13. Saving and exporting¶

13.1. SPIERSview compact and presurfaced files (.spv)¶

When viewing an ‘spv’ format file, the Save Changes command (Ctrl-V) on the SPIERSview menu will save the file in whatever format (compact or presurfaced) it was opened in. SPIERSview will also ask if you want to save changes before exiting; this also will use the format the file was opened in. The Save Compact As… or Save Presurfaced As… commands on the SPIERSview menu are also provided - these force the file to save in whichever of these two formats you specify, and can hence be used to convert between the two

13.2. SPIERSview finalised files (.spvf)¶

The Export Finalised… command on the SPIERSview menu saves a copy of the current ‘.spv’ file in Finalised format (see above), for rapid view-only loading. As finalised format is internally implemented using VAXML, a few restrictions apply and are checked at save-time. The most significant of these is that all groups must have unique names; if this is not true you will receive a warning, and the file will not be written.

If the Export Hidden Objects item on the SPIERSview menu is ticked, all objects are exported. If it is not ticked, the visibility of each object is used to determine whether or not it is exported. Note that this is simply the presence of absence of the ‘eye’ icon next to the object in the Objects panel; an object might be set to visible (and hence be exported) but not appear onscreen in SPIERSview because the group it belongs to is hidden.

Groups are always exported, whether hidden or not.

13.3. VAXML/STL datasets¶

The Export VAXML/STL… command on the SPIERSview menu exports the current ‘.spv’ file as a VAXML file, plus associated STL files (SPIERSview cannot export PLY files). One STL file is created per object, and these are placed in a subdirectory called <filename>_stl where <filename> is the supplied name for the VAXML file. There is no option to export STL files without also creating a VAXML file (although the latter can of course be manually deleted if it is not required).

The Export Hidden Objects item on the SPIERSview menu works in the same way as for SPIERSview finalised files.

13.4. DXF files¶

The Export DXF… command on the SPIERSview menu exports the current ‘.spv’ file as a DXF triangle mesh. Objects are exported with their correct names, but neither groups nor colours are preserved.

The Export Hidden Objects item on the SPIERSview menu works in the same way as for SPIERSview finalised files.

13.5. Blender / FBX export (experimental)¶

SPIERSview also provides two newer, experimental export paths aimed at bringing models into Blender (or other 3D applications that support FBX) for rendering, animation or further editing outside SPIERSview.

Export FBX…: The Export FBX… command on the SPIERSview menu exports all objects with geometry to a single ‘.fbx’ file, automatically surfacing any objects that have not yet been surfaced first if required. Object colour, transparency and shininess are converted into FBX material properties (colour, alpha and an approximate roughness value), and each object’s current transform (position, rotation, scale) is baked directly into its exported vertex positions. The file is written directly by SPIERSview - no external software is required - and can be imported into Blender, Maya, Cinema 4D and most other applications that support the FBX format.

Export as Blend…: This command goes a step further, producing a native Blender ‘.blend’ file directly, with materials already assigned, avoiding the need to manually import an FBX file into Blender and re-create its materials by hand. Internally this works by exporting a temporary FBX file (as above), then running a local installation of Blender in the background to convert it to ‘.blend’ format, before deleting the temporary FBX file. Because this relies on Blender itself, it requires a working Blender installation on the same computer as SPIERSview.

SPIERSview attempts to automatically detect a Blender installation (in the system PATH, or common install locations) on startup. If none is found, Export as Blend… is disabled, with its menu entry labelled “(Blender not found)” - in this case, use Export FBX… instead, followed by a manual import into Blender. If Blender is installed somewhere SPIERSview does not detect automatically, its location can be set manually via Blender Path in the Global Settings dialog (File menu, Advanced Prefs…), using Browse… to locate the Blender executable directly, or Auto-Detect to retry automatic detection.

A note on maturity: These two export paths are newer than SPIERSview’s other export formats and should currently be considered experimental. The FBX writer is a bespoke implementation of the binary FBX format (rather than using Autodesk’s official FBX SDK), and the Blender conversion step drives an external Blender installation via an embedded Python script run in Blender’s background mode; both approaches are more sensitive to version differences and edge cases than SPIERSview’s longer-established export paths. Models with complex grouping or material setups should be checked carefully in Blender after export, and VAXML/STL (or OBJ) export used as a fallback if problems are encountered.

Also note that, unlike VAXML/STL, finalised, and DXF export, Export FBX…, Export as Blend… and Export as OBJ… currently export all objects that have geometry regardless of their visibility (the ‘eye’ icon in the Objects panel); the Export Hidden Objects setting has no effect on these three export commands.

13.6. Screen Capture¶

The Screen Capture… command on the SPIERSview menu exports the current Main view windows as either a JPEG (.jpg), Windows Bitmap (.bmp), Portable Network Graphic (.png) or Tagged Image File Format (.tiff) file. The exact image visible (at the resolution visible) is used - for best quality remove all panels and maximise the SPIERSview window to obtain a large view window, and use Anti-aliasing (see previous section).