Modelling Roof Slates
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Having watched a YouTube video on how roof slates are historically laid, as an occasional SU user of intermediate skill level, I tried to model something similar. Most of the roof plugins fall short of giving an option of creating an outer/ upper surface for the roof which is OK if you just want to paint a texture to represent tiles or slates. However I want a section generated to show how the slates / tiles are fixed to the battens as in the illustration.
My workflow was to create the roof using [Plugin] Roof.rb by TIG. The rafters and battens modelled by 1001 bit tools. I tried to use SDM Floor Generator (in Brick Pattern mode) to model the slates, creating individual groups for each and then using [Plugin] Groups to Components by Thomthom to convert them to components. This was to ensure that any small rotation applied to one to account of the overlapping) would be applied to all. This method produced reasonable results but far from perfect. I wonder does anybody have a better approach? Or know of any other extensions that may help? The main aim being a method to create a roof that a section will show correctly the various elements that make up the roof.
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First thoughts. I would use components as you did and I would set the geomtry at an angle to the component's axes so the slate is angled up to ride on the slate below. I would give the component gluing properties so it could be placed on the roof no matter what the pitch. I would probably also locate the component's origin at maybe the top left corner of the slate to make it easier to position. You'd have slate components in several different widths so you can pick and choose a little as well as having half slates for the ends of the courses.
After getting the slates positioned you might consider making some unique copies that could get a slightly different color and then randomly select some of the slates on the roof to replace with the different colored ones to provide a bit of variation. A lot easier to use a material but you can do it.
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@Dave R- thanks for that advise -I had neglected the gluing option.
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