The minor command line switches

The DOS prompt syntax is as follows:

ase2prm [-v] [-q] [-l] [-sg] [-ali|-morph] [-c] [-o=outfile.prm] file.ase  [object] [ object]
ase2w [-v] [-q] [-l] [-sg] [-ali|-morph] [-o=outfile.w] file.ase [object] [object]
ase2taz [-v] [-q] [-l] [-sy] [-g=growth] [-o=outfile.taz] [-f=listfile] file.ase [object] [object]
ase2vis [-v] [-q] [-l] [-sy] [-g=growth] [-o=outfile.vis] [-f=listfile] file.ase [object] [object]

-v : enables verbosity, this is useful if you've got an .ase which just won't convert, verbosity can help you see where things go wrong.

-q : quiet mode, suppresses most output. Nothing is printed, except warnings and errors.

-l : will not generate any files but will simply list information about the .ase file. This can be useful to remind yourself what you called your different objects e.g. Box01, Box02, Plane 01, Renamed Object, etc.

-sg : will summarise the smoothing group definitions for ali and morph.

-sy : will summarise the listfile syntax for as2taz and ase2vis.

-ali or -morph (can be shortened to -a or -m): enable advanced options like transparency and surface properties. -ali and -morph use smoothing groups differently so watch out. You can use -ali or -morph but not both together.

-c : will center grip point on created instance (ase2prm only). If omitted, grip point of instance will be where the origo of the World coordinate system is in Max. (Not to be confused with the Pivot point, which is the origo of the Local coordinate system.) If you don't use this option, place your meshes carefully, or you can easily create an instance which is so far from its grip point that you cannot actually see it.

-o=outfile can be used to specify output file name. The extension of the output file must always match the tool - .w for ase2w, .prm for ase2prm, .taz for ase2taz and .vis for ase2vis. If this option is omitted, output is placed in the same directory as the .ase file, with the same filename and appropriate extension.

-f=listfile can be used to specify the listfile used by ase2taz and ase2vis. If omitted, defaults to -o=Tazfile (for ase2taz) or -o=Visfile (for ase2vis), in the same directory as the .ase file.

-g=growth the value specified here is used to add "safety growth" to the boxes created in 3DSMax. Each side of the generated track zones and camera boxes will be grown by this value; cube boxes are not affected. 0 value is not accepted here; you can achieve this effect by omitting the option. You can, however, specify a negative value here; which has the effect of reducing the size. Value is expressed in "Generic units" - note that if you use some other units (most people do), this is not the same what you see in Max.

[object] [object] enables you just to export a single or multiple objects in a large scene, so imagine an ASE file called Kitchen.ase you could just export the chair or the table, or the kettle or that muffin, or the chair and the muffin etc.  The programs may refer to objects as 'nodes', think of these terms as interchangable with ase2prm and ase2w.

Warning: The speed of the converter is very dependent on the size of the .ase file you give it to convert.  It is very possible that for 20,000 polygons an .ase file will occupy 10Mb of disk space and take >10 minutes to process to .prm or .w

If you do not specify an input file or if you enter the wrong input filename eg. typinerror.ase instead of typingerror.ase you will generate a truncated prm, i_p, and ncp which will not function properly and will cause the computer to hang during level loading in RV, press Alt F4 to escape.  

The Square Brackets [] denote optional switches, and should not be written when you write the command line.

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