Export Panel • Mesh Settings
The Export Panel contains all of the SeamNet Mesh settings for your scene. You can edit settings for the entire scene, or create unique settings for each GroBoto Group You can also override mesh settings for individual primitives in the Selection & Groups Panel.

1. Group Controls
The Settings for: Popup contains the names all of the GroBoto Groups in your scene. The popup loads the selected GroBoto Group's Mesh and Export settings into this Panel for editing. The Separate Meshes for each GroBoto Group checkbox (just below), must be checked to enable the Settings for: Group popup and Use checkbox.

The Separate Meshes for each GroBoto Group Checkbox enables the division of your OBJ into separate meshes for each GroBoto Group. This allows you to have unique Mesh & Mapping settings for each GroBoto Group.

2. Copy, Paste
The Copy button copies the currently selected Group's settings to a private clipboard. The Paste button pastes contents of that private clipboard to the currently selected Group's settings.

3. Load... Button
The Load button loads theMesh & Output settings from any GroBoto Scene File (.gbr). A standard File Selector is opened, followed by a dialog box that allows you to choose the source Scene File and Group. The loaded settings replace those of the currently selected Group (in the Group Popup [1])

4. Density Type
Density Type effects the overall density distribution of your mesh.

Type PopUp has three options:
Fixed Circumference - Every Primitive gets the number of divisions requested. This results in larger (absolute size), quads for larger objects.

Variable: Obj Size Modulated - Objects the size of the Key Object (see: [4] Base Key on Selected Object), get the requested number of divisions. Larger objects get more, smaller objects get fewer. This method is weaker than Proportional... you still get considerable variation of absolute quad sizes.

Variable: Obj Size Proportional - Objects that are the size of the Key Object (see: [4] Base Key on Selected Object), get the requested number of divisions. Larger objects get more, smaller objects get fewer. This method is stronger than Modulated method above, resulting in quads of roughly the same size throughout the model.

5. Scale Obj Overrides
The Scale Obj Overrides checkbox causes changes made to density settings made in this Panel to influence objects that have individual density overrides in effect (see [11] Object Density Overrides).

6. Density Sliders
With the Fixed option, the top slider simply sets the number of circumferential divisions.

For either ‘Variable’ method the top slider sets the number of divisions for objects around the size as the Key Object. Bottom slider sets the minimum number of divisions any object will get (no matter how small).

You can also set Fixed density for individual objects using the overrides in the Selections & Groups Panel [11]

7. Set Key
For either ‘Variable’ method above, you need to indicate a Key Object... an object whose size is the basis for quad divisions. Select an object and press this button to set the Key value. If more than one object is selected, an average of their sizes will be used.

8. Mesh Structure
The controls in this area effect how GroBoto's meshing engine structures the mesh. Please see the GroBoto v3 Mesh & Export PDF on our Downloads page for more detail.

9. Seam Settings & Cap %
The Seam sliders control the characteristics of special quads along the seam (see: Tools & Methods-Meshes and General Reference-Meshes).

Strip Width - Total width of seam quad rows - Width is relative to adjacent quads. A lower density mesh will have wider seams than the same model at higher density.

Strip Rows & Surface Row - Number of quad rows on either side of the seam. Surface Row adds an additional row that lies on the actual quadric surface.

Seam Crease Sets the Seam Profile ranging from:
The effect will vary depending on the angle of the original seam.

Caution: High Crease (values > 100%) may lead to self-intersecting meshes. Nothing bad will happen, except odd rendering. It's a good idea to zoom in and examine any sharp edges if to set this value high.

10. Smoothing Settings
These Controls (Two Sliders, Check Box, and Popup Menu) set GroBoto's Seam Styling (smoothing and related effects). Please see the SeamNet Mesh Section for more information & examples. Here is a brief description:

The Seam Slider sets the number of smoothing 'passes' applied to edges & valleys — like using sandpaper, the more passes the rounder the edge becomes values from 5 to 50 are typical.

The Border Slider sets how much the outer borders of the seam rows turn as they approach corners.

The Border Popup selects between several 'flavors' of Border Rounding. Most significant is whether seams stay fixed to the surface (the Round option), or are allowed to slide along the surface (the Drift option). Rounding is usually advised when the Seam Slider is active (otherwise the mesh can become stresses as the edges round).

Rounding is the only method that responds to the Seam Crease Setting (see above).

Drift creates more radical changes in form.

11. Shared Surface Removal & Cube Size
Shared Surface Removal eliminates extraneous seams that occur on coincident Primitive surfaces. Two things create these extra seams:
The popup menu sets which (if any) of those extra seams are automatically eliminated from the unified mesh.

Export Panel • Output Settings
This section controls the structure of the OBJ (Wavefront) export file. It also contains buttons for previewing the mesh in GroBoto’s Workspace, and for exporting the mesh.

12. Export OBJ
Regenerates the mesh and saves it to file.

13. Preview Options
The Preview checkbox toggles GroBoto in & out of its SeamNet Mesh preview mode. The Refresh button regenerates the mesh (use after you change any mesh settings).
The Popup Menu (showing 'Blueprint Opaque' in this image), selects between several OpenGL display modes.

14. Object Grouping
SeamNet Meshes are networks of seams and surfaces with logical components that can be exported as OBJ groups. Seams are generated by intersections of surfaces. The smallest component is a patch -- any part of a surface enclosed by a loop of seams.

There are 4 grouping options:

Group by Patch - Every patch is placed in a unique group. A single object may contain several patches (a cylinder has 3 -- sidewall, and two caps)... and may be further divided into smaller patches when primitives intersect one another.

Group by Object - All of the patches of any GroBoto primitive are grouped together... even if those patches are disconnected as the result of intersection (ex. a thin cylinder passing through the center of a sphere - it’s disconnected ends will be in the same group).

GroBoto Groups - Grouping based on GroBoto’s named groups... allowing multiple objects to be converted to a single OBJ Group.

All Seams Group - Divides entire mesh into just two groups: All quads that run along the seams, and everything else. This can be valuable for converting seams into ridges or channels in the destination app. However you should consider using the Seam Masking UV’s option [15].

15.
There are 4 UV mapping options:
Standard UV Map - Standard UV maps the entire mesh into a single UV coordinate space.

Seam Profile UVs & Seam Profile UVs Smooth - These two options Assign UV coordinates to seam quads only. Many apps can use these texture values to mask polys. The 'Smooth' version creates a smooth gradient across the width of the seam. Without smoothing, you get discreet values in each seam row.

No UVs - No UVs saved in OBJ

Don't Center Mesh Checkbox
Normally, GroBoto centers the mesh at 0,0,0 (based on the center of all primitives). This checkbox disables that centering and outputs vertex locations exactly as they are in the GroBoto workspace.

16. Vertex Map
Settings for GroBoto's 'Field Map' . Field Maps are Seam & Geometry-based value gradients that can be use for both vertex mapping (ex. weight maps), and texture Bitmaps (see below). Please see the GroBoto v3 Mesh & Export PDF on our Downloads page for details on the individual sliders.

17. Bitmap
This enables the optional creation and saving of grayscale texture maps based on the Vertex Field Map settings (just above).

These bitmaps are a much higher fidelity representation of the Field Map (as opposed to Vertex Maps which only store values at vertex locations). Bitmaps take longer to generate (especially at large sizes - 2048px or greater).

Quality Slider values greater than 5 or so can dramatically increase Export time, and are not needed in the vast majority of cases. We recommend using a Quality value of 0. Again, see the GroBoto v3 Mesh & Export PDF on our Downloads page for details.

18. Before each Preview...
A safety-net. When on, a temporary scene file (.gbr) is saved just prior to mesh generation. Although meshing failures are very rarely, this option insures you will never lose your model by initiating a mesh.

Object Overrides & Group Tools
The Selection & Groups Panel has override controls for overriding global Output Panel settings for individual objects.

GroBoto's Group creation and management tools are also in this panel. GroBoto Groups are essential for Exporting with the Separate Meshes Option - see item [1] in the Output Panel above

19. Selection & Groups Tab
The leftmost tab item opens the Selection & Groups Panel.

20. Group
Shows and/or sets Group of all selected objects in your scene. (will show 'Mixed' if selection contains multiple groups).

21. Object Overrides
This section of GroBoto’s Selections & Groups Panel contains controls for overriding global Output Panel settings for individual objects.

22. Group Manager
This is where you create new, empty groups. It also has basic Group management an utility buttons.