CADustin

1 hour ago, ComputerMaster86 said:

@CADustinWhat is the best practice if your trying to generate a texture with the tile builder and you want the tiles to be a specific size let's say a single rectangle tile 4" X 8"?  Sorry if someone has asked this before.

Happy to help, Lance...

We get to play the "count the tile" game to get our scale.

If you want 4"x8" tile, then you need to count the number of tiles on the image, vertical or horizontal. 

-The 2:1 tile option in the builder has 12 tiles going across the image.

-If we want 8" wide tile the math would be 8 (inches) x 12 (tiles) = 96 would be your Chief Scale

The image is square so we can skip the vertical scale math but if you want to do it anyway it'd be...

-4 (inches) x 24 (tiles) =96"

Everything in the tile builder is square so you just need one value so for example if I was making a picket tile, I'd just count the vertical count since it's easier to count (6 vs 16) and I'd know that the horizontal scale is the same.  If you are making materials from images you got from snippets or online, they might not be square and you'd have to count both horizontal and vertical.

The best place I've found to "count the tile" is just in the adjust material dialog, I'm working on hopefully adding a field in the future where you can just input the width of the tile and it'll autoscale the material for you but it's not quite ready yet.

Substance Update

Hey gang, been a while but there’s new tile, wood, and masonry builder files available today.  Nothing crazy big to report yet but a lot of under the hood fixes and some Quality of life fixes.
 

-Unified things like offsets, image inputs, color sliders, etc across the three builders where applicable.

         -Offsets now have a dropdown for No Offset, 1/3, ½, ¼, or custom.  These offsets are classic “Back and forth” offsets while the custom is the old slider that does the stair-step offsets.

         -Offset dropdowns should only appear when the layouts are offset-able.  Hex layouts, for example, cannot be offset so the dropdown does not appear.

-Image Inputs now have unified text to better convey what’s going on with color.  These two options should hide all “dead” color related sliders while some sliders that people have asked for should still be active.  If you can see it, it should work.

Image Input – Adjustable Color

                 Image Input – Image Color Only

         -Image Inputs now have a dropdown to make seamed images seamless, this dropdown only appears when you select an image input.  It’s not perfect (it blurs and blends the edges together) but it looks pretty decent on most images I’ve tested with.  Should save you a few trips to the image editor.  It still needs a large uninterrupted “slab” of material to slice up, but you should be able to grab screengrabs of wood or stone or whatever and tile it nicely.

                 Source Image Edge Edit

                                  -Keep Original

                                  -Make Seamless

         -Wood Builder got a stain color selector finally, also paired with a “Stain amount” slider to help dial the color in to your liking.

         -A few usability fixes that are prepping for future bigger updates.

Have fun guys.

Happy to help...

There's two ways to do this, the first is to reinstall the substance player and to make sure the Substance File Associations are on...

This is the bottom checkbox, this will let you double click the tile builder file and it'll open in  substance player.

The other method is to just open the substance player after you install it and "Open" the tile builder from there...

Let me know if either of these don't work for you.

Would love to help...

If I understood correctly, you downloaded the newest substance player here...

https://helpx.adobe.com/substance-3d-player/home.html

And tried to open the tile builder on the first post of this thread and it didn't work?

Is there an error message or are you just not seeing any tile?

Looks great!

Most of the time, this issue is just caused by being logged out of Chief.

If anyone ever can't bring down these files and they are logged in, feel free to message me and I'll get it checked out.

I'll get it on the TODO list.

Should be an easy Add.

Hey Melissa, for your scale you'll want the "3:1 Tile" in substance player to match ratios to your 3"x9" Target.

Once in Chief, we'll need to count the number of tiles in the image we got from substance player and do a little math to get the Scale in Chief.
Number of horizontal tiles x Width of Actual Tile = Chief Scale
 

So for this example we have...

8 tiles across the 3:1 tile layout x 9" wide tile.  Scale for the material in Chief should be 72".

Because the image is square, the vertical scale value will be the same.

Let me know if this helps at all.

I just added a stamped tin folder to core in X16 in the last update.

I know you said you were on X13, but it's there waiting for you if you ever make the jump to X16+.  One thing you can also try is just adding a normal map of any pattern you want onto a tin metal material.  Just poking around on Google, you can find some decent looking stuff and apply it to a metal material in Chief, See image.

10 hours ago, Chopsaw said:

 

Pretty sure that is a known limitation with STL files Dustin.

 

"STL file format cannot store additional information such as color, material, facets, or triangles. It only stores information about the vertices and the normal vector. If you want to use multiple colors or materials for your prints, then the STL file format is not the right choice."

Hey Chopsaw!  Good catch.

Yeah, I kinda vaguely remember STLs not carrying material data but sorta hoped SolidWorks has some other export options that can carry it or had some sort of clever system in place that Chief can read.  Either way, mats need to be assigned for Chief to break an import into material layers.  I've never dabbled in SolidWorks, I'm pretty curious about it though.

Chief works with material layers when importing, so when you make something to import you need to apply materials for where you want chief to see them before you export.

I'm not familiar with SolidWorks workflow but in 3ds max I need to make a specific material for the cab, countertop, hardware, etc.  I then need to apply the materials to the correct locations on the model then export/import should show the material layers in Chief.

I'll dig into SolidWorks tomorrow morning if this is still kinda confusing and help out more.  Also, if you post your model I can show you how I do it in 3ds Max if that helps at all.

9 hours ago, NeilofOZ said:

Have imported a tile Image, but getting no where with use of this material.

Have seen a video many times, but it does not make it clear on info required, I can the fill the chosen area wirh the image but only as a single image, not as tiles.  

Have attached 3 pics showing location ( Entry ) and screen shots of Pattern/Texure, tiles are 600 x 600.

Hey Neil, looks like you have your "Scale" in the texture Panel set to 0mm on both the X and the Y.  Scale is the size Chief makes the material show as before it repeats on itself and setting it to 0 makes it behave as if "Stretch to Fit" was active so your single tile is being stretched to fit the surface you apply it to.

Try setting the "Scale" to be the dimensions you'd like the single tile to be and see what you get, if that's still not working let me know and we can try some more solutions.

Yup yup!  Thanks for the heads up KBird.  All the files should be on the first post of the thread.

For the tile builder, you're looking for...

Chief_Architect_Tile_Builder.sbsar  

If you see it and it says "Unavaiable" then you need to sign into ChiefTalk to enable file download.

If you still can't find it, let me know and I'll investigate further.

Glad to hear you use it, a brick builder is very much on my list of things to get done.  The second I get a manufacturer catalog or a material update with brick assigned to me, I'll flesh one out and get it posted.

Yeah, the image input takes the image you give it and slices it up into the tile layout you select.  I'm unable to make it remove the grout or add more surface area though so your best bet is to either find a better continuous image (counter tops work great for this kind of stuff) or edit the image via photoshop or something else to take out the grout.

I'll also add "Terrazo Material" type to the todo list for next time.

On 6/13/2023 at 12:35 PM, chiefusercheri said:

Hello! Today I started using Substance Player for the first time and I am needing assistance on importing tile images'. I understand how to upload a screen shot of the specific tile from the internet but once I upload the image, it does not project onto the tile. I need help understanding how to do this or a suggestion of another option to use for uploading exact tile images' from the internet. In this case, I am trying to create a simple 12"x24" tile pattern with an 1/2 offset. The tile that I need to this with is exact and I must resemble the exact tile. Online, there are no images of the tile being displayed in this pattern so that option is out. Please help!! 

 

Thank you 

Morning gang!

Today an update went out for the Tile Builder that should fix this.  Get the latest tile builder from the Substance Player thread and use the new ~Image Input RAW Material Type instead of the old ~Image Input.  This should maintain your image color at the cost of using the color picker and inverter (which we don't want for this.)  If you do find that you need more color controls, the old ~Image Input option still functions the same way.

Hope this helps!

Small update to the tile builder, gang.  You can get latest at the top of this thread, as per usual.

-Added a new material selection "~Image Input RAW" that bypasses the color picker so you get the true color of whatever image you drop in.

-All controls should work with this material type normally EXCEPT the color picker and the inverter control.

-Feel free to post any problems you find here or e-mail me at dustin@chiefarchitect.com, this update is small but it has a lot of capability to get into a weird state.  I think I got most of the oddballs but just in case, don't be shy if you find anything that needs fixin'.

-Also tinkered with 1:1 Large Tile for better checkered tiling.

-Various under the hood clean ups.

These guys are also on the list but we'll shoot them another e-mail as well.

Also, as always, users asking for Chief-able catalogs carries a lot more weight than if we reach out so don't be shy about telling them what you want.
 

Hey Joe, I'm pretty sure we reached out to these guys a couple times but still no bites yet.  I'll put them back on the request list for you though.

If it helps at all, I did add a Masonry and Stone builder recently at the top of this ChiefTalk thread.  It's not specific to the system paver products but it IS a generic collection of paver options that might help you out.

On 3/31/2023 at 11:34 AM, Ange822 said:

Good afternoon - Just coming across this thread now! Wow I have really been missing out on this great feature / program!!

Any chance their will ever be be "builder" for stone façade / cultured stone type of materials? I know Chief already has some manufacturer catalogs with quite a variety but sometimes it is hard to find exactly is needed for a project. 

 

 

 

There is a very good chance this will happen eventually, it's high on my personal list. 

The builders are just collections of materials I've made for other Chief catalogs, all bundled up together after I have enough of one type.  So, eventually, after I've made enough stone materials, I'll be able to plug them into a builder and we'll be good to go.

Glad you enjoy the tool!

Sure thing.  The wood builder already has one, I'll add it to the list for the other ones.  

Morning Jeff, I'll make sure Douglas Fir is on the todo list but until then, you can get your 1.5" cuts with the builder by adjusting your scale in Chief.  Since it's just an image getting spat out of the builders, there's no real way for me to control the size you make your boards so to get your 1.5" cut glulam...

-Make your wood pattern using the 1" strip the color and species you want, I'd bump it to 1024x1024 as well.

-Just export the "Base Color" image since we won't need any maps since we want the glulam to look like it's been sanded smooth.

-Make a material with your image in Chief and count the number of boards in the image (it's 36 for the 1" strip) and set your scale in chief to be the number of boards * 1.5" (36*1.5= 54")

-Rotate Material if necessary...

Hit me up if you run into any snags.

On 12/9/2022 at 5:15 PM, BlissBunny said:

Hello! as tiles are going very large format, and you let me know the solution for not having huge grout lines when going up to 24x48? It wasn't clear how to do this. Thank you! 

Sure thing, the secret to get thinner grout lines is to increase the image resolution from 512x512 to something larger.  As you can see, the grout gets smaller and smaller as I increase the resolution on the image.

Sorry for the late reply but I've been busy.  We've reached out to techno bloc earlier this year but haven't heard back yet, but I plan on swinging by the booth at KBIS this year to try and get the ball rolling.  I'll keep you posted.

Till then, I just put up the Masonry and Stone Builder at the top of the post for users to make custom pavers and stone layouts.  I ported over some layouts from the tile builder to make some of the more specific  techo-bloc-ish layouts an option.

Most of the bones of the Masonry and Stone builder are lifted form the tile builder as well so if you're familiar with the tile builder you should hit the ground running with this one.  As always, if you find issues or want something added just hit me here on ChiefTalk and I'll either fix it or get it on the update list.

Have Fun Gang!

Tile Builder got a small update today...To get the latest version just download it again from the beginning of this post.

For the 1:1. 2:, Large 2:1, etc Offsetting with the slider worked fine for 1/2 offsets but 1/3 offsets would always have one row out of place, breaking the seamlessness. I upped the count on most of the basic layouts to the lowest common denominator between 2 and 3 so a 1/3 offset and a 1/2 offset should always be seamless.