Importing OBJ File, can you override Axis?

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post originally from Jonathan Spence

Hey there, I have exported an OBJ file from Sketchup and brought it into Arkio via the cloud, however the axis seems to have flipped. Ie the x or y axis seems to be the Z axis with the Obj file coming in sideways.

Is there a way to override the axis of an imported .OBJ File within Arkio or would this have to be done somehow on the export from sketchup?

Any information would be greatly appreciated!

Regards

Jonny Spence

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Hi Jonathan :wave:

This is a typical issue that happens with modeling exports, but luckily it’s an easy issue to fix! Here is what I would recommend

  1. Use the Arkio SketchUp plugin to handle exporting to Arkio. We will automatically orientate your model in the correct axis during the export.
  2. Override your export parameters from SketchUp to have a flipped z axis.
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We have just discovered that if exporting from Tinkercad, then you will need to rotate your model -90 degrees on the x axis for it to be the right way up in Arkio. I hope this is useful.

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@Paul good eye, the axis orientation is a battle for the ages. We’ve been handling this when exporting from our plugins, but I think a simple fix we could consider is adding a orientation option in our import panel.

@Johan what ya think ?

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Sounds like a good idea.

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I think this is a good idea to add these controls in Arkio one day but we also want to prevent cluttering of import settings with many settings that are hard to understand by non-experts.

Since many 3D modeling programs choose different coordinate systems it is often easiest to correct your orientation for the desired program from the source software. When using our Sketchup/Rhino/Revit plugins we rotate the model to the left-handed Y-axis up coordinate system similar to Unity.

3d program axis_arkio
3d program axis_arkio1920×1920 182 KB

In most 3D modeling tools upon export, you can choose to set your desired axis. If you want to export models from mesh tools like Blender you can use the following export settings:

Import_axis_blender.png
Import_axis_blender.png343×375 25.9 KB

If you don’t want to be bothered too much by these settings you can also just bring in your models in the coordinate system that your software uses and then correct the rotation in Arkio by picking up the geometry with your hand and rotating it correctly and then pinning it.

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