Project texture issues on complex shape

[discotroll]

Hi all -

I don't know if I'm trying to push Sketchup beyond its comfort zone or whether there is a solution to the problem I have encountered.

I am trying to project a texture onto a basic model of a spitfire. This model has been imported as a .3ds file and looks to be a nice stable import but it doesn't seem to take a projected texture very well. The texture only seems to fill 3 or 4 adjoining sections at a time before 'jumping' to a completely different part of the image file that I have used. Everything is fine when I project the texture on to a simple cone created in Sketchup.

So... I guess it's a case of asking if the model needs to be very simple to work with projected textures, if imported .3ds files don't like to take projected textures or (hopefully) there is a work-round or I'm not doing something correctly.

All suggestions would be gratefully received!

DT

[Alan Fraser]

It must be some issue with the mesh itself, or it might be that you are attempting to project onto an entire group or component (in component paint mode) rather than onto the raw mesh faces. You need to be in group/component edit mode or explode the mesh after sampling the source texture.
As far as i know, there is no complexity problem with projection. I've projected horizontally onto animals quite a few times with no problem...and they're pretty complex.

[discotroll]

Ahhh - I'm there now - thanks for the help, though I'm still a little unclear as to how I managed to get it all working!! The finished results are certainly making it worth the effort of sticking with it, though.....