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Texture mapping


tamarindi

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In previous versions we had the mapping preview option that allowed adjusting the texture on any object, with small preview of the selected object.

Now i'm confused. The attribute mapping tool works only on walls or planar mapping (and requires change of apllying method) All other objects became un-easy to work with. And it also requires a rendering. And not all textures render well in open GL.

Am i missing something here?

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Our small group of designers has petitioned to bring back the old style Obj Info Mapping Preview. The VW / RW Movie of the 2010 (Planar Only) Texture adjustments with the Attribute Mapping Tool reminds me of a Wow -it great! got to have it Kids Toy / TV advert at Christmas time. Then you get the toy out of the box ...

Textures, like brickwork on a wall, that repeat and can have variation to their start / stop locations hide a multitude of sins. In the case of Textures that need to be accurate it is NOT how the texture is applied that counts, it is how you draw the shape in the first place.

Here are a few suggestion to try. Work out side of VW / RW to make the Shaders similar in size / ratio if it is to be an Image based Texture (Photoshop etc).

Apply Textures to objects that have been drawn in 2D then converted to 3D Polygons (From the Modify Menu) More predictable than with an extrudes.

If the object is essentially flat (ie: painting on a wall. Draw it flat.)

With the Attribute Mapping Tool ...

Start in Wireframe mode, when selecting the Attribute Mapping Tool.

DO NOT have a texture that is larger than the object it is applied to.

DO NOT have an object that is "remote" from the origin of the drawing.

DO NOT have an object that is other than "flat on the ground plane"

In each of these cases, the Attribute Mapping Tool will lose the texture "out in space somewhere" and one needs to zoom out / and or change to another view to see "where the texture went" or where the texture "handles went".

Start in Wireframe mode, when selecting the Attribute Mapping Tool

Suggestions:

Create the object to be textured at (0,0) (Move it afterwords to a desired place)

Work in Top Plan and apply the texture at (0,0) (Rotate afterwords if needed)

Make the object a Group, then edit "the Group" without other object being visible. Adjust the Texture while in this Edit Group Mode. (Only one thing to work on / worry about) Could also be a separate layer or even a separate drawing.

As an alternate:

DO NOT use the Scale slider in the Obj Info Palette. Change the Texture Size

Think numerically and adjust the Delta X and Y in the Obj Info Palette ... This can be a "Form-Z" style pain - yet it is often easier than the Attribute Mapping Tool if you know what the Texture size and the object size are.

Adjust the object to match the texture. ie: resize a 3D Polygon in Open GL rendering ( ... or set the texture size to the desired shape dimension)

Peter

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Hi Peter,

Thanks for your reply.

Today I taught an Exhibition-studio designers who work on VW and render with Artlantis. I tried to convince them how time consuming it is to work in one program and not two. How easy and intuitive it is to make renders out of a model. It almost worked. the convincing. until i got to the texture mapping tool. It was so frustrating !!!! There is no way to convince someone to work that way !!!!!!

You and I and other "old" users can adjust, although it's a pain i must say. It is inconvenient and unintuitive. But try convincing new users who has the comfortable alternative.

You can add me to your petition !!! It should be a loud cry out.

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Could not agree more. The attributes mapping tool has some qualities if you get used to it, some trial and error is required. It has been stripped to the bone and thereby a lot of flexibility has gone. For example a mesh is mapped quite randomly by default. In the previous version you could click on a surface to use that as a mapping plane. Now you can't. There should be some preset mapping choises like "from top" (good for aerial photography) and "from front", "starting from lower left corner" etc. Texture mapping is not the only problem though. I wrote a post to the wish list forum but didn't receive a single reply!

"I think it's about time for a major overhaul of RenderWorks including:

' Faster and more user friendly global illumination

' Ambient occlusion, screen space (SSAO) and model space

' Baking of global illumination

' Realtime/ GPU-rendered global illumination

' Object animation (for people, cars, sky etc.)

' Daylight system with sun and sky lighting

' Sky generator with clouds

' Physically accurate materials

' Add more yourself....

There are some good reasons for this:

Stop customers escaping to standalone redering solutions.

There are some great advantages with integrated rendering.

' The trend is towards interactiveness and it's a good trend. With BIM you make canges to the model hundreds of time during the design prosess and you want both to see and communicate the results fast and without delays. Exporting to another applicatin, maybe texturing and mapping over again each time is delay and it's counter-interactive. The time when we completed all design phases in 2D and made some glossy visualizations in the end to sell the finished flats are over.

. There is no reason why VectorWorks should have a renderer inferior to Revit (Mental ray), Artlantis, Sketchup (with integrated V-ray) etc. Renderworks is based on Lightwork and LW has realtime global illumination so lets get all the good suff we can get out of LW. Maybe LW can't keep up with giants like Mental ray or V-ray, but an up to date integrated renderer would be an important competitive edge against Revit, Autocad, Archicad and the rest."

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I would add to that:

Faster render time !!

sometimes it takes ages for one model, while the same model in artlantis takes minutes.

As i mentioned - for us, veteran users, we already know the tricks to make it faster or use batch render over night...... But try convincing migrating users that have other alternatives that make better results.

It seems that for now, the only real reason to use renderworks is for BIM. But if you don't use BIM then why.....??

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have always found texture mapping in Vectorworks to be difficult- now its getting impossible. Count me among the frustrated. In all versions after 12, I have found the mapping tool gives a different result with Open GL than final VW- in other words it wasn't working- now its been eliminated entirely.

I been forced to use trial and error. It takes forever. Why can't a map just automatically map to the object at the size of the object like 3D max? Why is this so difficult?

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