I've been searching for days on a way to create surface imperfections on my LEGO builds in blender. All the tutorials are fine on one single object, but when I attempt to combine them with the LEGO objects from Stud.io, it never works. The colors change, the texture isn't there, or it simply won't let me add any nodes. However, I heard about the Mecabricks Advanced pack and it looked like the perfect solution!
I bought it, downloaded it, and then attempted to import my designs from Stud.io to Mecabricks. This caused a lot of issues, particularly lack of parts and part placement. Windows were missing, minifigure's legs were backward, and they didn't even have any faces (kinda creepy). I assume this is because these pieces don't exist in Mecabricks, but it happened to every build I tried.
Next, I took what I had left of my model and exported it, hoping to transfer it into Blender. But every time I tried this, the model was either upside down with even more pieces removed, or it was ridiculously small. This makes the Mecabricks Advanced pack essentially useless to me, unless there is a way I can solve some of these issues. If not, I hope there is a way I can get a refund on the product, though since I already downloaded it I'm guessing that is out of the question.
My main question is this: Can I safely export my files without as many issues? If not, is there another way outside of Mecabricks to create realistic surface imperfections on LEGOs exported from Stud.io? I'm totally okay buying Blender add-ons, but so far I'm not very optimistic.
Importing models is not an exact science. Part must be available in Mecabricks and conversion shall have been entered. It seems to be weird that you have that many issues though. Common elements like minifig generally work pretty well.
Regarding the export from Mecabricks to Blender using the zmbx format and my addons shall be errorless. This is a well proven workflow used by thousands of people. There maybe a step that you may have forgotten. Do you have a public model that you imported directly from your studio file?
Okay, so after some forum scouring I was able to redownload the extension a different way and I think it works, so yay on that! I was not aware of the zmbx file format, I thought I was supposed to use bae (as many of the old tutorials show), so thank you for the tip. However, I'm still having issues with the minifigures. Do you think it is because some of the torsos aren't in Mecabricks, so it doesn't know how to attach the arms? If that's the case, I can simply choose a different torso.
It may be because you use decorated torsos. Decorated elements are not handled by the importer. However they shall be imported properly but with a plain material. It was the original thought. I don't use studio but maybe they don't use the ldraw models anymore for these and the origin is different.
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