sketchucation logo sketchucation
    • Login
    ℹ️ Licensed Extensions | FredoBatch, ElevationProfile, FredoSketch, LayOps, MatSim and Pic2Shape will require license from Sept 1st More Info

    [REQ] Lock texture coordinates

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Plugins
    28 Posts 7 Posters 3.5k Views 7 Watching
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • D Offline
      dacad
      last edited by

      hi guys

      i don't know if this question has been made already but i was wondering if it's possible to lock the texture coordinates in the faces of a mesh? What i mean is for example having a human character modeled in the basic "da vinci" position and i texture it has i want but then i want to start deforming the mesh using the rotate, move or even the ffd plugin but i don't want to each triangular face to lose it's texture position has is it (if the faces change shape the textures in that face keep the same image even if it gest deformed, streteched etc)

      Is this possible? it's incredible important for texturing organic models, even basic ones. and i can't find a workable way in sketchup for this. for my last image ("future of plastic surgery") i had to redo the texture and edit the mesh of the final face model for it to work.
      This is an extremly important request, because i'm running out of tricks and workarounds for this problem 😞

      David

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • D Offline
        dacad
        last edited by

        In this image you can see what i mean. If i deform a textured fece i want the limits of the texture to remain the same for the face even if it deforms, stretch, or shrink the texture. The only way for this to hapen right now is turning every single face os a mesh into a component and just using with the scale tool (that was what i did for this image).
        If the original texture was projected it will remain projected if i strech the face meaning that the face point will move but the texture position won't.

        Hope i'm making myself clear enough...


        Untitled-5.jpg

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • GaieusG Offline
          Gaieus
          last edited by

          Yes, definitely the case is that in SU you don't fix the texture to a particular face (series of faces > surface) but to a certain, hidden co-ordinate system let it be the world co-ordinates or something related to the face (group/components it is inside).

          Gai...

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • D Offline
            dacad
            last edited by

            Thanks for the answer Gaieus.

            A ruby or a sk feature like these is very important because without it we have to texture the mesh everytime we change his form, but if this worked we just have to texture it once and make infinite poses with the mesh while keeping always the same textures position.

            Just for curiosity, no one else thinks this would be usefull or need it for sketchup?

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • GaieusG Offline
              Gaieus
              last edited by

              Of course I think it would be cool.

              From another point of usage imagine that I texture a cylinder with a certain, carved stone pattern and then I bend it with the new Shape bender plugin and all the textures are "stuck" to the geometry and I have a beautifully textured, ribbed arch for a Romanesque or Gothic church.

              So not only "posing" could benefit from something like this. 😉

              Gai...

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • D Offline
                dacad
                last edited by

                Completly agree with you Gaieus.

                Because most architectural stuff i've doing is more "cubic" stuff i almost forgot how usefull that could be for more than organic models. But using shape bender, as you said, would have to make a plugin like these compatible with all other modeling plugins, like a plugin working inside other plugin...don't think this is possible or is it?
                Maybe these shoulde be a sketchup 8 request instead of a ruby request...the problem is i really don't believe if it matters or not what we need for them...😞

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Chris FullmerC Offline
                  Chris Fullmer
                  last edited by

                  I have no idea if something like this is possible in Ruby. Seems like it could be. I've never looked at textures because I rarely use them. But I do see how it would be nice if it worked the way you described in some instances.

                  Chris

                  Lately you've been tan, suspicious for the winter.
                  All my Plugins I've written

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • thomthomT Offline
                    thomthom
                    last edited by

                    @chris fullmer said:

                    I have no idea if something like this is possible in Ruby. Seems like it could be. I've never looked at textures because I rarely use them. But I do see how it would be nice if it worked the way you described in some instances.

                    Chris

                    Problem is: observers. In order for this to work you need to detect when the model changes. And that is a can of blood-thirsty angry spaceworms.

                    What I somewhat imagine a ruby would work: the selected face is set to "lock textures". The ruby then samples the UV coordinates from each vertex (or selected points required). When the geometry changes, the ruby would then reapply the texture co-ordinates.
                    Given the headache I've had with observers and UV mapping I'm not sure if I'd touch this with a 10' stick. ...at least not for now...

                    Possible if it'd be acceptable to have a manual function to readjust the textures; might make things easier.

                    Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                    List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • Chris FullmerC Offline
                      Chris Fullmer
                      last edited by

                      That idea of taking all the UV's and then re-applying them - is that fairly stable? I could incorporate it into shape bender, for eaxmple. So it wouldn't fix the problem outside of shape bender, but at least shape bender would be able to do it. AND I wouldn't have to touch any model observers.

                      Chris

                      Lately you've been tan, suspicious for the winter.
                      All my Plugins I've written

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • thomthomT Offline
                        thomthom
                        last edited by

                        When you set textures in SU you take a set of 3D points and specify some co-ordiates on the texture that should relate to them.

                        ie.
                        point1 -> 0.0, 0.0
                        point2 -> 0.5, 0.0
                        point3 -> 0.5, 0.5

                        If point 1-3 was points in a rectangle face, then that would map the texture to tile half across the face.

                        So, what I imagine, is that applying the same UV co-ordinates to the same points when the points move, should make the texture 'lock'.

                        However, your Bender widget subdivides the mesh. So you'd have to sample the UV mapping after you subdivide, but before you apply the transformations.

                        Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                        List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • Chris FullmerC Offline
                          Chris Fullmer
                          last edited by

                          Interesting, thats something I'll look into the next release of shape bender.

                          Chris

                          Lately you've been tan, suspicious for the winter.
                          All my Plugins I've written

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • GaieusG Offline
                            Gaieus
                            last edited by

                            I'm listening guys, I'm listening... 😳

                            (BTW Thom; this is one aspect I mentioned before)

                            Gai...

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • D Offline
                              dacad
                              last edited by

                              Thanks for the explanation thomthom and Chris Fullmer.

                              I was hoping it would be possible but that's too bad...😞. Even if it were updated manually as thom said it would still be great because i think most people would just want the textured model for the final image and not while modeling, posing or whatever, it wouldn't work just for animations.

                              I'm starting to see ruby as a way for sketchup developers don't work to much...

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • thomthomT Offline
                                thomthom
                                last edited by

                                I might be possible. It's just not very easy to do. At least not automatically. UV mapping is one of the areas in SU scripting that currently feel like a bit of black magic.

                                @unknownuser said:

                                I'm starting to see ruby as a way for sketchup developers don't work to much...

                                ❓

                                Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                                List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • D Offline
                                  dacad
                                  last edited by

                                  I mean that since ruby was introduced it was at the beggining a great way to add specific functions and automatize some actions, and then turn into part of sketchup develpment itself (every "new" stuff that it's presented it's a ruby plugin like DCs and sandbox, and this brings a dated engine to his knees) and the only hope to solve bugs and limitations of the software (we need a plugin to work as follow me was supost to, or just to draw a basic curve shape...) without google having to do nothing (the users work for advance features and solving bugs in the tools instead of the developers).

                                  Keep in mind that we don't have any new modeling tool, animation tool or mapping/texture tool since follow me and sandbox in sketchup 4-5...but i believe that this develpment path was more a marketing decision then a development one, but still a (very) bad marketing decision

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • D Offline
                                    dacad
                                    last edited by

                                    But back to topic, maybe the best way for this need is to export the mesh to other 3d package texture it there and import it again to set up the final scene, but the big problem here is that importers have big problems with keeping the textures in place with uvwarping or big meshs...But is there any better way to do this??

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • D Offline
                                      dacad
                                      last edited by

                                      thanks thomthom.
                                      That's what i suspected. with so many software i use to each task, i'm starting to mix up shortcuts keys lolol.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • thomthomT Offline
                                        thomthom
                                        last edited by

                                        A different application might be the way to go at the moment. SU isn't very ideal for rigging. And I'm a believer of using the right tool for the right job. I think that SU might not be the right tool for this.

                                        Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                                        List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • W Offline
                                          Whaat
                                          last edited by

                                          Here are some methods to load and save UV sets. If someone wants to use them to create a 'lock texture' plugin, that's fine with me. 😄

                                          def store_uvs(ents,uvset)
                                          
                                          face=0
                                          case uvset
                                          	when 0
                                          		key="uv0"
                                          	when 1
                                          		key="uv1"
                                          	when 2
                                          		key="uv2"
                                          	when 3
                                          		key="uv3"
                                          end
                                          
                                          Sketchup.active_model.start_operation "Save UV set"
                                          
                                          for e in ents
                                          	
                                          	if (e.valid?) and (e.class==Sketchup;;Face)
                                          		
                                          		polymesh=e.mesh 5
                                          		uvs=polymesh.uvs 5
                                          		for i in (0..uvs.length-1)
                                          			uvs[i]=uvs[i].to_a  #converts the Point 3D objects to arrays so they won't be transformed
                                          		end
                                          		e.set_attribute 'uvs',key,uvs
                                          	
                                          	face=face+1
                                          	Sketchup.set_status_text("Stored uvs for #{face} faces.")
                                          	end
                                          		
                                          end
                                          
                                          UI.messagebox "UVs saved for #{face} faces."
                                          
                                          Sketchup.active_model.commit_operation
                                          
                                          end #function
                                          
                                          ###################position a texture on a material from a stored UV set
                                          def position_map(entities,set)
                                          
                                          face=0
                                          failed=0
                                          return if set=="SU"  
                                          key="uv"+set.to_s
                                          p "positioning map"
                                          p entities
                                          for e in entities
                                          	p e
                                          	if (e.valid?) and (e.class==Sketchup;;Face)
                                          		
                                          		uvs=e.get_attribute 'uvs',key    #gets the stored array of uv coordinates for this face for the given uv set
                                          		p uvs
                                          		if uvs
                                          			pos=[]
                                          			polymesh=e.mesh 5   #get a polygon mesh representation of the face
                                          			polygons=polymesh.polygons  
                                          			poly_index=0
                                          			begin
                                          				for p in polygons[poly_index]
                                          					point=polymesh.point_at(p.abs)
                                          					if point
                                          						pos.push(point) 
                                          						pos.push(uvs[p.abs-1])
                                          					end
                                          				end
                                          
                                          				e.position_material e.material, pos, true
                                          				face=face+1
                                          				Sketchup.set_status_text("Loaded uvs for #{face} faces")
                                          			rescue  #this is required because SketchUp sometimes fails to position the texture properly
                                          				poly_index=poly_index+1
                                          				if polygons[poly_index]
                                          					pos=[]
                                          					retry  #try to postion texture again using next polygon in the face
                                          				else
                                          					failed=failed+1
                                          				end
                                          			end
                                          	
                                          			
                                          		end
                                          	end
                                          end
                                          
                                          if failed>0
                                          	stext="Unable to load
                                          	UVs for #{failed} faces.  Loaded UVs for #{face} faces."
                                          else
                                          	stext="Loaded UVs for #{face} faces."
                                          end
                                          
                                          #UI.messagebox (stext)
                                          
                                          
                                          end  #end position map
                                          

                                          SketchUp Plugins for Professionals

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • D Offline
                                            dacad
                                            last edited by

                                            WOW, thanks Whaat. Has always you're great!:)
                                            My knowledge in ruby is very limited so can anyone help with this? (or change the name of this topic to "[Request]Lock texture coordinates")
                                            Thanks in advance

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • 1
                                            • 2
                                            • 1 / 2
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Buy SketchPlus
                                            Buy SUbD
                                            Buy WrapR
                                            Buy eBook
                                            Buy Modelur
                                            Buy Vertex Tools
                                            Buy SketchCuisine
                                            Buy FormFonts

                                            Advertisement