analyzed in order to improve compatibility of our importers. It is our goal to support files generated by the majority of applications, and we will issue minor updates to ShapeShifter 3D frequently to guarantee this ability. Below we have listed some known problems and basic information about each file format:

3Dstudio ASC:

This is a simple format for translation of geometry only. Materials are not supported.

Known issues: None

Wavefront .OBJ:

This is a very popular format and supported by many programs. Unfortunately this also means that some .OBJ files are not written correctly, and may not import in ShapeShifter 3D. Our importer only supports .OBJ files with polygonal meshes: NURB patches cannot be imported into ShapeShifter 3D. Material properties and texture coordinates are also supported. Materials are usually described in a file named .MTL, present with all the texture maps in the same directory of the .OBJ file. Some converters do not write a separate .MTL file: in this case materials will not be imported into ShapeShifter 3D.

Known issues: Some exporters do not limit the texture coordinates between -1 and 1. In this case the resulting file will have bad texture coordinates mapping.

If the object appears to be inside out, with holes or with faces missing it is possible that face orientation is wrong in the exporter (Normals are reversed.) You can select all faces (or just individual groups) in ShapeShifter 3D and use the "REVERSE VERTEX" command to correct this issue. The "SMOOTH ALL" button in the FACES Tab can also be used to correct objects that import with mangled smoothing groups.

Some exporters produce .OBJ files that have large dimensions. The object will import but you will not be able to see it in the ShapeShifter 3D viewports. If this is the case then use the "SELECT ALL" menu item and use the manual scale option (SCALE TOOL) to reduce the scale of the object (try scaling to 0.1 in all dimensions.)