3D Models for our Project

Creating and Using 3D Models

We downloaded several models that suite our Project from Google's 3D Warehouse.
We modified them to our needs using Google Sketchup and then converted those Models to .3ds Models (Using Export feature of Google Sketchup Pro)

Note:
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Though .3DS, Collada, .KMZ files and many other 3D Model formats are supported by FLARToolKit and FLARManager, we choose to use Collada (.dae extension file names), version 4
Models as many code samples were/are available in the web for Collada Models.

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Using Blender (Program from www.blender.org) we imported the .3DS models, saved them as blender files and then converted them to Collada models using the Export option.
These Collada Models (From 3D Warehouse to .3DS to .dae) were/are used for the Project.

Note:
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After converting to .dae files, open the .dae file using notepad (or any text editor or your choice) and search for .jpg or .png files.
These are the Texture of the 3D Model. You have to make sure the Texture ( .jpg or .png) files exist in the directory path specified in the .dae file. You can modify the path if needed.

e.g.

original value (after exporting from .3ds to .dae using Blender)

<init_from>..\images\3ds\banana1.jpg</init_from>

After manual editing (Editing with text editor)

<init_from>banana1.jpg</init_from>

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Note: The path to the image texture file created in the .dae file can be absolute (e.g. C:\Project\..\..\images\3ds\banana1.jpg) or relative (e.g. \images\3ds\banana1.jpg) depending on the option you choose with the export using Blender. (Please choose relative at that time of export)
After manually editing the path to say

<init_from>banana1.jpg</init_from>

make sure the file banana1.jpg is in the same dir as the .dae file (say banana3d.dae).


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- Suresh