Creating a stainless steel wire

Extending SketchUp V-Ray for SketchUp
1

I would like to create a realistic looking stainless steel wire.

My preference would be to apply a V-ray material to a rod I have created rather than create a complicated twisted wire model.

Has anyone done thi? or is there an simple extension for creating the wire?

2

Hello Mike

A v-ray material may be the handy way to go.
You can search “rope texture maps” on google and use it as displacement on v-ray.

or as u said… u can model it using follow me rotate extension (works up to SU16)
or… use my very own extension :upside_down_face: called Tax Engineering | SketchUcation .

It has a feature called “follow rotate scale” witch needs a profile (rope section in this case) and a path to follow.

Hope it helps you,
cya

3

Thanks, much appreciated, I will check out the options

4

Still struggling to work this out, I’m not very capable in this area yet

5

What exactly are you still struggling with?

Create a seamless texture and use it as BUMP/DISP

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6

That’s a great result. Would you be able to upload that material so I can see exactly how you created it. I cant seem to follow the information you posted. My thoughts are that my experience with V-Ray Materials and skill set in this area are letting me down

7

Steps:

  • Google search for the seamless texture

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  • or create your own in Gimp, Affinity Photo, Photoshop, etc.

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  • with Materialize create HEIG, NORM, BUMP, etc… textures

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  • choose one of the default V-Ray metal texture and apply it to the model

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  • change the Binding texture wih the new one you created

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  • use Fredo ThruPaint to correct the applied texture

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  • add Displacement geometry in V-Ray to the group

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  • you can remove the texture from inside the cylinder, it is not visible anyway

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  • render the model

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You also can add a Dome Light for better illumination and reflection.

5 Likes