Different textures to multitude of identical surfaces?

bzzingboris

Hi Guys,

First post here - glad to join the community!

In my latest Sketchup project, I am building a textured honeycomb (hexagon pattern) mesh. The idea is to make a hexagon pattern on a plane, apply different textures to each of the hexagons that comprise it, and then warp the whole thing into a cool 'topographical'-style shape.

To use as the textures, I have created an array of identically-shaped, hexagonal PNG images (using transparency). The problem is that applying the textures one by one to the hexagon surfaces and having to adjust each one to fit the surface correctly will be incredibly time consuming, considering there are going to be 100+ surfaces.

Do you guys have any ideas on how I can apply the textures in a quicker manner, at least not having to manually adjust each image on each hexagon?

Thanks for you help!

Garry K

Could you please show us some of these images and what your honycomb model looks like.

bzzingboris

Hi Garry,

I am attaching:

an example of the flat hexagon pattern (the textures here are repeated whereas the final version should have a different product photo in each hexagon)
a rough version of what the final 3D textured hexagon mesh result is intended to look like (once again, the final result should have different product shots in each of the hexagons)

So basically the problem I am trying to tackle is having to manually apply and adjust a texture for each of those hexagons, which would take many hours.

I am of course open to any suggestions to alternative methods of achieving a similar result.

Thanks,
Boris

Textured Hexagon Pattern

3D textured hexagon mesh

TIG

A scripted solution would be along the lines of...

Make a folder of images [all the same size].
Choose and read in all of the image files' names in there into an array [images].
Find the 'default' textured-material you have used.
Let's assume it's named 'Mat1'
Make an array of all faces that use that material.

Process each of: faces[0..-1]
For each face create a new material based on the values of 'Mat1', incrementing its name to 'Mat2' etc.
But change the texture image file for that material to the equivalent one in the array 'images' - perhaps using a random factor in the selection process, whilst ensuring no image is reused.

When you are done, you should have generated dozens of new materials, with each one using an image file from your folder, and applied to one face...

pilou

I will subdivide the hexagon volume module
then
With ThruPaint you can accelerate the each retouch of module!
(Uniform scale from a clicked point) one by one
Not a big deal to make 200 clicks if result is absolutly wanted!

PS And why not deform the first plan textured ?

bzzingboris

TIG, that sounds like a the type of solution I would be looking for, although I was hoping there was an existing plugin that does something similar It does seem like good practice for some scripting though, so I will definitely give it a shot in the coming 2-3 weeks (I am pretty basic at scripting as well, so it will take me quite a bit of time)!

Pilou, I am not sure I understand. My problem would be that I would not only have to apply each of the 200 different textures (not repeated as in my example screenshots), but also adjust them to fit perfectly within the hexagons. Could ThruPaint help with that as well? From what I gather from the descriptions I read, it doesnt really have functionality for this purpose?