I see there is a new release of Blender - Blender 2.69 Release Candidate - which “has support” for FBX import.
Anyone tried it yet?
cheers, gryff 
I’m unable to test it as it only imports FBX binary? (which is somewhat curious… given Blender exports FBX ascii??)
Not sure quite what limitations were in place that prevented them importing the ascii versions. 
I guess that`s where the license issues comes in place. But bummer that Blender cannot read what it writes.
fandango said:
Tiles said:
I decided to run some tests - see images below.
Image 1 This is a 3D model that was created by Jonathan Williamson of cgcookie.com and is available at Blendswap. I rigged it and added an animation, then exported it from Blender as an fbx file. Blender can not re-import this files as it is in ASCII format. - as fandango said.
Image 2 This is the fbx file I exported from Blender loaded into the AutoDesk FBX Converter/Viewer (2013 edition). In this wireframe view, you can see the mesh/armature/animation load nicely. I exported this from the converter as an FBX binary (2013).
Image 3 I imported this binary fbx file into Blender. As you can see, only the mesh is imported no rig or animation. The UV map is retained for the mesh.
I gather from a little browsing on the Blender wiki that rigs/armatures and animations are a To Do for the importer.
So, if rigs/animations are not imported into Blender, what is the benefit over using the AutoDesk converter to create an fbx file as opposed to an obj file ? Using the fbx format retains muliple mesh objects (ie eyes, teeth etc) that are seperate from the body mesh and cameras are imported too.
cheers, gryff
The importer is under development as far as I know. The way Campbell Barton usually worked in the past was to create some testable functionality and build on it. What we see now is a mesh implementation. That’s already a pretty solid basis considered that the importer code is based on a reverse engineered fbx specification.
In the a Blender podcast he mentioned, that this work could be used to create an exporter as well.
Please correct me if I got something wrong, as I don’t have the references to those statement right now.
Dantus, I searched out Blender podcasts and listened to this one (dated Aug 30th 2013):
Sadly, listening to the discussion on fbx importing, I’m not optimistic about rigs and animations. even though there seems to be good compatibility with the way fbx and blender handle rigs.
But I will say that the two fbx samples (the one above and another 3rd party fbx model) I have tested seemed to import very well in terms of mesh materials etc.
cheers, gryff
I ran into similar issues when trying to use Daz 3D models with Sunburn. Exported to lightwave (.obj), used Blender to re-save as .fbx with XNA strict options, but still the 3D animated model won’t load in the game engine.
This thread is really about the fbx importer in Blender 2.9. However …
Derrick: To the best of my knowledge the .obj format is for geometry only. It does not include animation information. So importing an .obj file created in another 3D program into Blender - the model will not have animations attached. That is not the fault of Blender.
cheers, gryff
What would be nice is if Autodesk added conversion of Blend files to it’s FBX Converter but there’s no profit motive and too many dissimilar constructs.
Sweet!
I’ve been importing FBX (w/bones and weights) into Blender for quite a while now using the BOS FBX importer. It’s pretty decent and reads binary as well as ASCII FBX files.
There’s also Blender’s “Bratwurst” branch and I think this may be what the 2.69 importer is based on. The version I tested did create 3 bones per FBX bone (separate translation, rotate scale), but if it’s made it into the stable branch now, I can’t wait to see the improvements
The sad part is that I believe Autodesk is actively trying to sabotage the 3ds Max / Maya → Blender path. There was a BVH plugin for 3ds Max for a while that made it possible to format shift animations to Blender, but Autodesk hired the plugin developer and discontinued the plugin.
@Cygon4 Did you have to install UmConv inadditon to the BOS exporter to get it to work?
Thanks
Yes.
But “installing” here merely means putting the ‘umconv’ directory in your ‘Blender’ folder.
I just followed the instructions on this page: dfltweb1.onamae.com – このドメインはお名前.comで取得されています。.
Thanks!
remeber to save the model in object mode when using in unity or else unity cant convert to fbx (if your using .blend)
To be honest I’ve tried the BOS FBX converter and you still don’t want to import anything but simple FBX. I haven’t tried with animations attached, I imagine that’s more difficult.
It exports Blend models you make in Blender to Unity really well. Well, at least ones I do, but they are rather simple.
You respond to a week-dead topic with a link to something wholly and completely useless for the task at hand?
What does some model viewer even have to do with this topic?
I’ve converted tons of rigged characters to Blender with the BOS FBX importer. That includes things like ProtoFactor’s Mountain Dragon, DexSoft’s Lizardman Monster and a 3 million polygon space station. The worst I had happen was that the names of bones and vertex groups didn’t match and I had to rename them by hand. I’d say it can handle pretty much anything you can throw at it.
The only annoyance is that it doesn’t deal with animations at all. Autodesk used to provide a BVH exporter once, which was nice because it saved animation keyframes that could be imported in Blender to perfectly format shift any FBX model, but they stopped distributing it. Now I’m forced to use Collada…
Cygon4 : What version(s) of Blender does the BOS addon work with ?
Would like to try it over the Xmas-New year holidays.
cheers, gryff
Well, as it seems, it also means that you have a Windows dependency. I’m running Blender on the Mac, so no luck with UmConv 
… are there any alternatives?