Dynamic Component Texture Mapping???

wawmsey7

I have a dynamic component whereby the materials for the internal components are driven by a selection (drop down menu) in the main component options dialog. for example different options could be... oak, maple ash, beech etc....

when this is done with a wood texture where grain direction is important the texture just goes onto the components in a standard way (relative to the axis direction presumably). So to make it realistic I want to align the grain correctly but when you go into the component to move, scale or re-align the texture you can't. So the only obvious way is to go into the component and re apply the material to the actual faces... then allowing the texture to be rotated, scaled etc, etc...

however if you do this, then when you want to change the material via the component options dialog it no longer works as the material is over ridden by the material applied to the faces... but the only way to change the texture mapping on the faces is to actually apply the material on the faces rather than the component!

This seems rather daft and makes dynamic components very limited in terms of texture mapping... is there a way around this???

Thanks
Matt

goga63

You must create two materials with different direction of the texture (vertical and horizontal). Also for the drop-down menu (Oak_vert,Oak_hor ...etc)
Then everything will work.

wawmsey7

thanks, found a couple of work arounds now...

To Rotate Texture
you can change the direction by going into the bottom component holding the actual shape, select it all and make that a component, then in the pop up menu that this creates select 'set axis' and then place the axis on the shape and make sure the x axis is where the z axis is on the parent component (or the direction you want the texture to go in). The texture then turns 90 degrees as to how it was. this doesn't affect any of the rules set for the component above!

To Scale Texture
drill down the components to find the geometry, select all, and then scale (in both directions for an even scaling and just in one direction to stretch/squash) this to show the amount of the texture you want to see on the component. Then come out of the component and 'redraw'. This will then return the component to it's correct size whilst showing the same amount of the texture

Just got to work out how to move the texture now... anyone got any ideas??

JQL

Another work around is to apply a checkers material directly to the faces of the component and then delete it from the model. This sets the UV for faces. Now, any material you apply to the component remains correctly UV maped.