HOW TO CONTROL WALL TEXTURES USING CLASSES

[inveresk]

I need help in understanding how to switch external wall textures on and off using classes. I've looked at the questions and answers in the forums and still can't get the textures to switch off. 

 

I've created a class called 'External wall texture' and set a texture for the left side of the wall (outside face). 

 

On the wall, I've created a component for the outside face and set the texture for that component "by class". 

 

When viewed in render mode there is no texture on the face of the wall, even with the External wall texture  switched on. The only way I can get a texture to show is if I set the component to 'texture" in which case I can't switch the texture off by switching off the class. 

 

I'd very much appreciate advice in what's missing from the above that'll help me resolve this. 

 

Thanks. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jeff Prince]

Post a copy of your wall for us to take a look at, I'm not really understanding how you've gone about things.  I'll offer the following in the mean time....

 

There are several ways to manage wall textures and components.  If you want independent control of the component texture display in 3D, 1st thing is you need to set your Render Tab's Mode to "by component", this will display the texture of each component you set up.  Then, you need to place your wall on a separate container class.  This will give you the opportunity to turn everything off for a wall by its container class, or turn off just a component by class... think situations where you want to turn off the finish of a wall and show the structure.  I put all my walls on a class such as L-WALL per the AIA standards.  If I need to further organize container classes, I might use a modifier based on how I'm going to group them such as.... by construction type (L-WALL-CMU), phase (L-WALL-EXST), or a combination (L-WALL-CMU-DEMO).

 

Now, I prefer a different approach for types of walls.  Example, I do a lot of stone veneer walls over CMU.  I like to be able to very quickly change the particular stone veneer I am using on a wall.  So, my component for the veneer is set the same as the container class (object class).  This allows me to move walls to different container classes (organized by texture) with a single wall style.  I'm not sure if many people would like that particular workflow, but it makes my life easier in that specific case compared to having a different wall style for each stone veneer.  The disadvantage is that you are unable to turn off the exterior texture without the entire wall disappearing, so you have to understand the implications of the workflow before using it.

 

I attached two example walls demonstrating the techniques described with the classes having some description in the name to help you.

 

wall style help.vwx

 

[inveresk]

Thank you - your helpful explanation and file has got me partly there. I was failing to nest classes. Having created subclasses I can now turn on and off individual components. I still can't see how I can retain the component but turn off only its texture. In some instances this can be done by changing view from, say, shaded to Hidden Line but some textures still show in Hidden Line. 

 

I've attached a test file I set up with two walls, each having textures, each ascribed a class as you described. One wall is faced in stacked stone and one in siding. When I change render mode from Shaded to Hidden Line the stone texture is no longer visible but the siding continues to show a planked effect, albeit a simple, lined one. 

 

I'm preparing construction drawings from a textured CAD model and it would ease my workflow if I could switch the texture off completely without switching off the component to which the texture is applied. That doesn't seem possible. I'll try and find a workaround by choosing a different texture. 

1670906722_Settingtexturebyclass.vwx

Edited May 5, 2023 by inveresk

[inveresk]

Problem solved. I discovered I can turn off surface hatches via the Background Render settings in the Object info palette. 

[Jeff Prince]

52 minutes ago, inveresk said:

Problem solved. I discovered I can turn off surface hatches via the Background Render settings in the Object info palette. 

 

Great!  Some Renderworks Textures and Vectorworks Materials in the VWX library include hatches as you have found.  I've been a bit lazy in creating hatches for the textures I have created, when you need them they are great to have.