Rendering timber beams generated using the Frame Member tool

[inveresk]

The Frame Member tool is useful and one I use a lot but I find a limitation in the rendering, namely that it invariably has the grain at 90 degrees to its natural direction. Is there a way to correct this in VW 2020?

[Luis M Ruiz]

v2022 allows per-face texturing control.  Please check it out.

 

[rDesign]

@inveresk Since you’re on Vw 2020, @Luis M Ruiz’s work-around suggestion to use per-face texturing won’t be an option for you as it was introduced in Vw 2022. (It’s also tedious to manually fix all of the incorrect textures on Framing members, but I digress). 

 

What I did to fix this (prior to 2022), is duplicate the RW texture that is showing incorrectly on the Framing Member (or Cabinet, or Door, etc, etc…). Open up the duplicated RW Texture, Edit the Image and rotate it 90 degrees. Then switch the texture to the rotated one and it will show up correctly.
 

I often have duplicated RW Textures just for this reason, naming one ROT or something related.

 

(For further information, see THIS texture related thread which notes that incorrect texture orientation has been an issue with other PIO’s dating back to at least 2006).

Edited August 6 by rDesign

[Luis M Ruiz]

Correct. For higher quality renderings, we had to create multiple rotated textures or explode the plug in objects into individual faces and then apply only one texture and control the rotation from the info palette.

That’s why latest versions are so welcome by people who create presentations.

3d > texturing > lights > rendering styles > processing > presenting. 
good times are here. 

[DBrown]

So the texturing is still so bad you had yo destroy your plug-in objects to be able to texture them?
What a waste!

[Luis M Ruiz]

Negative. Plug in objects offer a certain degree of texture control. But if what I look for is not available, that does not stop me from finding alternative solutions. 
Most of the times, comissions can’t wait. 

[DBrown]

So in sake of time is better to explode every "parametric" object to texture it properly? like the textures on hardscapes or in slabs? so is better to ungroup the geometries and texture them for the sake of time ? so Vectorworks is another Sketchup?
I'm glad I don't do my renderings in Vectorworks...

 

[Pat Stanford]

In VW2020 if you need to have different textures on different faces you either have to explode the objects or use the Extract tool to create a "fake face" that you can move up a pixel and texture as you see fit.

 

In VW2022 the ability to separately texture faces of objects without having to explode them was added.

[Luis M Ruiz]

Texturing mapping is solved in v2022. Plus the mapping now is applied differently so it helps for better translation between Enscape, Lumion and Twinmotion.

[drelARCH]

On 8/8/2022 at 6:42 PM, Luis M Ruiz said:

Texturing mapping is solved in v2022.

Not in the case of framing member tool though.

 

We were forced to use structural member because of material implementation...but after few projects trying hard to replace framing member with structural one we gave up. Structural member for pitched roof and similar is just hopeless. So workaround now is to have one design layer for framing member version and then one for duplicate - ungrouping f.m. into solids. So, many, many layers to manage... and Then we can have materials with its graphic attributes in section/horizontal section viewports aaaand correctly mapped textures by fixing mapping on solids in render tab.

Not good, Not good at all...

Can we expect some improvements in vw 2023? It is really badly needed.

[DBrown]

The new Beam tool started with a lot of promises, but under delivered and let it to rot, you can even get a proper quantity take of from them, and the texturing is lame.

[inveresk]

Thanks, all. I've updated to version 2022. I've found a work around through rotating the texture. It doesn't permit fine adjustment but for the most part changing direction of grain by 90 degrees helps some.  

 

For quality rendering the frame member tool can't be used to build models. It's otherwise a powerful tool that saves a pile of work, so it's a pity those refinements don't extend to rendering.