Texture Mapping

[SLFY]

I used to know how to do this. I am modeling a custom table, the top of which consists of two slabs taken from the same log. I am trying to map the texture I created of each slab to its part of the model.

I have recently jumped from VW'09 to '12 and now '13. This is the first I have tried this since using the '09 version.

When I a apply the non repeating texture in plane mode, I created I get a weird light color pattern on the object. I select the attribute mapping tool and find that the texture is oriented 90? (vertical) relative to the top of the table. For the life of me I cannot figure how to change this. The help text for the attribute tool says to click on the surface you want the texture to align to - yet nothing happens regardless of the working / active plane settings, etc.

Any help would be much appreciated - need to have this to the client in 36 hours....

Thanks,

Sean

[Monadnoc]

Did you try selecting the slab and in the Render tab of the Obj Info palette changing the rotation to 90 degrees? Make sure Tile Vertically and Horizontally is de-selected. You can also change the Scale there too. You may be able to bypass the Attribute Mapping tool altogether. I have found that tool to be so buggy/temperamental in VW 2011 that I've stopped using it. Hopefully in VW 2013 they've fixed it.

Edited February 2, 2013 by Monadnoc

[SLFY]

Hi Monadoc

The issue is that the texture is oriented to a x,z plane and my slab that needs the texture, is in a x,y plane. The rotation in the render tab rotates the texture within its x,z plane - it does not do the 3D rotation that is necessary to get the texture onto a x,y plane.

The reason it is important to get the texture placed just right in this case is because each slab used for the table is going to be left with a natural edge and the beetle kill sap wood. So it is important that this portion of the texture be at the edge of the slab in the model.

There used to be an option to adjust the texture mapping of an object in the render tab. This worked well for me, about 95% of the time, but it was apparently removed in favor of this "simplified" method. All the tutorials I have found show the use of this tool on the walls of a building. This is the orientation of the texture object when I use the attribute mapping tool. I need the texture manipulation object in the x,y plane and not in a z orientation and I have found no way to do this.

So I did get my texture where I wanted it - for the most part - but I am sure, or at least I HOPE, that it did not work the way it is supposed to. By choosing to tile the texture in the render tab of the object palette, I was given the option of manipulating a singe or tiled texture in the attribute mapping tool's options. Also, at this point the actual texture appeared on my slab for the first time, but, obviously it is tiled. The texture manipulation object appears but in the x,z plane. I can slide it along the x plane line and this changes where the break in texture tiles hits on my slab - somehow.

I found I can also adjust this break location by adjusting the offset distance, which is one of the few adjustments still available at this point in the render tab of the object info pallet. Before allowing the texture t be tiled, changing these offsets did nothing helpful.

Since there is no button to update the rendering when using the attribute mapping tool (really?), I found I needed to switch back and forth between single and tiled in the attribute tool options to get the object to re-render to see where my manipulations put the texture. Eventually I got close, though the texture appears to be stretched or asymmetrically...or the texture is actually still in the x,z plane and is being stretched through the object like you would expect to happen in "plane" mode on the off surfaces, but beggars can't be choosers.......frustrating...

I am not at all a novice to 3D renderings in VW. Been doing them for years. So I am really hoping someone can tell me where I have gone wrong here. I am assuming I am missing something very simple. Oh, another potential clue ...the "add decal" function is putting the "Decal" in the same x,z plane.

Thanks for any help anyone can give...

[SLFY]

Still not satisfied with the images...I have exported the model file to VW'09 - used the old mapping button in the render tab which allowed me to rotate the texture plane as well as adjust its orientation. Reopened it in Vw'13 and now the attribute mapping tool works like it should. The quality of the rendering and the speed in which it renders are greatly improved from '09. If only there was a way to rotate the plane of the texture....There has to be a way to do this '13. Any help?

Thanks.

[Monadnoc]

Glad you seem to have gotten it to work, although too bad you had to revert back to VW 2009 to do it. I'm still on VW 2011, and have been defeated by the Attribute Mapping tool so often I really don't use it that much, so I can't offer any other suggestions. Hopefully someone else can.

[michaelk]

Forgive me if I'm not understanding correctly what you are trying to do.

But if I do understand it, then there is a way to make the Attribute Mapping tool accomplish what you want.

(If I'm missing the point of your thread, please disregard the following.)

Create a non-tiling image texture. (It really helps if you don't use the default size (1"!) because it makes the texture outline harder to find later on.

Apply the texture to the object

Go to a 3D view in open GL. I think the default behavior is to map the texture to the plane normal to the one you want. : ) At least in my drawings it is.

Select the Attribute Mapping tool. Make sure the tool is in the first mode - non repeating.

You will see the outline of the image texture floating in space (unless you left the size at 1") and 3 axes color coded 3 red, blue, and green. I can never remember which is which.

Click on one of the axes. Little red, blue, and green dots will appear on the axes. (They are actually handles.)

Hover over one of the handles and a preview will appear of which way that handle rotates the texture.

Drag those handles to rotate the texture to the appropriate plane. (It helps to hold the shift key to force the rotation to snap to 90? angles)

Grab the edge of the texture outline and drag it to where it does the most good.

If I'm grokking your thread, I think that does what you want.

hth

mk

[SLFY]

Thanks MK,

You understand my problem - despite my verbose rambling.

The one part I never figured out was that I needed to CLICK ON THE AXIS LINES to get the axis rotation grips to appear. If that is documented in the help I missed it completely in my desperation to get this simple step done. In fact, when I first tried to map the texture I could not figure out where the texture actually was - finally went to an ISO view and discovered the problem. I'm guessing a less obsessive user would have given up before thinking to try that. I don't remember having to rotate the plane of a mapped texture before, though I knew how to - perhaps I have been lucky.

THANKS A ton. Now I see the simplicity of the new tool and it works great - my only suggestion to any powers that may read this, is to give a visual hint somewhere that would get an idiot like me to actually click on an axis line, and not just the texture object. Or have the axis grips visible without needing to click on an axis to see them. But perhaps I just blew past the instructions and hints that I needed - wouldn't be the first time.

Thanks again,

Sean

[michaelk]

Sean

I went through the exact same frustration.

I don't remember if I "obsessively" : ) and serendipitously found the "click on the axis" trick or if someone showed me. (But I usually credit any knowledge I have of rendering to Dan Jansenson's book. http://www.vectorworks.net/training/guides.php . I still have the first "Renderworks Recipe Book" for v10(?))

You're right. Once you see how it works, it's simple and useful. But not terribly discoverable.

mk

[Monadnoc]

Maybe the "click on the axis" trick is what I missed and the reason for my frustration with the tool. I'll have to go back and play with it again.

Thanks for the tip.