Lines as Textures

Matte · 30 Nov 2010, 18:16

Hi All,
Does anyone know where to find line drawings of different "textures"? Wood Grain for example?

I do a lot of output to CAD in a hidden line mode. As you know SU exports nice 2D drawings of ISO, Plan and elevation views. But applied images are not visable. I made a rectangle with lines creating squares for tile and a group with a dashed door swing symbol. I just insert it and scale it to the area it needs to occupy for the desired need.

It would be nice to input things like wood grain to "roughly" simulate location and direction. I can place it over the desired area and just stretch the group over the desired area?

Thanks, Matte

TIG · 30 Nov 2010, 19:48

@matte said:

Hi All,
Does anyone know where to find line drawings of different "textures"? Wood Grain for example?

I do a lot of output to CAD in a hidden line mode. As you know SU exports nice 2D drawings of ISO, Plan and elevation views. But applied images are not visable. I made a rectangle with lines creating squares for tile and a group with a dashed door swing symbol. I just insert it and scale it to the area it needs to occupy for the desired need.

It would be nice to input things like wood grain to "roughly" simulate location and direction. I can place it over the desired area and just stretch the group over the desired area?

Thanks, Matte

If you find my '2Dtools' [do a forum search for the latest download]... they include a '2dHatching' tool that accesses a load of 'line' based hatch patterns [jpg files], that are based on common CAD .pat files.
You run the tool and select the pattern by right-click for menu to set [/change current pattern - default is 'solid' black] and then pick the faces that you want to have that material.
You can even add you own .jpg images to its folder [they need to 'tile' repeat], to extend the set if needed...

Matte · 30 Nov 2010, 23:12

Thanks TIG,
Almost had it working, just lost the selection list, I'll give it another shot this evening, Thanks Again for your help.
Matte

Matte · 30 Nov 2010, 23:23

I just figired it out, it's just a texture to apply with the paint bucket, can't see it whild in hidden mode. Unfortunatly I made my post backwards... I need to actually make "textures into lines" instead. When I go to Hidden mode to export 2D lines to CAD Iso and Elev's all images disapear as they should.
Matte

TIG · 1 Dec 2010, 08:58

SO what you are saying is, "Is there a way to turn textures into lines?"
Unfortunately no!
It would be good to be able to take an image and 'vectorize' it.
There is no solution within SUp or the Ruby API.
I a way you want the next step in
Image >explode> Texture
as
Texture >explode> Lines

Matte · 1 Dec 2010, 18:09

Yes,
Thanks for saving me lots of fruitless searching. I guess I'll have to start tracing some lines over the top a few images, or explode a ACAD hatch pattern and import it into SU in a group. And save as a compoment for future use.
Thanks Again,
Matte

Matte · 17 Dec 2010, 01:18

Hi All,
I am trying to figure out if there is a way to somehow "paste" a set of line patterns onto a surface like we do images?
I would like take the lines I made by tracing over a texture or (Imported exploded ACAD Hatch) and apply a set of wood grain line paterns to show size and direction the grain goes on each piece of wood in the scene? TIGS 2Dline tools does the visual very well, but its an image. So If I export it out to ACAD the image stays behind? Does anyone have any ideas if this is possable?
Thanks,
Matte

Dave R · 17 Dec 2010, 10:54

I suppose you could make a component of the lines you have drawn. Make it so the component will glue to any surface to make it easier to apply. After you've moved and rotated the component where you need it, you could open it for editing and trim the lines to the edges of the face or you could explode the component so it becomes part of the surface and then trim the texture lines off at the edges of the face.

It seems like this would be an awful lot of work. Wouldn't it be easier to just apply the hatching in ACAD instead?

Matte · 17 Dec 2010, 15:00

Thanks Dave,
Yes, you are right, I think the best method is to use TIGs 2D tools for SU Outputs. And reapply a hatch patern to each area when it is in ACAD. I think that is the best meathod.
Thanks again for your advice!
Matte

Dave R · 17 Dec 2010, 15:41

I hope it works alright for you that way. I think it would save you a lot of time and it will certainly help you keep the file size down.

I don't know enough about ACAD but is there a way to automatically apply hatchings based on some parameters?