Overview
FBX (sometimes called “Filmbox”) is an interchange file format used to move 3D animation data between software packages. It can contain entire scenes, including geometry, lights, cameras, NURBS, animation, and skinning.
Choose File > Export > Filmbox FBX.
Click the
chooser button next to the File field and choose the file you want to export to.
Click Export to perform the actual export.
Note
FBX format specification generally does not support animated objects with a changing number of points or changing connectivity, such as Houdini’s particle systems or fluids. It is only possible to export these types of objects by breaking them up into individual triangles (although still within one FBX object node).
To restore these objects to their original appearance when they are brought into another packages, their vertices have to welded together, and all appropriate mesh edges have to set to “smooth”.
Also note that to import these types of objects properly into Maya™, Maya’s FBX importer “Use FBX Framerate in Maya” option must be checked.
| Export in ASCII | If checked, the exported FBX file will be in human-readable ASCII format. Otherwise, it will be exported as a binary FBX file. |
Time interval options
| Export With Take | Houdini take to export. | ||||
| Valid Frame Range | Determines whether a static single frame or an animation segment is exported.
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| Start/End/Inc | Determines the start frame, end frame, and frame increment to be exported. |
Source objects options
| Start At | Determines the node to start exporting at. Defaults to “/obj”, meaning all objects and sub-networks under it will be exported. If a node to be exported is a network, only its contents will be written out, not the network itself. |
General options
| FBX SDK Version | Allows the user to chose which version of the SDK to use to export the FBX file. | ||||
| Vertex Cache Format | Determines which format vertex cache files will be exported in.
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| Export Invisible Objects | Determines how invisible objects are to be exported. This is convenient if a scene contains hidden objects that are highly complex but do not need to exported.
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| Conversion Level of Detail | This option determines the level of detail to use when converting non-polygonal objects to polygons. Higher values increase polygon subdivision level, lower values decrease it. | ||||
| Detect Constant Point Count Dynamic Objects | If checked, the exporter will try to detect animated objects that do not change point count or point connectivity, and export them without breaking them up into individual trinagles, as is done with particle systems and fluids. This allows for RBD or cloth objects to be exported as a single, smooth object, while still allowing topology-changing objects to be exported. This may fail if a object with changing point connectivity happens to have exactly the same point count over all frames of exported animation. In these case, this option should be disabled. | ||||
| Convert NURBS and Bezier Surfaces to Polygons | If checked, the exporter will convert all NURBS and Bezier surfaces to polygonal meshes using the level of detail below to determine mesh density. Otherwise, NURBS and Bezier surfaces will be exported as NURBS. | ||||
| Conserve Memory at the Expense of Export Time | Affects only objects exported with vertex caches. If checked, internal vertex positions computed during export will be discarded, not cached, resulting in reduced overall memory use. However, this will increase the export time. If left unchecked, the exporter will run faster but use more memory. | ||||
| Export Deforms as Vertex Caches | If checked, any geometry objects that contain Deform SOPs will be exported as vertex caches with no weight information. If unchecked, these nodes will be exported as objects with skinning and corresponding weights. |