Minolta 3D Scanner Importer

This Minolta geometry import converter imports camera (.cam) and element (.vvd) files that were scanned using the Minolta 3D Scanner. Once read into memory, a polygonal mesh is created to represent the data that was scanned by the camera. The converter will also extract any embedded image maps from within the Minolta files and convert them to standalone TIFF images. Texture coordinates will then be computed and assigned to the polygonal mesh so that the new texture map will overlay the geometry data in its correct location.

Dialog Box Options

Extract images from Minolta files as new texture maps

Each Minolta file contains both a 3D representation of the scanned data as well as a bitmap image of the scanned data as viewed from the camera location. If this option is enabled (check marked) then the import converter will extract the bitmap image from the file and convert it to a stand-alone TIFF image on disk. The resulting TIFF bitmap will also be linked to the imported 3D geometry data as a texture map so that the two align properly during subsequent renderings. If this option is un-checkmarked then no bitmap will be extracted and no texture coordinates will be assigned to the imported 3D data.

Display textures when extracting from geometry files

Each Minolta file contains both a 3D representation of the scanned data as well as a bitmap image of the scanned data as viewed from the camera location. If this option is checked then the image that is stored in the file will be displayed while it is being loaded. Note: the picture preview window might hide the import status dialog.

Location to store extracted textures

The two following options specify where the extracted bitmap image(s) that are stored in the Minolta files will be stored on disk in TIFF format:

Same location as imported Minolta file

The texture images that are stored in the Minolta file will be saved in the same directory as the file being imported. (e.g. if the file is located in c:\minolta\, the images will also will also be stored in c:\minolta\).

In this specific directory

This option allows you to specify a directory where the images are to be stored.

Confirm possible texture file overwrite

If the checkbox is enabled then if the extracted TIFF image file already exists on disk a dialog box is displayed to ask the user whether or not to overwrite the file.

Strip file path from all bitmap references

When this checkbox is enabled then any filepath prefixed to the imported bitmap images will be removed.

Replace all texture file paths with this file path:

This option allows an explicit file path to be prepended to each imported bitmap TIFF file. Either this option or the "Strip path from all bitmap references " can be checked, but not both.

Camera Resolution

This option is available only when importing Minolta camera (.cam) files. It specifies the level of detail to import the mesh.

1	All the polygons are loaded from the file (most number of polygons)
1/4	Every second polygon is loaded vertically and horizontally
1/9	Every third polygon is loaded
1/16	Every fourth polygon is loaded (least number of polygons)

Compute new smoothed vertex normals (override vertex normals in the file)

When this option is un-checkmarked (disabled, the default), vertex normals will be read in from the Minolta file along with the 3D geometry data; if the normals are accurate, then this will produce properly smoothed data. However, it has been known that some older Minolta files had corrupted vertex normals; if the imported data does not look to be properly smoothed then enable this option (checkmarked) so that the importer can automatically create the vertex normals.

Fill holes between adjacent mesh segments

This option is available only when importing camera (.cam) files. When this checkbox is enabled extra polygons are created to fill gaps between adjacent mesh segments.

Print Statistics

If this checkbox is enabled then the converter will report the number of objects and polygons created during the import process.

Limitations of the Minolta Import Converter

• The converter does not import Minolta .scn files at this time. This is due to a problem in the parsing libraries provided to Okino by Minolta.
• Camera (.cam) files are restricted to having only one mesh in them. This is also a limitation of the Minolta parsing libraries.