I’m having trouble saving a new material for unit paving so that it remains fixed in the position I created it in. To help explain here is my “make new material procedure”.
I first model a paver (400 x 400 sq. mm), the same size as the actual paver I photographed. I then open SU Materials > Create new material & load the image, change it’s scale to 400 x 400 mm then apply it to the paver top (same size). Right click the surface > Position Texture to position it fit the paver top exactly > right click > Done.
I then right click > Make Unique Texture & it appears as a new material in Model Materials (thumbnail look fine). BUT, when I apply my new paver material to a paver, it doesn’t line up the same as the one I created. The new material scale & position is different to the one I just created. I’ve tried repeating the “position texture” process & Make Unique again but it doesn’t seem to help. It always seems to be in the wrong position & scaling has reverted back to original image size/orientation. The original image is lined up square when I open it, haven’t tried re-orientating it in photo editor but don’t see why I should have to when I do it in SU.
What am I doing wrong? I’ve created custom materials before & they have worked fine. Just can’t seem to get this one to work.
It is hard to say this would be the answer, but in my experience, “Make Unique Texture” actually positions the origin of the image elsewhere. (bottom left I think) Therefore it won’t line up with the original image.
The materials on each face can be scaled and positioned differently without making them unique or make a duplicate.
I’ve found if I use the eyedropper to sample my new material I can apply it to other areas & it seems to scale & orientate itself. If not quite right, then I can re-position the texture for the new area & then eyedropper sample that one & use it for similar areas.
Is this a bug with “Make Unique Texture” or what. Seems strange that it would do this after going to all the effort of positioning & scaling the image to match your surface when after you “Make Unique” it changes it to elsewhere or wherever. Shouldn’t do that should it. What’s the point? Or am I missing something?
I don’t think there’s any bug with Make Unique Texture. As Joseph indicates, the new unique texture is trimmed to the face it is applied to and it’s new corner would be at the bottom left. Why are you making the unique texture in the first place? I have read your posts several times and I don’t see what reason there’d be for that.
Why? Why not? Isn’t that what it’s for? So you can customize textures/materials. I want to use the actual paver image for the texture on my paver. Simple.
Well, you can use it to make a new material from an existing one but there’s no point in going through all that just to create a texture image from your photograph.
Would you share your paver texture image? I can show you a simpler, more straightforward method of creating the texture.
Yeah, sorry about that. What would be the optimal size? Might be able to set up my camera better.
I’ve learnt it’s kinda tricky taking photos in right light so not to get obvious pattern when replicated as material. Hard to avoid shadows etc. Keep getting told I should get a job shooting weddings by the boys on the site
At the end, the image has been made into a texture exactly the size you specified.
No need to edit the dimensions, no making a unique texture. Just import it, apply it and be done with it. I could have changed the name of the image file before importing it so it would have a useful name but that can be done at the top of the Materials window, too. Just overwrite the original file name with the new name and hit Enter. For something like this you don’t need to click Create Material or anything like that. Of course you can save the new texture into your “Pavers” library if you wish.
I make loads of wood grain materials using this same basic process. Usually it’ll be between 3 and 8 boards from the same log that I’m making textures from so I make rectangles the length of the boards–as many copies as I have images and then just import them. It’s quick and easy
No Photoshop I’m afraid. I use https://pixlr.com/ for background removal for photos, I also have Gimp 2 & Paint.net. Just got to learn how to use them now. Bit like SU
I use and like Paint.net. I had Photoshop but I found I prefer Paint.net because it does everything I need and it opens much faster than PS. One thing you should do is go to Window>Preferences>Applications and set PaintDotNet.exe as the default image editor. You can then quickly open texture images in it directly from SketchUp to edit them. For example if you want pink pavers, right click on the texture’s thumbnail in the In Model library and choose Edit texture image… It’ll open in Paint.net. Adjust the color and save it. Go back to SketchUp and it’ll show as modified. Since I’m always working with wood grain materials, I’ll do things like add a dark stain to white oak to make it look like fumed oak.
Cool. I actually set Paint.net as default image editor in SU at one stage, but found I didn’t know enough about how Paint.net works to do whatever it was I wanted to do. Mine is set for MS Paint mainly just for clipping images & very basic editing. Would like to learn how to use Paint.net better so maybe we can share some tips. Also use http://www.sketchuptextureclub.com/ for good source of seamless textures.
Hey DaveR, just curious, you ever worked with timber from Camphor Laurel (Cinnamomum camphora)? It grows like a weed around here. Just wondering. Makes nice cabinet timber if not too many knots etc. You’d be amazed how much of it gets left to rot on the ground around here. Not viable to mill usually. Dam shame really.
