Applying an image texture to several faces - beware:new user

Gaieus

...The edges that cause me trouble are the "hard" ones, those that come as a solid, non-dotted line when in Show Hidden Geometry mode...

You can always soften any edge by first teriple clicking on ("raw" or "loose" geometry - thus selecting all of it) or by "simple" clicking on groups/components and then Right click > Soften/smooth edges > and by adjusting the slider in the dialog, get those "hard edges" disappear.

Also, use the Eraser tool with the Ctrl key to soften edges (like with the Shift key to "simply" hide them)

xrok1

@unknownuser said:

Also, use the Eraser tool with the Ctrl key to soften edges (like with the Shift key to "simply" hide them)

i always forget about that, need a SU tattoo on my arm with all the tricks

Gaieus

Here is the "Quick reference card" (a one-page pdf manual) about all the tools and their mod keys for Windows and the Mac.

xrok1

it also tells you the modifier keys in the status bar when a tool is selected, after a while you forget to look though.

Gaieus

Yes, exactly.

zhenghe

Sorry for the delay, been with other things at work... I'm afraid I'm stuck with the same trouble, even now I'm done with hard edges and only have smooth ones. I thought I better attach the example of where I'm now. I have a curved surface but I cannot apply the texture image in one piece. Any thoughts on what the problem may be? I promise I applied the steps several times in the correct order...

The file with the curved surface

Gaieus

Is this how you would like it to look?

If so, I did the positioning exactly like described above (stating at one end of the curve)

Note that the image is not the best quality/resolution...

upload.skp

zhenghe

Thanks, but in fact, it's the other way around... It's vynil sticked on a plastic surface all along. The problem is that now I cannot edit the "global" texture orientation. How did you did it?

Gaieus

This way then?

(It's kind of hard to keep guessing...)

Note that you always have to start with scaling your imported image for further use.

zhenghe

No, thanks a lot for the trouble you're getting in to, but it's not that way. I think the image is scaled allright. It's an image of 250 x 49 cm, that runs all along the curved surface. The motto "A Coruña", should be read only once, in horizontal, if you orbited around the element. I hope I made myself clear (my English is quite limited, too, I think it shows) this time. Please ask me to go into any further clarifications if needed. Thanks again

Gaieus

That surface is lomger than the image just running along once (unless you distort it considerably)

Here is one where it is horizontal:

The length of that curved surface is 2372 mm while the height is 271. So what I did now was that I made a single plane with the exact dimensions like this, positioned the texture onto it so that it fits on it exactly (and doesn't repeat)

Now made this texture unique (right click menu again) and then appled it to the curved surface. Here is the result:

And the skippy (if you don't use the original texture any more, you'd better delete it from the model so that it won't affect file size)

upload.skp

numbthumb

OK Gaieus, I am obviously DUMBthumb, but could you please tell me the difference between what you´ve been so patiently doing here and this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHsRRLCAOm8 ?
It´s not that I am pretending to be smart, I just don´t fully understand this.

Gaieus

In that video, Aidan is "projecting" an image on that curved surface while I "wrapped" it around.

The difference is mainly obvious in the result when you need to get the image around a very curvy surface as the projection method he uses there will distort the image when you get to the "side" of the surface (where the surface is already kind of parallel with the direction of the projection). In this case you need to wrap the image around rather than project it.

Read about the differences at the bottom(ish) of this SU Guide article (this is the Windows verion but it's essentially the same with both versions):
http://download.sketchup.com/sketchuphelp/gsu6_win/Content/D-Modification_Tools/ModTool-PositionTexture.htm

numbthumb

OK, thanks for the explanation.

Gaieus

Unfortunately this "wrapping" method doesn't always work flawlessly. You apply the image on the very first facet (have hidden geometry ON) and position it to your needs.

Now if you sample this positioned material, turn hidden geometry OFF and apply it on the curved surface, it should wrap around without any problem but that's not always the case.

If it gets screwed, you need to turn hidden geometry on again and start sampling and painting the facets one by one hoping that after a while, when you already hate it enough and turn hidden geometry off again and try to apply the material to the rest of the surface, it will work.

zhenghe

Thanks a lot for the work, boys, and for your patience. I'll relate step-by-step my doings, so you could put your finger on my mistake:

In the upload.skp I uploaded previously, I created a flat plane with the exact measures the element should have, which are, according to my driving dimensions, 490,3 (the old measure was a mistake on my part, sorry) x 2372 mm. Then I created a unique texture from it (it gives me different measures for the size of the image in the unique texture, but I hope that's not the problem).
Then I scale the curve element to fit that dimensions.
Toggle on Hidden Geometry, select one face, apply the unique texture. Texture > Position (I do not just enter here, it may be relevant, as I have to reposition the image), and then I select with the dropper this applied texture. Toggle off Hidden Geometry, and apply the texture.

My results are in the file, I'm afraid I made a mistake somewhere, but I can't find it...

upload3.skp

numbthumb

Darn it, I would really like to see some kind of 3D mesh painting tool inside SketchUp...

Gaieus

Yes, practically that should do it but I see you have it screwed up just like I described above. In this case, you cannot do anything but start sampling and painting each facet one by one.

zhenghe

We'll have to try that anyway, I'd preferred it was a error on my side
Thanks a lot for the great help, I'll keep you posted of my progess with sketchup!

Gaieus

As with mostly everything, the best is to try it out on a bit simpler model (less "irregular" curved face, less segments etc.) but then I also understand that once you are doing it, you wish to do it on a "real" model, real challenge.