3d Object Showing Up as a Texture

I have created 20 or so objects in AC3D and imported them into FlexSim with no problem. However, I'm trying to import a new object into Flexsim but it appears only as a 2d texture.
On the Flexsim side of things, I created a Visual Tool and selected IMPORTED SHAPE. Again, it only appears in 2d.
On the AC3D side I am in FlexSim VRLM1 mode when I export the object. The object, of course, will appear with a .wrl extension.
I created the object from a polyline, snapped the vertices together and then created an ordered shape from the result. I extruded the surface to finish.


What Gives?

Can you post a zipped version of the .ac format of your 3d shape?

Gavin,

We would need to see the shape to be able to tell you.

Brandon

How do I post the file?

Save it as a .ac file.
Zip it up. (In Windows Explorer, right-click the file and go to Send To > Compressed (zipped) Folder)
Hit the Post Reply button.
Click the Manage Attachments button in the Additional Options box.
Browse to the file.
Hit the Submit Reply button.

Ok, here she is (attached).

Here's an explanation of what is going on:

Because you made the object from a polyline object, it has properties of a polyline in AC3D (polylines are flat). When it exports to vrml, it exports it as a line instead of as surfaces.

To turn your surfaces into a regular shape with surfaces instead of a line in AC3D:
1. Go to Tools > Hierarchy View so you can see what is going on.
2. Select Your object.
3. Make sure you are in Object mode (on the 'Select' combobox on the left).
4. Go to menu option Object > Fragment. (it will turn each surface into its own object in the Hierarchy View, push the plus button if you can't see all the different objects.)
5. Go to menu option Surface > Triangulate. (it will turn each square side into triangle polygons, which is how it is exported in vrml. This option will also DESELECT the 'line' object so that only the real surfaces are selected, which is the important part.)

6. Go to menu option Object > Merge (this will combine all the selected surfaces into one object) (You now have a well-formatted object that is selected, plus the original line. Although they have the same name in the Hierarchy View, they are two different objects.)

7. Go to menu option Object > Optimize Vertices (this will make it render faster in Flexsim)

8. You can now export your shape as vrml and import it into Flexsim just fine.

9. In the Hierarchy View, you can select the objects one at a time to see that the original one is flat and the new one is 3d. Feel free to delete the flat one as it won't make a difference in Flexsim whether it is there or not.

If you can't get my instructions to work, here is the final product of following those steps.

Thanks dude.