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How do I map a texture to a curved surface..?


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I am trying to create a round bench and map a texture of planks onto it so that it follows the curves but VW will not match the texture to the curve.

I have tried setting it to Cylinder, Sphere and Perimeter, Auto align Plan and Plane, rotating it and even, in complete desperation because I have never once seen it work, the Attribute Mapping tool.

Nothing works.

I attach the results for just the first four mapping types.

Before I go completely mad, am I just wasting my tie and trying to do something that just is not possible or is there actually a way to get the texture to follow the curve of the objects?

The objects are extrudes because they, ironically, seem to be the easiest ones on which to map textures. Hardscapes seem to offer no options for mapping the textures at all....?

Matt

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

It is not possible to make the texture actually bend (EDIT: Via Attribute Mapping, apologies for not making that clear), so forcing the boards to follow the curve of the tops of those objects for instance isn't doable. It would follow the inner and outer perimeter curves, but you can not force the texture image itself to bend laterally in X/Y relative to the image.

Edited by JimW
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Yes it is possible (quick image attached) but you will need something like PS.

Create the curve and give the 2D shape a nice bright colour. Take a screenshot and place into PS. This is what you are going to use as a map. Drop in the wood texture (into PS) and then with the transform tool on warp mode then bend the texture to fit the map (reduce the transparency on the map and place the wood on the layer below it). When done select the layer with the map and the nice bright colour and select the colour and then use a mask to show the wood underneath.

Save as jpg and then import into VW. Use the attribute mapping tool (plane) on the top of the extrude and then it should map perfectly.

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Well chaps, many thanks for all the suggestions, and yes Barkest yours definitely works to boot, BUT there IS a way of doing this directly in VW.

Honestly, I'm not kidding. I can hardly believe it myself.

And you don't need to mess about with the dratted attribute mapping tool it just maps itself...

I found the video below for how to do it after a google Hail Mary and also attach my results to prove it works.

This is nothing short of a revelation....

And now Jim I am going to ruin this by asking you why it works this way...?

Sorry....;-)

Matt

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

I would counter with: "It doesn't really work." sadly.

In this case it does. SOME of the time an extrude along path object's edge will map like that, but for instance, if you have a more complex path shape or you attempt to deform or perform solid operations on the EAP afterwards, the textures will become borked.

I should however have mentioned it regardless of my dislike for it as a workaround, my apologies, shouldn't have censored myself there.

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This video I did may assist.

If you google the following you get to a video and it's a curved wall and mapping brickwork but if you use the same principle for a wood texture it should curve around the surface AS THe brickwork does on top of the wall.

Vectorworks 2015 Curved walls

BW777

HTH

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