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Texture Attribute Mapping


willofmaine

Question

In Vectorworks 2021, in a blank file, I create a simple extrude and apply, say, a brick texture.  When I activate the Attributes Mapping tool, I'm asked to convert to "Plane."  For whatever reason, the reshape grips are at the file's origin, but there's a hand-with-rectangle icon that lets me click on any surface of the extrude, after which the mapping plane is applied to that surface, and I can manipulate the reshape grips as desired.  I can even click on the 3D axes if I'm looking for a little extra misery; getting back to the reshape grips from those axes can be a bit of a challenge.

 

But in Vectorworks 2022, when I repeat the process, things seem quite different...  When I activate the Attributes Mapping tool, there's no request for "Plane."  Instead, a set of reshape grips appears on each face of the extrude, along with the hand-with-rectangle icon.  After which the happiness comes to an abrupt end.  Wherever I click, the extrude becomes fully rendered (instead of just the single tile associated with each set of grips); the reshape grips are nowhere to be found; the 3D axis can't be selected; and what appears to be an attributes mapping plane remains visible.

 

What am I missing???  VWIS225

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@willofmaine - in VW2022 the default mapping type is the new "Surface UV" instead of Perimeter. Perimeter was not compatible with the Attribute Mapping Tool, which is why in VW2021 the tool would prompt you to have to switch to Plane mapping.

 

In VW2022, Surface UV is (apparently) compatible with the Attribute Mapping Tool, though admittedly I'm completely mystified as to how it's supposed to work. I've had literally zero success using the Attribute Mapping Tool with Surface UV in 2022. However, if you switch your OIP to the render tab, you can still manually select Plane mapping in the dropdown, then the Attribute Mapping Tool should work as expected.

 

@Shengxi Wu or @Dave Donley - Is there a guide or description about how using the Attribute Mapping Tool with the Surface UV mapping type is intended to work? Can you confirm that it works as intended? Perhaps a video demonstration would be useful.

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@Andy Broomell Thank you, so at least it's not just me.

 

I think I'd had at least half a thought that the default mapping type might have changed with the new per-face textures, so thank you for clarifying that.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you do change to "Plane," then the texture is as expected on one face of a cube, but "stretched depth-wise" on the other faces.  Which I guess then means you need to individually apply the texture, even if it's the same one, to each face.  Which I guess is an improvement over VW 2021, though it seems to defeat the purpose of having an Overall texture and/or Surface UV Mapping?

 

I have found that if I apply a texture individually to one face, even if it's the same texture, the attributes mapping tool then seems to work, even with the "Surface UV" mapping type for all textures.  So maybe that's a workaround of sorts for what really seems like a bug...

 

And the attributes mapping tool itself seems entirely squirrelly.  Sometimes I can't get the " + " icon.  Sometimes I have to move the cursor two or three times faster than the selected tile will actually move.  And it seems necessary to sometimes, or maybe always, double-click to exit the attributes mapping tool and immediately reactivate it to get it to, finally, behave as expected. 

 

 

 

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Guest Shengxi Wu

Thank you all for your feedback.

 

On 2/4/2022 at 3:10 PM, Andy Broomell said:

I've had literally zero success using the Attribute Mapping Tool with Surface UV in 2022.

I am a bit surprised to see this. After testing the Attribute Mapping tool myself, the tool seems to work well on Surface UV (see video attached), except the following minor glitches:

  • Sometimes I need to click on a face twice to active the reshape grip of a target face (see 30s of the video)
  • While editing texture with Surface UV map type, the axis is not clickable like @willofmaine mentioned.
    • However, if I am working on a texture with Plane map type, I am able to click on the axis and edit (see 21s of the video)
    • Maybe this is an implementation overlook for the Surface UV map type, I'll confirm with the teams.
  • Non-repeating Mode/Original Repeating Mode are not available for certain texture
    • I don't think this is a bug, the availability of these two modes are texture-dependent, I tested this in 2020 and the behavior is the same

If you happen to find other glitches that I missed, please let me know.

Thanks.

 

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Here are things I typically experience when trying to use the Attribute Mapping Tool with the default Surface UV mapping. (The issues come and go inconsistently but frequently)

  • Moving or adjusting the editing frame has no affect on the texture mapping, particularly when it's the Overall texture.
  • Moving the origin/axis doesn't affect the editing frame / texture location.
  • An editing frame sometimes doesn't appear, I can only click planes to align the texture, and it's placed where I click but I can't "move" it.
  • Moving the editing frame moves the texture in an unrelated direction (almost like a mirrored response).
  • The texture preview doesn't show up at all on the face (regardless of first or second mode or where the editing frame is).
  • Direct Surface UV texture mapping doesn't seem to work on Walls (I've had numerous texturing issues with Walls in general in 2022).
  • Moving the editing frame moves the texture exponentially in the direction I move (I've also experienced this with other mapping types and in previous versions so this might be irrelevant to this discussion).
  • Minor bug also seen in your video: moving the editing frame leaves the black rectangle outline visible in the old location until you release your mouse click, rather than moving interactively.

 

On 2/7/2022 at 8:18 AM, Shengxi Wu said:

Non-repeating Mode/Original Repeating Mode are not available for certain texture

  • I don't think this is a bug, the availability of these two modes are texture-dependent, I tested this in 2020 and the behavior is the same

Can you elaborate on this? I don't think I've seen this. 

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Guest Shengxi Wu
8 minutes ago, Andy Broomell said:

 

Can you elaborate on this? I don't think I've seen this. 

See attached video, when I am targeting brick texture, I always have access to Non-repeating Mode/Original Repeating Mode on the mode bar.

If I am targeting the blue cloth, purple cloth, and grass texture, Non-repeating Mode/Original Repeating Mode are not available on the mode bar.

At first I thought this is a bug, but when I go back and test it in 2020, this behavior was there already.

My guess is these 2 modes only appear for texture with surface hatch.

 

 

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@Shengxi Wu Did you try a simple extrude with a single texture applied?  In your first video you're showing an object with multiple textures which, as it turns out, seems to alleviate at least the specific issue described in my original post.  Given the issues I've had and the long list of issues that @Andy Broomell is experiencing, it seems safe to say that the attributes mapping tool just really isn't working as one would expect it should.  It's a fairly simple tool that does a fairly simple task, at least in terms of user interface (maybe not so much in terms of code writing or engineering or whatever...).

 

Textures, at their core, are simply repeating, or "tiled," images, yes?  (Plus optional shaders, hatches, etc.).  "Non-Repeating Mode" and "Original Repeat Mode" just control whether one tile is displayed, or repeating tiles.  So it doesn't seem like that mode should have anything to do with whether or not there's a surface hatch.  Given that it can take years for bugs to be addressed, I wouldn't assume that a behavior is as it should be simply because it was that way two years ago...

 

In trying to further troubleshoot and confirm your theory, I edited a grass texture and added a surface hatch to it.  But when I re-rendered in Hidden Line, the grass texture previously applied to one surface of an object failed to display the surface hatch.  So I created an extrude and applied the grass texture to that, and the surface hatch showed up fine.  But when I tried to use the attributes mapping tool on that extrude, the interface became pretty nonsensical; the relationship between manipulating the grips and what actually happened with the texture was pretty much non-existent.

 

So I'm quitting now before I can't escape the downward spiral that this is turning into...  Thanks!

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The texture mapping in VW 2022 is so screwed up that I think it is a total re-do. I have a textured object and no matter what I choose (plane, UV, etc.) I get an error saying the Attribute Mapping tool can only be used on objects with textures. My object HAS a texture, but it does not work. This. Is. A. MESS. So is lighting, for that matter. This is what happens when a too-small company used to 24 month major releases goes subscription with the same staff size doing 12 month subscription major releases. The only thing "major" about it is the bugs.

 

MH Brown

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