Extensions:2.4/Py/Scripts/Export/AC3D

AC3D Exporter

Additional Information

AC3D Exporter
Export selected meshes to AC3D's .ac file format.

UI location	File → Export → AC3D (.ac)...
Usage	Select the script from the File → Export menu and choose the filename to export to.
Version	2.44 - 2007.05.05	Author(s)	Willian P. Germano
Blender	2.36 and newer	License	GPL
Note(s)	Additional information

Executable information

File name	ac3d_import.py

Links

AC3D PLib

Known Issues

* The ambient and emit data we can retrieve from Blender are single values, that this script copies to an RGB triplet, giving shades of gray. A config option can be set to export RGB mirror color as either or both. In AC3D 4 "compatibility mode": Shininess of materials is taken from the shader specularity value in Blender, mapped from [0.0, 2.0] to [0, 128]. Crease angle is exported, but in Blender it is limited to [1, 80], since there are other more powerful ways to control surface smoothing. In AC3D 4.0 crease's range is [0.0, 180.0]. Blender groups are not supported yet.

Introduction

Export selected meshes to AC3D's .ac file format.

AC3D is a simple commercial 3d modeller for Linux x86, Mac OSX and Windows. Its .ac is an easy to parse text file format. It is well supported, for example, by the PLib 3d gaming library, used by many projects, like the FlightGear Flight Simulator and Torcs - Open Racing Car Simulator.

Support

• Python & Plugins forum at Blender Artists.

Usage

Instructions

Select the script from the File → Export menu and choose the filename to export to.

Configuration

Options can be tweaked using the Scripts Config Editor script, available from the Scripts → System menu in the Scripts window.

Only selected	TOGGLE	ON
Only export the selected meshes (read notes below about tokens, too).
AC3D 4 mode	TOGGLE	ON
Unset it to export without the 'crease' tag that was introduced with AC3D 4.0 and with the old material handling.
Add default material	TOGGLE	ON
A default (white) material is added if some mesh was left without mats -- it's better to always add your own materials.
Set texture dir	TOGGLE	ON
Override the actual textures path with a given default path (or simply export the texture names, without dir info, if the path is empty).
Per face 1 or 2 sided	TOGGLE	ON
Override the "Double Sided" button that defines this behavior per whole mesh in favor of the UV Face Select mode "twosided" per face atribute.
Skip data	TOGGLE	OFF
Set it if you don't want mesh names (ME:, not OB: field) to be exported as strings for AC's "data" tags (19 chars max).
RGB mirror color as ambient	TOGGLE	OFF
Export mirror color as ambient RGB.
RGB mirror color as emissive	TOGGLE	OFF
Export mirror color as emissive RGB.
No split	TOGGLE	OFF
Don't split meshes (read notes below for an explanation).
Export dir	STRING	unset
Default dir to export to.
Texture dir	STRING	unset
Override textures path with this path if 'set texture dir' toggle is "on".

Compatibility

All main features are supported. Users may need to tweak the exported .ac file's material lines by hand if they want both RGB ambient and emissive colors different from shades of gray.

Supported

Objects

Meshes

Hierarchy

Groups

Materials

• RGB: diffuse, specular, ambient, emissive. Intensity: shininess, transparency.
• One uv texture image per mesh.

Missing

Other

• The 'url' tag, specific to AC3D. It is easy to add by hand to the exported file, if needed. Nobody ever requested support for it in this exporter, though.