tablecloth_drape_problem.zip (7.9 MB)
Maybe I don’t understand the drape tool, but I would like to for example, drape a texture onto a surface, as in this model here in which I have a tablecloth and a picture of an old parchment.
I tried the drape and it said to me:
“you must first select the contours you wish to use to create the sandbox before using this tool”
I searched around to try and interpret that message and watched some videos, but I still don’t get it.
I found a plugin that will create contours on a surface, so I tried that.
I click on the contours, click on the drape tool, click on the texture and nothing happens.
I’ve attached a sketchup file with the tablecloth and the texture.
Sandbox Tools and Drape are for working with 3D geometry and edges, they do not function with materials. If you are looking to apply that material to the surface below you would right click on the upper surface and choose Texture, then select Projected to set the material to be projected onto anything behind it (in this case beneath it). Then choose the paint tool and use the modifier key to use the eye dropper sampling tool and sample the projected surface by clicking on it. Then, with that projected surface loaded in the paint bucket release the modifier key and paint onto the surface you want to paint. Sometimes the UV mapping gets confused with a complex smoothed surfaces like this. It may be necessary to turn on hidden geometry and re apply the paint a second time to any of the individual selected surfaces that get misinterpreted the first time. I toggle on hidden geometry, select all, and paint one facet that needed it.
You might find Clothworks from Sketchucation to be useful for this sort of thing. You could then drape the flat textured shape onto a piece of furniture like dropping a piece of cloth onto it. Here’s a quick example.
Are you opening the group/component for editing? In order to get Texture in the context menu the material must be applied to a single face and you must right click on the face. If the material is on a face in a group or component, you must first open the group or component to access the face.
