Boolean Exporting Issue?

[ttam]

I'm a month an a half new Blender User so I'm sorry if I'm missing something but I've looked and read everywhere before posting here. I couldn't find any info that helped my problem.

When I export a plane in Blender with a Boolean modifier APPLIED to it, it doesn't seem to export the effected part. I also tried it with a Cube, removing one side of its vertices to see if maybe it was just the plane, same thing. The hole in the plane/cube wasn't there on export when viewing it in 3D viewer; for example.

I'll link pictures for better explanation.


https://imgur.com/a/btJHAsC

Could anyone help me, I'd be very thankful!
~Thank you!

[Momo]

What format are you exporting as?
When exporting, check the bottom left menu. There should be a variety of export options there. You'll need to find the "Apply Modifiers" option.

[The Renderer]

If you applied the modifier it's as if you made the changes manually, there is no way Blender can "not export the boolean" then because, well, the Boolean doesn't exist anymore at that point.

Which means you either exported the wrong object or what you are looking at in your second image (in the 3D viewer) actually has the hole but it isn't shown for some reason (or the viewer imports the object incorrectly). Or you are exporting in a format that doesn't allow this kind of geometry, I doubt anything like that even exists, though.

Either way, the best thing would be to tell us exactly(!) which steps you are taking to get this problem so we can try it ourselves and see where/if it goes wrong.

[ttam]

Originally posted by Momo:

What format are you exporting as?
When exporting, check the bottom left menu. There should be a variety of export options there. You'll need to find the "Apply Modifiers" option.

I'm exporting as a .fbx file. I never saw those export features down there before, the tab was tucked to the far left so I never seen them til now, wow!
Though, the only place "apply modifiers" is at is under the Geometries Tab and by default it was checked but it still doesn't seem to export the modifier.

What should I be exporting as? It's for a game object.
Thanks again

[The Renderer]

fbx is not the best format for this, try obj.

Edit: Not that fbx is bad, but as default it will not only export the one object you select but basically your whole scene. Which might be the issue here, you might have still had a different plane without the hole in the scene and I have no idea what the 3D viewer then actually imports. Maybe all of it and what you see then is actually mutliple planes, one of which has the hole but is covered by the other without. Or something like that.

[ttam]

Originally posted by The Renderer:

If you applied the modifier it's as if you made the changes manually, there is no way Blender can "not export the boolean" then because, well, the Boolean doesn't exist anymore at that point.

Which means you either exported the wrong object or what you are looking at in your second image (in the 3D viewer) actually has the hole but it isn't shown for some reason (or the viewer imports the object incorrectly). Or you are exporting in a format that doesn't allow this kind of geometry, I doubt anything like that even exists, though.

Either way, the best thing would be to tell us exactly(!) which steps you are taking to get this problem.

These are the exact steps I did, hope this helps:
I deleted the default cube,
created a plane,
created a cylinder.
Highlighted the plane, went to modifiers,
selected boolean,
chose the cylinder as the object then chose difference as the operation and hit apply.

The hole was created in the plane.
I then selected the cam, light, and cylinder and deleted them.
Selected the plane with the hole in it and exported as .fbx.
Hole wasn't there in 3D viewer.

I thought maybe 3D viewer was the issue but then I imported the model into Unity 5 and there was no hole in the plane. Weird..??

[ttam]

Originally posted by The Renderer:

fbx is not the best format for this, try obj.

Edit: Not that fbx is bad, but as default it will not only export the one object you select but basically your whole scene. Which might be the issue here, you might have still had a different plane without the hole in the scene and I have no idea what the 3D viewer then actually imports. Maybe all of it and what you see then is actually mutliple planes, one of which has the hole but is covered by the other withouth. Or something like that.

I'll try it now

[ttam]

Originally posted by The Renderer:

Hmm, ok, since you deleted everything else it should (?) be fine.

What happens if you import it again in Blender? Does it have the hole?
Also, as said above, try the .obj format. I don't know much about fbx but if it works with obj then you know the format is the issue and can try fiddling with the fbx settings to see if you can make it work there as well (if you *need* an fbx).

This is so weird, Lol https://imgur.com/a/cYkmSRa
I exported as .OBJ and viewed it in 3D viewer and the boolean is half there, I think it's 3D viewer. I imported them back in and the boolean mod is there on both in Blender. But how can I view the model after exporting it to make sure it works before importing into a game engine to save a little time?

[The Renderer]

Originally posted by Ttam:

These are the exact steps I did, hope this helps:
I deleted the default cube,
created a plane,
created a cylinder.
Highlighted the plane, went to modifiers,
selected boolean,
chose the cylinder as the object then chose difference as the operation and hit apply.

The hole was created in the plane.
I then selected the cam, light, and cylinder and deleted them.
Selected the plane with the hole in it and exported as .fbx.
Hole wasn't there in 3D viewer.

I thought maybe 3D viewer was the issue but then I imported the model into Unity 5 and there was no hole in the plane. Weird..??

Seems fine to me. I don't know much about fbx but it's a proprietory Autodesk format, so it's possible that export or import routines of 3rd party programs (like Blender, 3D viewer or Unity) don't work perfectly or not all in the same way. Meaning fbx seems like the most likely culprit. If the obj works you can either use that or, if you really need an fbx for whatever reason, you can fiddle with the import/export settings of all programs you use and hope you find something that works (or try an obj -> fbx converter).

[The Renderer]

Originally posted by Ttam:

Originally posted by The Renderer:

Hmm, ok, since you deleted everything else it should (?) be fine.

What happens if you import it again in Blender? Does it have the hole?
Also, as said above, try the .obj format. I don't know much about fbx but if it works with obj then you know the format is the issue and can try fiddling with the fbx settings to see if you can make it work there as well (if you *need* an fbx).

This is so weird, Lol https://imgur.com/a/cYkmSRa
I exported as .OBJ and viewed it in 3D viewer and the boolean is half there, I think it's 3D viewer. I imported them back in and the boolean mod is there on both in Blender. But how can I view the model after exporting it to make sure it works before importing into a game engine to save a little time?

That is weird. Unfortunately I have never used 3D viewer, so I have no idea what the issue might be here. Is it possible to look at the actualy geometry in the viewer (like edit mode in Blender)?
How does it look like in Unity?

[ttam]

Originally posted by The Renderer:

Originally posted by Ttam:

These are the exact steps I did, hope this helps:
I deleted the default cube,
created a plane,
created a cylinder.
Highlighted the plane, went to modifiers,
selected boolean,
chose the cylinder as the object then chose difference as the operation and hit apply.

The hole was created in the plane.
I then selected the cam, light, and cylinder and deleted them.
Selected the plane with the hole in it and exported as .fbx.
Hole wasn't there in 3D viewer.

I thought maybe 3D viewer was the issue but then I imported the model into Unity 5 and there was no hole in the plane. Weird..??

Seems fine to me. I don't know much about fbx but it's a proprietory Autodesk format, so it's possible that export or import routines of 3rd party programs (like Blender, 3D viewer or Unity) don't work perfectly or not all in the same way. Meaning fbx seems like the most likely culprit. If the obj works you can either use that or, if you really need an fbx for whatever reason, you can fiddle with the import/export settings of all programs you use and hope you find something that works (or try an obj -> fbx converter).

Thanks, this is helpful. I was told by someone that .fbx was usually the way to go when exporting. I didn't think to ask why, I'm pretty new so I just thought hey, he probably knows what he's talking about more than I do.

But I do want to say I tried exporting one more time and importing into Unity and the modifier was there on both file types. Weird, maybe on the exporting process something got messed up. 3D viewer still doesn't work very well but I understand now with your explanations.

[The Renderer]

Originally posted by Ttam:

Thanks, this is helpful. I was told by someone that .fbx was usually the way to go when exporting. I didn't think to ask why, I'm pretty new so I just thought hey, he probably knows what he's talking about more than I do.

But I do want to say I tried exporting one more time and importing into Unity and the modifier was there on both file types. Weird, maybe on the exporting process something got messed up. 3D viewer still doesn't work very well but I understand now with your explanations.

Glad it works. Note that I'm not a game dev so I don't know much about how to export game assets. It might well be that fbx is the best for that.
Obj is a very basic and simple format, that's why it's usually the first to try if something doesn't seem to work. But if fbx works now you might as well just stick with it.

[ttam]

Originally posted by The Renderer:

Originally posted by Ttam:

Thanks, this is helpful. I was told by someone that .fbx was usually the way to go when exporting. I didn't think to ask why, I'm pretty new so I just thought hey, he probably knows what he's talking about more than I do.

But I do want to say I tried exporting one more time and importing into Unity and the modifier was there on both file types. Weird, maybe on the exporting process something got messed up. 3D viewer still doesn't work very well but I understand now with your explanations.

Glad it works. Note that I'm not a game dev so I don't know much about how to export game assets. It might well be that fbx is the best for that.
Obj is a very basic and simple format, that's why it's usually the first to try if something doesn't seem to work. But if fbx works now you might as well just stick with it.

Noted. I deeply appreciate people's time to help one another and for that, I thank you!

[Burnt Almonds]

This seems to still be an issue today. I found a bug report from 2015 where the objects used in boolean modifiers could sometimes not be hidden from the render. The only way I found to finally make it work is by applying the modifier before render-time using the arrow drop-down in the modifiers panel, and then completely deleting the objects used to create the boolean as they now couldn't be hidden.

[The Renderer]

Originally posted by Burnt Almonds:

This seems to still be an issue today. I found a bug report from 2015 where the objects used in boolean modifiers could sometimes not be hidden from the render. The only way I found to finally make it work is by applying the modifier before render-time using the arrow drop-down in the modifiers panel, and then completely deleting the objects used to create the boolean as they now couldn't be hidden.

This thread was about exporting after applying the boolean, not about rendering with a boolean. Completely different things.
No idea about your issue, it didn't come up for me yet. Are you sure you are trying to hide them correctly?

[Burnt Almonds]

Apologies, I misused the terminology. I meant export, not render. From further reading, it seems that the best way to ignore certain items in export is to add them to a separate layer and choose not to export that layer. It seems like there is some debate over whether adding another option to export visible objects only is a good idea. Sorry for the confusion