Converting .cob files to .rwx

The best way to convert .cob files to .rwx is to use Accutrans which can be found at the following site:
www.quantumlynx.com/micromouse/index.html

There are some tricks to know when converting .cob files. So here's the step by step for Accutrans.

1. Open Accutrans by double-clicking the icon that is labeled as something along the lines of at3d2-4-64.

2. Once the program opens you will see two windows:
   

   The window on the left is your viewing window, this is where the objects will appear when they are opened. The panel on the right is your control panel, this is where commands are called by pressing buttons.

3. Now you must open a file. First you must select the file type that you will be opening. The pull-down menu in the "file type" box allows you to select a number of different file types. Then press the open button in the "action" box of the panel. You are now allowed to browse your computer for the file that you want to open. I leave the rest of the settings at their defualts because I'm not sure what they do, but for the purposes of simple conversion this tutorial should suffice.

4. Once the object has been opened you will be asked if you want the object divided into sub-objects if that is applicable. Click OK and you should now see your object.
   

5. Now that your object has been loaded into Accutrans you are now ready to convert the object into any of the other available file formats. But first you should check to be sure that the object doesn't have any polygons with thier normals flipped. To do this go to the "Align" tab of the window on the right. You should see this menu or something very similar depending on which version you are using:
   

   Click on the first button (that's the one with the two little squares with the arrow between them). This will show the object's polygons and thier normals. By normals I mean that when you are lookikng at the object from the position that it is being displayed all the polygons will show up with their respective textures (textures do not show up in Accutrans but colors do). The normals facing you from that position will appear white, the normals facing away from you will appear red. Any time you have a yellow surface it means that those pices of the object are on a different level which occurs when a hierarchy has been established. If you want to work on the entire object at the same time press the button that has a rectangle with a green, red, and yellow side.

   As you can see below, this object has some polygons facing the wrong direction. When this object gets converted into RenderWare the red polygons will face the wrong way, creating the effect of holes in the object.

   

   To remedy this, simply click on the object and all the red polygons should disappear. If you want to work on the object so that only one polygon is flipped at a time, just click on the "flip one surface normal only" button.

   When you have finished, an object with no red polygons will give you a hole-free product.

6. Now that there are no holes in you object you are ready to export the object in the correct file format. To do this click on the "Start/Stop align surface normals" button so that you can see the wireframe version of the object again. Go under file, and select save as... .
   

   This brings up a new window:

   

   This window is where you can tweak the exported file. I have always found it easiest to leave everything at the default level at this stage and then scale the object in RenderWare, but the same affect can be achieved here using the output scale factor. To export the file, select the type of file that you want the object to be by using the pull down menu under "export file type". Once you have chosen the desired file type simply click on the save button and then select the proper directory in your computer that you want the object stored in. Click save again and...
   

   Voila! You're finished!!

**When exiting from Accutrans it asks you a series of questions. If you don't want to save anything that you've done (i.e. you have the original and converted files and that's all you need) then answer the default to all of the questions. The wording is tricky on one or two of the questions so just press enter.