Ungrouping objects. Problem with Dante's Medieval Forge. uv/texture problem too.
HorusRa
Posts: 1,664
Question: is it possible to move through the hierarchy of an imported obj in daz studio 4.8?
This is whats going on:
I purchased 'Medieval Forge' (the first one, not the second version) from Rendo, it's made by Dante78. So far I've had no problems with his models, until this one. I imported into DS, all was well. When I started applying the textures everything was fine except for one, and only one, instance: the barrels around the building are grouped with the 'main building.' 
I went to look at the texture sheet for the 'main building' and the barrels don't have a texture on that sheet, it uses its own textures, they are seperate and not on a sheet with any other textures, as is the case sometimes with this model, and thats ok, that's to be expected depending on the uv mapping choices the creator made. I can get the entire model textured except for the barrels. I see that, or I should say, I believe it seemed it could be ungrouped in Poser 9 (which I have) but not sure how I get these barrels textured, or better yet, ungrouped in DS. Now this is important: I am NOT a Poser user, I don't want too, nor am I trying to use this model in Poser, this thread is in relation to Daz Studio, I'm just saying I loaded it into Poser as well to check out the grouping. I'm no stranger to modeling myself, so I loaded it into Lightwave and Truespace both as well, and as far as I could tell I was not able to move through the hierarchy to seperate the grouping of the barrels to the main building. I wrote Dante78 and of course instead of helping solve the problem he tried to say nothing was wrong with it, he could find no problem, nevermind the fact that the barrels are clearly grouped to a part of the main building, and the barrels are not included on the uv texture sheet with that main building, but like I said, have their own texture sheet. Again, considering that, when you texture the one part of the main building, it textures the barrels as well because they are grouped with it, so you see part of the roof on the barrels or whatever part of the building texture appeared on them, it was a mess as you can realize. I'm about at wits end with Dante78. He also tried to claim that some/all of his buildings are made for Poser, nevermind the fact that on some of his descriptions it clearly states "softare that opens obj," if he isn't in the process of making a mad rush to change that statement on his items. btw, when the model loaded in Poser, it appeared textured, the barrels were messed up. 
So much for Dantes statement!
Anyway, thats the problem, and was wondering if there is a good way to deal with this in Daz Studio? I have included a screen shot of the building and the barrels are centered therein. In the surfaces pane u will notice the barrels are named '19____default', so is part of the building. The barrel textures are NOT on the sheet, as I've mentioned, as the part of the building they are grouped with. Everything else in the model is grouped properly in relation to its texture sheet.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
You could try Ultimate Unwrap 3D, it has a demo and you can just select certain polys and create a new material zone where you can apply just the barrel textures to the barrels. I would thuink Lightwave would have the option to select just the barrel polys and detach as a new object, then you can apply a new texture to it.
In the Geometry editor you should be able to select by Surface.
I'll have to check into the program u mentioned. As far as Lightwave goes, there are many parts of LW that I am still learning. As a former registered user of Truespace for years, when they made their (bad) choice to go in hoots with Microsoft and got the program killed, a lot of us in that community had to decide on another application to use. I always thought LW was rather hip (not so corporate feeling as say, Max) and more affordable as well compared to some of the others, so I chose LW, but I am still learning aspects of it. I am very used to moving through the hierarchys in TS and seperating objects, but not so much in LW, as of just yet. Thanks for the suggestion. If anyone else has any ideas, please feel free to post.
I did try that before posting. Seeing as how the barrels appear to have a number of surfaces (faces) trying to select the barrel didn't select one, but only "a face" (out of many) of one. That seemed like a lot of work, and wanted to first see if there was an easier and faster alternative. Actually I'm not very very good with Daz's geometry editor, I'm not sure how it works, I'd need good info or preferable documentation/tutorials for it before I would really understand how to use it. That, unfortunately, is one aspect of Daz Studio I know little about.
What does it look like in the scene pane expanded? Studio doesn't apply materials to child objects, or even to separate unparented objects even if they are selected together. ie, if you have left shoe and right shoe that are loaded separately, select both, and apply the shoe texture it will only apply to one.
If you can't select the barrels separately in the scene pane, you'll have to try what mjc1016 said.
"Look like in the scene pane expanded." Not sure exactly what you mean. Do you mean with the rest of the tree expanded, the '19_____default'? If so, no there are no more sub's (sub parameters), it's just the surface properties as usual. Nope the barrels cannot be selected individually or seperate from part of the main building. They are boolean unioned to it or something. When u select the barrels, u also select part of the building. The building is in a few different parts. The front part under the steps is seperate (not grouped) wih the rest of the building, the lower roof is its own group vs from the top roof. The building has many groups, but half of the lower part of the building is grouped with the barrels.
ok heres a screen shot of the '19_____default' channel expanded, if thats what you mean. I have also applied the texture set for '19_____default' so one can see how the barrels are grouped with which part of the building. Anything that is textured in this shot is grouped together, e.g., part of the lower part of the building AND the barrels.
Flip to Wireshaded. Then in the Geometry Editor, select one poly on each barrel (ctl click to add more polys), then ctl+ until each barrel is completely selected. Then, right click, select Geometry Assignment > Create Surface From Selected. When the dialog box pops up to name it...if there is an image map for the barrels, use that name...to keep with the rest of the items. Then, in the Surface tab, assign the proper map to that new surface.
If you missed any polys on the barrels, just select them and assign them to the new barrel surface...
Then export/save as an asset.
Thanks for explaining that. Thats very helpful info concerning the geometry editor, I would of not known any of that possible. I may not be able to mess with any of that though, but it's there if I do. I wrote Dante78 again and included two screen shots of the model in DS 4.8 and my copy of Poser 9 where the problem is shown in both. He seems blind to the problem, says he finds nothing (or unwilling to see, not sure which). I mentioned in best interest of customers and me I'd rather he figure it out and fix it or I would be forced to leave a bad review AND let rendo know of the problem AND ask for a refund. I told him I'd rather do neither, but neither should I have to load it into Lightwave, taking time and pains upon myself, to select and delete vertices, etc, etc on detail that is supposed to be on the model and without flaws anyway. I have spare barrels, if not I could just model some up real quick (if I could come up with some textures for them) but I should not have to do this.....nor should anyone else.
Yeah, what mjc said -- or what you said
Sigh, I have one of his older things. Not this one. Haven't installed yet and now don't look forward to it.