Custom Importer/Editor tool - SEToolbox

Space Engineers Toolbox utility- or SEToolbox for short.
Download the latest stable release here:
github.com/midspace/SEToolbox/releases/latest


This is the latest release of my program, which allows editing of the Save content, and importing of items into the 'world'.

Requires:

• Space Engineers installed.
• MS .NET Framework 4 (which comes with Space Engineers).

Documentation:
github.com/midspace/SEToolbox/wiki

Importing Image:

• Imports an image into a flat coloured armour block is supported. See the below links for examples.
• Please try to stick to small images, as large ones (> 400x200) take ages to load in Space Engineers.
• I'm considering some options for automatically breaking up images into smaller segments.

Importing 3D models:

• Imports the following formats (.3ds, .lwo, .obj, .objx, .stl, .off) into ship/station structures. See the below links for examples.
• No issues with scaling a model up or down (using the HelixToolkit library).
• Scaling a model too large may be too big for you to load in Space Engineers anyhow.

Importing Asteroids:

• The new in game asteroid format is not compatible with SEToolbox. You can generate asteroids from SEToolbox, but once you save in game, you cannot read them again from SEToolbox.
• Import stock asteroids from Space Engineers folder. Change the base material to any ore!
• Import asteroids directly from other save worlds (.vox files).
• Import asteroids directly from downloaded Steam Workshop (.vox files).
• Import asteroids from KeenSH's previous game title Miner Wars 2081 (.vox files).
• Import your own from a 3D model (any 3D model from Blender or 3DS Max), and rescale it during import. (Note, as of 01.014.010, Space Engineers may enforce non-rare stone ore on the outside of the asteroid, or replace all rare ore with non-rare ore. This mainly occurs on smaller asteroids.)
• Generate an entire random asteroid field.

Sandbox Repair - looks for the following issues in your savegame.

• Finds 'Character' player when duplicated in cockpit
• Creates new 'Character' if one is not found.
• Replaces 'Ladder' with 'Passage' component.

Editing content:

• Edit Positions of everything.
• Change your player color!
• Switch on/off player jetpack/dampeners.
• Delete multiple items, including asteroids and floating debris. (Sort by distance. Select all of them in a group. Press 'delete' on keyboard).
• Drag-n-Drop to copy ships from one 'world' to another, to keep linked ships together.
• Export multiple ships/stations to .xml file.
• Import multiple ships/stations from multiple .xml files (Multiple required for maintaining grouped ships).
• Mirror any ship/station using the predefined symmetry plane in Space Engineers. See the Guide.

Ships/Stations:

• Convert between Large Ship and Station.
• Convert between light/heavy armour.
• Convert between angled/round armour.
• Convert between the built framework blocks and incomplete framework to give that wireframe look.
• Repair all damage.
• Reset ship velocity and spin to zero.
• Reverse ship velocity and spin.

FAQ:

• SEToolbox cannot find Space Engineers: Please read this.
• If you have Space Engineers installed, you already have MS .NET Framework 4 installed.
• There is no 'undo' function.
• SEToolbox does create ".bak" files every time you save, for your convenience. You must restore them yourself if you did something bad.
• It is not recommended to use SEToolbox from within the Space Engineers 'Bin' folder. Please do not do this.
• Why do some of my asteroids look blocky or glitched, and allow me to fly through them? Read here.

Please note it's all experimental. Backup your save (if you are changing stuff), or use an empty world.

The application is very dependant on the Space Engineers API, so whenever Keen update the Space Engineers application, it will request UAC to update it's base files to keep it in sync.

As Space Engineers is in Alpha Development, there is always the change that major breaking changes will be made which will cause SEToolbox crash.
I will endeavour to keep it as up to date as possible.
But please keep in mind that some features may be removed without notice, or SEToolbox itself will be suspended from development because it may no longer be supported by Keen at some stage in the future.

SEToolbox was started in 2013 soon after Space Engineers was released for Early Access, and has been worked on in my free time.


Regards,
midspace.


SEToolbox: Select your 'world' save.


SEToolbox: Main screen.


SEToolbox: Import an image as a sheet of block armor.


Workshop item, 432x243 image imported. Please note, that the White suited player is in front of the armor wall (some people don't realise it).
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=194578281


195x66 image imported.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=189888069


Statue of Liberty, 3D model imported. Coloured manually.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=189108590



Come see my workshop items!

 

This is awesome! Would you just import an OBJ for the models? Can't wait for a final release.

anyways,

FIRST!!!!!!111!!!1!1111!!!!!!1!!!!

 

What sort of Software is this? CMD or with GUI? When last a Picture of it would be useful. ^^

Sounds like a good Tool, I wait until importing Objects is finished. ^^

 

Isn't this cheating?

 

Thanks!
I have added more detail, and an image of the program.
Yes, it's a GUI program. Written in .NET 4, WPF.

Depends on what you think is the purpose of the game.

Importing models doesn't get you far very though.
Scale and shape, yes.
Fine detail. No.
Insides. No.
Filled with reactors, thrusters, gyros. No.

 

Love it!
Time to ready Blender.

 

Thanks so much!
I hope the 3D models aren't models that require a expensive program! .obj's would be great! Look forward to this!

 

I've now uploaded the application source and distribution to CodePlex.
https://setoolbox.codeplex.com/

The expectation is to able to import from all of the following: .obj, .3ds, .stl, .asc, .md2, .md3

 

So I could make a cool ship with internals in Blender, use a remesh modifier to turn it into cubes, count the cube dimensions for the x,y,x axis, then export it as a .obj? Will I then have a nice ship in SE with internals? This program is incredible.

 

Looks like an interesting tool Midspace!
Thanks for sharing this with the community.

 

I've already used this tool before after seeing it on workshop and i've got to say its amazing, i can't wait for updates in the future to that point will you put an auto updater into later builds i'm sure you could link it to a pastbin page and update that with new download links and have it promp the user with the link.

 

Version 01.007.005 Release 3 is up. See link at top.

Importing of 3D models is now in.
(I wrote the main routines weeks ago. I needed to test a few alternatives and finish the new application to hold it all together first.)

Now supports multiple selection of objects, so you can delete them. All those floating bits of ship can be removed quickly.
Lots of other small improvements.

 

This tool is absolutely amazing, thank you very much.

Will we be able to import stations at any point?

 

Yes, coming very soon!

 

Is there anyway to make models not need to be smoothed?
As in have it so your code creates the model ingame so it's just a shell, enough so it's held together and doesn't fall apart.

Like the other 3D model converter that requires Maya

 

Is there anyway to make models not need to be smoothed?
As in have it so your code creates the model ingame so it's just a shell, enough so it's held together and doesn't fall apart.

Like the other 3D model converter that requires Maya

 

Version 01.008.004 Release 1 is up. See link at top.
* Importing to Stations is now in.
* Various fixes and improvements.
* Added place holders for importing and exporting other formats.

Currently I'm using a third party tool for the conversion from a 3D mesh, to a 3D volumetric.
I really would like to drop the third party tool, and do the calculations within SEToolbox, thereby removing some ugly steps along the way, but the calculations involved in raycasting and calculating block positions are currently a little beyond my abilities.
If anyone is willing to help me in this endeavour, I'd appreciate it!

That said, the current Maya python script does smooth the models also, adding slopes and corners.

 

Version 01.008.004 Release 2 is up. See link at top.

To support the new release with function asteroid mining, the following has been added.
* Importing Asteroids.
* Distance information (to the player).

Running out of Asteroids, or sick of the default selection?
Well, go ahead and import some more.
Space Engineers comes with a folder filled with 43 choices.

<div>Gone mining and let lots of debris to spray across the sector?
Well, now you sort by distance, select all those pesky bits of debris and delete them.
No longer just out of sight. Simply gone!
</div>

 

Your Tool get better and better. ^^

But I fear it comes on some features near that what deicist's Tool can. But at the moment no collision detected.

 

I love this tool. Very simple and easy to use and does exactly* what I want. And if i may make a suggestion based on an assumption: assuming you know exactly how the writing algorithm works, is there a way you can force symmetry in a model? Like have the user optionally activate and define a mirror axis in the import options?

 

i'll appologize now because i dunno if it's seen as improper to talk about another game but it's the only way i can inquire about this subject properly.

Here's a question for you midspace, in the game starmade (if your familiar with it) it uses .smd2 for a file type is this the same/similar as the the md2 file type? i have a station i would like to import over to space engineers instead of recreating this massive thing. Oh the .smd2 file type is what they use for their sectors in that game.

 

Trust me! That's fine! The devs have actually said before "If someone can import models from starmade"
So I'm sure it's fine, However It'd probably take a lot of tweeking because of the different blocks etc

 

There's quite a few assumptions there.
* Knowing which axis you want in symmetry.
* And then which side you want mirrored.
* And exactly where you need the mirroring to occur.

None of which can occur without visual confirmation.

I can certainly see this as a great idea, but first I'm going to have to create a preview (which I do want to do) of the volumetric object, so you can see how it looks first.
And then interact with the object in some way to chose the axis and position for mirroring.
This will take some time.


As a quick hack, as it may be more feasible (time wise) to check an existing ship/station in game, and determine the biggest edge, and mirror it for you.
This way, if you have assets in game already, perhaps with coloured armour, engines, and other decorations, it could be mirrored quickly.
The way this would happen in my mind is:
1. In Space Engineers, select the ship you are working on. And use the delete tool across a grid (CTRL+SHIFT+Right click).
2. Delete the side you don't want. (highlight and CTRL+X, then confirm).
3. Save.
4. SEToolbox, select the ship.
5. Select 'Mirror' and select Odd or Even Mirroring.
6. SEToolbox would find the outer most edge of object with the most items attached, and mirror everything from there, effectively doubling all objects.
7. And Save.
8. Reload in Space Engineers for the finished product.

 

I'm sorry, but I'm not familiar with StarMade.
A quick look around online shows that the .smd2 is a very specific format.
https://www.starmadewiki.com/wiki/File_format

It is possible to write a converter (someone has written a StarMade out of game ship builder that exports to the .smd2 format) to read in the format.
At the moment however I'm using a third party converter, and until I write my own (or someone writes one for me) for the major 3D file formats, I can't promise anything.

 

Mind adding a reverse importer, so we can export our ships into 3d models such as .OBJ

 

StarMade had different Blocks (more Slopes! ), that could also be a Problem.

 

To follow up my earlier post about mirroring...

The axis and the block of symmetry would be fixed, as set by the user in an options menu. The center, however, would have to be 0,0,0. Then any good modeler would be able to simply export so that the model is correctly oriented. From there I should think it would be straight forward. Just parse everything in the ship file for a specific coordinate, like x=[a constant], and then copy the other two coordinates over. 1,20,128 -> -1,20,128. So like... each "ring" is copied over to the other side of the axis until there are no more blocks found for a particular "ring."

Don't break your back over it.

But seriously, this feature should be built into the game... the ability to copy a half and mirror onto the same craft. As well as copy and paste onto the same ship.

 

hey so i found a way to export from starmade over to space engineers using a program called SMEdit to export it to an obj and midspaces program to import it into space engineers

i have a request for you midspace can you add a feature to allow a custom x y z for the scaling? since starmade gives you exact size info of a build it can be imported to proper 1:1 scaling into space engineers

 

hmmm with the recent space engineers update (just a moment ago) the Toolbox will no longer startup
this is the error i get....



i dun think it's something i did as it worked fine 12 hours ago when i used it last