This Converter reads and writes models in the binary "DWB" file format used in Coryphaeus Software products such as Designer's Workbench and Activation.

It adds one entry to the conversion lists:

Coryphaeus *.dwb

The ASCII "dwba" format is not supported. Versions 2, 3, and 4 can be imported. Versions beyond this should be able to be imported, skipping the newer nodes.

Geometry
In general when importing DWB files, polygonal geometry is translated. Splines, fonts, etc. are not translated.

Hierarchies of objects are translated. Each group or switch becomes a object or a hierarchy of objects. All level of detail groups are translated on import.

On export, each object becomes its own group, in a hierarchy if necessary. Additional groups may be created to insure the preservation of hierarchy. Each set of polygons within a object that share a DWB material will be in their own group, too.

Material attributes
On import, polygons are assigned colors from the DWB palette, including shaded, fixed, underlay, overlay and packed colors. Interchange materials are created from the color and any material or texture palette descriptions.

On export, up to 96 materials are placed in Coryphaeus's fixed, underlay and overlay colors. Materials beyond 96 are assigned the 3840 "magic color."

Descriptions of each material are also assigned to material palette entries, translating diffuse, ambient and specular color. Vertex texture UV coordinates are translated. Default vertex normals are created based on the polygon's original orientation.

Each material containing a texture map becomes an entry in the texture palette. Filenames in the texture palette have their extension changed to ".rgb. The case of the filename can be adjusted with the Options dialog.

Options dialog

On export, Filename case adjusts the case of the texture filename path. This can aid the process of moving image maps to an SGI.

For example, when converting a 3D Studio object with a texture map called "ROUGH.GIF" to DWB format, the texture filename reference is "ROUGH.rgb" if Original case is selected, "ROUGH.RGB" if Uppercase is selected, and "rough.rgb" if Lowercase is selected. You will need to convert the texture map from GIF to .rgb format and place it in the Coryphaeus texture map directory.

Background
Coryphaeus Software, Inc.
985 University Avenue, Suite 31
Los Gatos, CA 95030
(408) 395-4537
www.coryphaeus.com