Cheetah3D cannot open files in the “FBX” format.

M

Matthew Woods

0
I swear that I have been able to use FBX files in Cheetah before, but if I try to open one in 7.5.1, I get a pop-up window with the message that is in my subject.
It looks like FBX should be supported in the documentation. I have tried multiple FBX files. Same problem.
Is this a regression? Anyone else have this problem?

-Matt
 
I'm running 7.5b1- It works fine here.

Cheetah has import and export preferences for FBX so it should work.
 
Matthew Woods said:
I swear that I have been able to use FBX files in Cheetah before, but if I try to open one in 7.5.1, I get a pop-up window with the message that is in my subject.
It looks like FBX should be supported in the documentation. I have tried multiple FBX files. Same problem.
Is this a regression? Anyone else have this problem?

-Matt
Click to expand...
Same here, The workaround is by importing that same FBX file via the drop-down menu inside Cheetah3d, regression is a thing with updates, i’m sure I’m not the only one to notice generally across the sea of apps & software that sometimes things break whenever updates are sent out. Still a great tool to use
 
Last edited:
Screen Shot 2021-05-27 at 8.48.48 AM.png

Thanks for the tip Dandroid. Yes, I can "import" .fbx files into an existing project via the dropdown, but I can't open them that way. Yes, I think it is a regression, but I want to make sure Martin is aware so he can fix it. Also, would be nice to be able to download 7.5.0 in the meantime.
 
Do you possibly have the Reality Converter app installed? If yes, please have a look at this thread:

FBX import no longer working, OSX 10.15.5

I can no longer import FBX files but can export an FBX. The FBX I export then can't be imported into Cheetah. Any ideas? Have re-installed Cheetah 7.4.2 just in case but still does not work. I can open the FBX file in Blender and Adobe Dimension. The FBX file icon is now greyed out and when...
www.cheetah3d.com www.cheetah3d.com

Unluckily the problem is still unsolved yet. So far Apple hasn't reacted to my bug report.
 
Yes, I do have reality converter installed so it sounds like that is the problem. I have started using Apple's Motion and was trying reality converter to make usdz files (note: I put a feature request for usdz file format support in Cheetah). I am able to use OBJs in Cheetah at the moment as a workaround, but I also use Unity 3d and FBX is my preferred format for that. If this is an Apple bug, do you have a clear description of it that I can file with Apple?
 
Yes, I'm pretty sure it's an Apple bug. But the whole UTI system in very confusing and error prone. So I'm just 99% sure.

Here is the problem explanation I used in my bug report:
Reality Converter seems to uses incorrect file type UTIs. For the .gltf file format Apple is using "com.khronos.gltf" as UTI although the domain of the Khronos group is khronos.org. Following Apples documentation the proper file type UTI should be "org.khronos.gltf".
Although the FBX UTI seems to be incorrect. Apple is using "com.autodesk.fbx" for the file UTI. But Autodesk, the creator of the FBX file format, is using "com.autodesk.mac.fbx" in their app "FBX Review" (Mac App Store). For compatibility reasons Apple shouldn't invent another UTI for the FBX file format. I haven't checked which UTI Autodesk Maya uses. It should be worth checking out for compatibility reasons.
These incorrect UTIs cause compatibility issues with my app Cheetah3D which supports these file formats since many many years. Please let me know if you intend to fix these incorrect UITs in the near future.
Click to expand...
 
This reminds me of an experience I had years ago with a web browser called iCab. These days, iCab is based on webkit, but back in the 90s it was one of the few browsers with a completely home-grown HTML engine (and, for a long time, no JavaScript support). A single [German] developer had written this thing, and that’s a HUGE accomplishment. (Staggering, actually.) But, hey, I have a friend who wrote a PDF viewer in an evening…

But iCab was incompatible with a lot of sites, in large part because the guy had rigorously adhered to the actual W3C specifications, and the browser would generate GIGANTIC error logs, citing chapter and verse, for just about any web page you looked at. I loved using it to find errors in my HTML, but it was almost unusable as a daily browser.

So, this seems like a tension between “being correct” and “doing what works” HOWEVER, I’d argue Martin’s stance here is slightly inconsistent.

cοm.autodesk.mac.fbx is “what works” and not ”reverse-dns” (mac.autodesk.com isn’t a thing) so it’s actually a BAD UTI.

org.knronos.gltf is “reverse-dns” and not “what works”.

I think the right thing to do is ideally:

1. Do what works,
2. File a bug
3. Ideally, write code that will STILL work if the problem is fixed.

There’s a purist argument that suggests “don’t do the first thing, it just perpetuates the problem”. This is how you end up with unkillable defacto standards (like multiple MIME types for a single kind of file, or .htm vs. .html and .jpg vs. .jpeg). I can respect that. But once you start doing it some of the time, when do you stop?
 
I just received an update from the bug report on this that I filed with Apple. They say they have fixed the issue in Reality Converter Beta 4. Just downloaded and installed it, and I am still able to open FBX files in Cheetah!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top