I downloaded this component from the 3DW. I then rotated it off axis. I opened the component for edit and added textures. Now, when going back to edit, on some faces when clicked and selected the texture option is available, others the texture option is not shown. I then exploded the component thinking that would solve the strange behavior, it did not.
Any suggestions on what may be causing this strange behavior? I have successfully applied textures to other components without this behavior. Would like to know if I am doing something wrong.
Joist-No-Texture.skp (564.0 KB)
The faces you can’t edit do not have a texture applied, it’s just a solid color which can’t be positioned or scaled because… it’s a solid color.
The warehouse item was sloppily made, or has been damaged. Invoke the paint tool and press command to modify it to the eye dropper, sample the wood texture from one of the other sides that has it and then paint it onto the surface that only has a color.
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Thanks for the explanation. If I run into this again, is there a way to remove the color and reset it back to default?
Ok, so I can apply the default color with the paint bucket tool, I just discovered.
Does a face only have one color or material? For instance, when I paint the texture over the color, do I then have two layers?
Is the term material the same as texture?
Ok, my process for applying materials always starts with opening the group/component for editing and then applying the material to each face. Should I not be doing this?
If you mean the default absence of color that every new object is created in then yes. You can “paint” with the default color by selecting it from the colors in model swatch set in the material picker.
If you mean can you get back to some previous texture that had been applied in the past, apart from the undo command if you catch it soon enough no. Surfaces do not retain a “memory” of all the colors of textures they have ever been painted. You can however just sample the texture you want from somewhere else and re apply it if it’s still in your model.
Surfaces have only one texture or color (on one side), all referred to as materials.
If you exploded some components or groups, that might have been the source of your confusion, materials behave differently if they are painted on the outside or the inside of a group or component.
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Happy to answer any questions, but reply to the thread with a new post instead of editing an older post, or I might not see the new question.
It might be useful for you to explore leveraging the properties of groups and components in relation to materials. In short, a material applied to a surface on the inside of a component will override any color applied to the outside. So if you make a fresh component with the default material (or lack of material) and apply the paint bucket to the component, you will color the entire component in one click. Because all the surfaces inside the component do not have a material on them within the component they will continue to accept any color you put on the outside of the component.
If you open the component and paint a particular surface with a material, it will override anything applied to the outside of the container. This is particularly useful in situations where you want some part of the component to retain a particular color while being able to change the rest of the surfaces in one click. For example if you made a car you would paint the “glass” material on the window surfaces inside the component and leave the rest default, then from the outside you could change the cars color to whatever you wanted in one click without disturbing the glass.
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Ok, sorry for not creating additional posts. Just being lazy.
Thanks for the thorough explanation. I thought I had taken advantage of every training course, but I guess I missed the one on materials. Although I have been using materials constantly.
I have been going to a lot of extra work when editing and then applying materials to each face. I now see that applying to the outside will work in most of my situations. And in those rare cases when I need to fix the material I can apply on the inside.
You mentioned the explode tool causing issues. Could you elaborate please?
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No apology necessary just a tip.
It’s worth noting that since a material is applied globally to the outside of a container, that is to every surface, you cannot right click and edit or move a texture around on a face. So if you want to apply specific textures and then scale or position them on a face you will need to paint the surface inside the component.
This might lead to some confusion when exploding. Say you painted a component on the outside with that nice wood material you were using in the first post. The whole thing takes the wood grain in one click, so far so good. But then one side does not look quite right, you want to scale the material a little and position it, you right click on the component, no option for texture. You open the component and select one face, right click, still no option for texture (because the material is on the outside, and the inside face is actually default).
If you explode the component, the materials applied to the outside, resolve onto each individual surface and suddenly the option to edit a texture reappears, because that texture is now applied directly to the surface.
A way around this is to open the container of the group/component, go to the surface you want to edit and sample the texture on it then immediately re-apply it, thereby moving the material from the outside to the inside now you can right click and edit. There is also “make unique texture” which allows other options.
It can get confusing, generally I use the outside for all solid colors and often need to paint the surfaces inside a component for textures that I want to be able to position precisely on each face.
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In the past, when I could not get the “texture” menu, I exploded the component, and then it magically appeared. Now I understand why, thank you.
This component is representative of where I would get into trouble using explode. This component has nested components and groups. And the downside of exploding a component in a model with many copies, is the loss of inheritance.
Thank you so much for spending your time and effort on this matter, this has been very beneficial to me. Hopefully this series of posts will help others as well.
And this work around is now posted on my desk:
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