{"id":1843,"date":"2024-04-04T10:28:26","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T09:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/site\/?p=1843"},"modified":"2024-04-04T10:52:51","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T09:52:51","slug":"frenzoo-dae-efa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/site\/frenzoo-dae-efa\/","title":{"rendered":"Frenzoo &#038; Converting Blender *.dae files to *.efa"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_80 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/site\/frenzoo-dae-efa\/#Export_from_Blender_to_Collada_dae\" >Export from Blender to Collada *.dae<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-4' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/site\/frenzoo-dae-efa\/#HOW_TO_change_the_position_of_an_objects_Point_Of_Origin_POO\" >HOW TO: change the position of an objects Point Of Origin (POO)<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/site\/frenzoo-dae-efa\/#Finding_the_Command_Prompt_Program_on_your_Computer\" >Finding the Command Prompt Program on your Computer<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/site\/frenzoo-dae-efa\/#Converting_Collada_dae_into_Frenzoos_efa_Files\" >Converting Collada *.dae into Frenzoo&#8217;s *.efa Files<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/site\/frenzoo-dae-efa\/#Conclusion\" >Conclusion<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n<p>Content for Frenzoo needs to make use of their own proprietary *.efa format. Unfortunately it&#8217;s not possible at present to export content directly to that format unless you&#8217;re using 3D Studio Max (for which there is a plug-in available), creators using other software &#8211; Blender 3D for example &#8211; have to &#8216;convert&#8217; content into efa files via a &#8216;third party&#8217; format, in this instance Collada&#8217;s *.dae, that are passed through or processed by Frenzoo&#8217;s own tool for the job <b>FrenzooDaeConverter.exe<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>The following tutorial will show and discuss the process of exporting files from Blender 3D and how to convert them to *.efa files ready for upload into Frenzoo&#8217;s catalogue.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Export_from_Blender_to_Collada_dae\"><\/span>Export from Blender to Collada *.dae <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>As mentioned above in the Introduction, the process of exporting models from Blender 3D for use in Frenzoo requires their being saved using the available Collada DAE format export script. Below is an example of a scene in Blender containing a mesh object that has materials assigned, is UVW mapped, textured and selected ready for export &#8211; note that although the example below shows both a mesh and an optional armature selected, it&#8217;s not necessary to export both for static (non-animated\/moving) objects. The object has also been centered relative to Blenders 0,0,0, grid so it appears correctly placed when loaded into Frenzoo next to the avatar.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h4><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"HOW_TO_change_the_position_of_an_objects_Point_Of_Origin_POO\"><\/span>HOW TO: change the position of an objects Point Of Origin (POO)<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<p>Open the &quot;<b>View Properties<\/b>&quot; panel from the &quot;<b>View<\/b>&quot; menu; &quot;<b>View &raquo; View Properties<\/b>&quot;. On the right hand side is a section titled &quot;<b>3D Cursor<\/b>&quot;, make sure &quot;<b>X:<\/b>&quot;, &quot;<b>Y:<\/b>&quot; and &quot;<b>Z:<\/b>&quot; show &quot;<b>0.00<\/b>&quot;, if not, click in each field and change the number, the cursor will move as this is done.<\/p>\n<p>Next select the object to be re-centered (make sure to right click and not left click otherwise the cursor will be repositioned somewhere else on screen), move it to where you want it to appear in Frenzoo, then in the &quot;<b>EDIT buttons<\/b>&quot; window (&quot;<b>F9<\/b>&quot;) find the &quot;<b>Mesh<\/b>&quot; panel, in there locate the &quot;<b>Center Cursor<\/b>&quot; button and click on it, the objects little pink dot should jump to where the cursor now is.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s the objects center repositioned so the model will now appear correctly placed in Frenzoo when loaded.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"content_images\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/blender-export-convert-frenzoo-efa\/blender-objects-to-export-selected.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/blender-export-convert-frenzoo-efa\/blender-objects-to-export-selected_sml.jpg\" alt=\"Mesh object in Blender ready for export to Collada dae\" width=\"428\" height=\"324\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Mesh object in Blender ready for export to Collada dae<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Once the object has been positioned correctly and is ready to go, select it and\/or the assets that need to be exported (when exporting an armature and mesh make sure the armature is selected last &#8211; outlined a lighter pink by default), then from the &quot;<b>File<\/b>&quot; menu, select &quot;<b>File &raquo; Export &raquo; Collada 1.4<\/b>&quot; as shown below. <b>Make sure to select version 1.4<\/b>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"content_images\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/blender-export-convert-frenzoo-efa\/blender-file-export-collada.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/blender-export-convert-frenzoo-efa\/blender-file-export-collada_sml.jpg\" alt=\"Exporting to Collada *.dae from Blender 3D\" width=\"428\" height=\"337\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Exporting to Collada *.dae from Blender 3D<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This will open the Collada export interface. In here, if exporting <i>a selection of objects<\/i> from a scene <i>instead of a complete scene<\/i>, then be sure to click &quot;<b>Only Export Selected<\/b>&quot;. Browse and\/or edit the &quot;<b>Export File<\/b>&quot; text field so it shows the &#8216;save name&#8217; (the name the file will be called on saving) and location to where the resulting dae file will be saved, then click &quot;<b>Export and Close<\/b>&quot;. A message will pop up letting you know export was completed and a Collada *.dae file saved to the location chosen (as shown below).<\/p>\n<div class=\"content_images\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/blender-export-convert-frenzoo-efa\/blender-collada-frenzoo-export-settings.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/blender-export-convert-frenzoo-efa\/blender-collada-frenzoo-export-settings_sml.jpg\" alt=\"Blender 3D to Collada export options\" width=\"428\" height=\"324\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Blender 3D to Collada export options<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>That&#8217;s it for this part of the process. Next the exported Collada *.dae file needs to be converted to Frenzoo&#8217;s *.efa format.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Finding_the_Command_Prompt_Program_on_your_Computer\"><\/span>Finding the Command Prompt Program on your Computer <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>DAE file conversion consists of starting the tool so it&#8217;s accessible and entering a couple of commands to provide import and export locations so it knows where files are and where they are to be saved.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The tool can be <a href=\"http:\/\/www.frenzoo.com\/beta\/forum.php?section=viewtopic&amp;f=61&amp;t=3224\" title=\"Download the Frenzoo Collada converter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">found on the Frenzoo web site here<\/a><\/b>. Download and install\/extract the files.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> The tool itself currently only runs from the &#8216;command prompt&#8217; so that means opening that before anything else can be done. Depending on what Operating System is running the location to access this may vary; for Windows Vista and Windows XP users the command prompt can be opened doing the following;<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"background-color: #E7FAEA; color: #000; font-family:courier;\"><p> Start &raquo; All Programs &raquo; Accessories &raquo; Command Prompt <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Alternatively, it can be opened by typing &quot;<b>cmd<\/b>&quot; in &quot;<b>Start &raquo; Run<\/b>&quot; for XP users, or &quot;<b>cmd<\/b>&quot; in the &quot;<b>Start &raquo; Start Search<\/b>&quot; field for Vista users.\n <\/p>\n<div class=\"content_images\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/blender-export-convert-frenzoo-efa\/vista-cmd-dos-prompt.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/blender-export-convert-frenzoo-efa\/vista-cmd-dos-prompt_sml.jpg\" alt=\"Type &quot;cmd&quot; into the Start menus &quot;Start Search&quot; field to display the command prompt; click on it to start the program\" width=\"428\" height=\"408\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Type &#8220;cmd&#8221; into the Start menus &#8220;Start Search&#8221; field to display the command prompt; click on it to start the program.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>On starting, a screen similar to the image below will open.<\/p>\n<p> Before anything can be converted it may be necessary to move some content so the tool can find what it&#8217;s looking for. So, depending on where the tool was extracted and installed, either move or copy both &quot;<b>FrenzooDaeConverter.exe<\/b>&quot; and &quot;<b>ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.dll<\/b>&quot; into the same folder as the assets. Or, an easier option is to simply copy the assets to be converted into the Frenzoo tool folder &#8211; if doing this make sure to include the dae files and any additional media, jpegs, pngs or giffs used on the models. Once done, it&#8217;s time to convert the files.<\/p>\n<div class=\"content_images\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/blender-export-convert-frenzoo-efa\/command-prompt-defaults.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/blender-export-convert-frenzoo-efa\/command-prompt-defaults_sml.jpg\" alt=\"Default directory of the on starting the command prompt - may very depending on OS\" width=\"428\" height=\"215\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Default directory of the on starting the command prompt &#8211; may very depending on OS<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Converting_Collada_dae_into_Frenzoos_efa_Files\"><\/span>Converting Collada *.dae into Frenzoo&#8217;s *.efa Files <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Prior to doing any precessing it&#8217;s helps workflow to &#8216;prep&#8217; the process a little by changing the default path shown in the command prompt window before actually entering any commands, by default it usually displays something similar to &quot;<b>C:\\Documents and Settings\\[<i>user<\/i>]<\/b>&quot; for XP users, or &quot;<b>C:\\Users\\[<i>user<\/i>]<\/b>&quot; for Vista users (as is shown in the above screen shot). To do this use the following commands;<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"background-color: #E7FAEA; color: #000; font-family:courier;\"><p> &quot;[driveletter]:&quot; to change hard drive<br \/>\n &quot;cd <i>[foldername]<\/i>&quot; to change folder\/directory <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So for example, if the DAEConverter was in &quot;<b>F:\\Frenzoo\\DAEConverter<\/b>&quot; the following commands would be typed at the prompt pressing the &#8216;enter&#8217; key after each commend; &quot;<b>F:<\/b>&quot;, &quot;<b>cd Frenzoo<\/b>&quot;, &quot;<b>cd DAEConverter<\/b>&quot; (with &quot;<b>cd..<\/b>&quot; being used to drop back to the previous directory if required). For Vista users this would display in the prompt as follows (italics show the typed commands);<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"background-color: #E7FAEA; color: #000; font-family:courier;\"><p> C:\\Users\\[user]&gt;<b><i>F:<\/i><\/b><br \/>\nF:\\&gt;<br \/>\nF:\\&gt;<b><i>cd Frenzoo<\/i><\/b><br \/>\nF:\\Frenzoo&gt;<br \/>\nF:\\Frenzoo&gt;<b><i>cd DAEConverter<\/i><\/b><br \/>\n F:\\Frenzoo\\DAEConverter&gt; <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"content_images\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/blender-export-convert-frenzoo-efa\/frenzoo-frenzoodaeconverter-commands.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/blender-export-convert-frenzoo-efa\/frenzoo-frenzoodaeconverter-commands_sml.jpg\" alt=\"The command line to execute the *.dae to *.efa conversion process\" width=\"428\" height=\"215\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The command line to execute the *.dae to *.efa conversion process.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>This &#8216;sets&#8217; the base or root location and simplifies the command paths that need to be typed.<\/p>\n<p>To then convert Collada DAE files into Frenzoo&#8217;s EFA files all that&#8217;s now needed is the following command line typed into the prompt as below;<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"background-color: #E7FAEA; color: #000; font-family:courier;\"><p> FrenzooDaeConverter.exe mycolladafile.dae mycolladafile.efa <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&quot;<b>mycolladafile.dae<\/b>&quot; is the name of the Collada DAE to be converted, for example, &quot;<b><i>teddybear<\/i>.dae<\/b>&quot;; &quot;<b>mycolladafile.efa<\/b>&quot; is the name of the file to be created and doesn&#8217;t necessarily need to be the same as the DAE file, for example &quot;<b>teddybear.dae<\/b>&quot; converted to &quot;<b>frenzooteddy.efa<\/b>&quot;. On entering the command, the screen will scroll text output showing it&#8217;s technical progress through the process of conversion. <\/p>\n<p>Once finished the command prompt will look similar to the image shown below, displaying the &#8216;root&#8217; path, in this instance &quot;<b>F:\\Frenzoo\\DAEConverter&gt;<\/b>&quot;. The time it takes to parse the Collada dae file depends on it&#8217;s size and complexity, but once that path displays it will generally have competed the process of converting and saving it to the same directory\/folder the assets where placed; check there to find the file and upload it to Frenzoo&#8217;s catalogue using the usual procedure <a href=\"http:\/\/www.frenzoo.com\/beta\/create_education.php#create_education.php?comSet=pro_upload&amp;selected_item=extra_1\" title=\"Uploading to Frenzoo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">as explained here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"content_images\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/blender-export-convert-frenzoo-efa\/frenzoo-dae-export-done.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/blender-export-convert-frenzoo-efa\/frenzoo-dae-export-done_sml.jpg\" alt=\"Output from the finished *.dae to *.efa file conversion\" width=\"428\" height=\"215\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Output from the finished *.dae to *.efa file conversion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Conclusion\"><\/span>Conclusion <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The process of converting itself is <i>usually<\/i> straightforward, however, there are generally a number of preparatory steps that need to be taken to make sure the process goes as smoothly as possible. It should always be kept in mind that because Frenzoo is web based interactive media, content should ideally be optimised in that context, i.e., models should have low polygon count\/mesh density and smaller texture sizes should be used along side the appropriate compressed image formats; errors that crop up during the conversion process are more than likely going to be as a result of something to do with the prepping process and not the converter itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[230,469,386,471,387,470,467,19,270,279,461],"class_list":["post-1843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tutorials","tag-blender-2-4x","tag-cmd","tag-collada","tag-command-prompt","tag-dae","tag-dos","tag-efa","tag-frenzoo","tag-import-export","tag-metaverse","tag-origin"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1843"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1846,"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843\/revisions\/1846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}