CADustin

Sometimes when panels get moved around or turned off the "Show/Hide Selection Panel" Chopsaw mentioned can be somewhat collapsed.

Try making sure it's toggled on and dragging the two windows apart as shown in the images.  Lemme know if you still have issues and I'll help run it down.  

On 7/18/2021 at 12:47 PM, groupemasella said:

Hey @CADustin

I'm trying to get a 4:1 tile with this pattern, but whenever I select Image input, it turns black and white? What would be the best solution to my problem?

 

Hey sorry for the late reply. 

Unfortunately, the way the tile builder is currently built, any image inputs will be reduced to grayscale/black and white.  Fixing it so colors show is on my todo list, but it wasn't a trivial addition so I'm on hold till I get a chunk of time to drill down into the details so I don't break it.  Sorry!

Gotcha, we're reaching out.

Also, remember our success rate with manufacturers goes way up when they hear from you guys that you want your favorite brands in Chief.

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/blog/partner-program/

Sure thing, added to my todo list,

Stone in general is something I'd like to do a big update on when time allows.  Keep posting requests on anything stone related and I'll try to knock as many out as I can when I start the update.

Good point, I always forget about the hide surfaces tool.

Hey Rob, glennw is right, your best bet is a material.

If you got a picture of what you're trying to make, we might be able to point you to a material that might get the job done for you.

^ Pretty much that ^

We update as often as possible and usually manufacturers reach out to us with product updates to be implemented but if we haven't heard from a brand in a while, we'll reach out to them to check for updates. 

-For brands that seem to have gone stale, feel free to reach out to both us here at Chief Content and your specific brand.  Usually, that's enough to jumpstart a conversation on what needs to be updated.

-For brands that are updating at a good clip but you see things that are missing, let us know what you need and we can either find it and add it or have an explanation why something might not be supported yet.

Cambria did indeed update recently, but won't be launched till the 2nd to coincide with the updated products launch.  After June 2nd, take a look and get back to me with stuff that might be missing that you need and I'll get the ball rolling.    

For something like garage doors, you'd have to export the door out as a dae/3ds/etc and strip the grill geometry off in a 3d editing program like blender...

https://www.blender.org/

Most things in the 3d library are imported from software like blender or 3ds max, so we can't enable "exploding" on these kinds of objects.  Exploding is usually limited to things combined together in Chief after import like kitchen island sets, dining table sets, cabinet combos, etc.

Hit me up if you hit any snags going in and out of chief with your door.  GL!

Hey McConnell,

The Tile builder has a hex and cube (I think its called "Rhombus Pattern") tile set up that might help you out.

One thing to note, when working with Hexes in the tile builder, increase the resolution to 1024 to reduce the jaggy edges, 512x512 doesn't play very nice with non 90° angles.

I'll put those on my update list!

There's always updates coming for the builders but it's depends on my current content workload.  When I get caught up, I go back to my list and knock out as many things as I can, so don't be shy with the requests.  I need to know what you guys need.

You got it, I'm due for another run at the builders here in a bit, I'll add a pattern generation map to the exportable maps.

The grout controls are already using an edge detect with a static, preset pattern to get the grout thickness so I just gotta run those patterns to a new output, easy peasy.  I just started a big update for a catalog but after that I'll see if I can squeeze in some of the last couple months requests.

You guys figured it out.  Sorry for the late reply, I'm on vacation. 

The grout thickness is indeed limited to the overall texture size in substance player since we need at least three pixels to make the most basic groove (preferably more) and on a layout of 10 tiles, that's 30 pixels.  A 512x512 image gets you 512-30 = 482.  So 482 pixels left to cover 10 tiles gets you 48.2 pixels per tile, which isn't a lot when scaled across some of the larger format tile layouts.

So if our simple groove of a downward sloping pixel, a flat pixel, and an upward sloping pixel "\_/" can't be any smaller than 3 pixels, and if you have 512 pixels for the whole image, the grout line can only be so thin, no matter what the grout slider is set at.  Increasing the pixel count up to 1024 or 2048 gives you a lot more play with the grout slider since you have more pixels to play with and the ratio of 3pxl grout to 48.2pxl tile is a lot clunkier than 3pxl to 201.8pxl (at 2048x2048.)

So more pixels gets you thinner grout and sharper detail on your tile (and cleaner edges on non square tiles btw) but larger files takes more memory so just be aware of this and try not to flood your plans with high res maps everywhere, just where you need it.

Hey Rob,

-To get your tile as the correct size (12" x 24" per tile) you need to count the number of tiles in the image.  Large 2:1 shows 2 tile across and 4 tall, so 24"x2 across = 48" and 12" per tile tall, 4x12" = 48", so your scale in Chief will be 48x48.

-Grout lines can be controlled with the "grout width" slider under grout controls but if it still looks to large when you get it in Chief, you'll need to bump up the resolution in substance player ("Output size" at the top) this will give you more pixels to work with so the SP can make the grout smaller. 

-If your tile isn't seamless, usually the offset slider is the culprit.  I can't see what your offset is so I can't be sure but the 2:1 large was seamless at .5 offset, so maybe your offset is off by one tile length?  let me know if this wasn't it.  Could be a couple different things.

Let me know if you hit any more snags.

Correct, use shapes and ratios in substance to get the tile you want, then in Chief set the size you want it.

12x24 would be the 2:1 tile option.

You can find most, if not all of the same species in the builder in Core > Material > Wood, the builder is just if you want to tweak them.

Hey Michael, any and all suggestions are always welcome.

Just for clarity, the substance player builders we offer here are just optional supplements to what is already available either in the Chief Core catalog or on the 3d library. Nothing in the builders isn't already offered in Chief in some form or fashion.

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/3d-library

There's a lot of material options under the "Material and Surfaces" section.

When I make new textures for Chief, I make them in substance.  But once I export them, they're now static images and are now unchangeable and for the most part that is fine but for subjects with a wide variety of options and subjective/temporal views on what looks good or trendy, it's often a faster route for some to offer the tools here to adjust what you need/when you need it rather then sift through large catalogs of extra textures.  Both options are valid though, just up to personal preference. 

If there are types of materials you'd like to see more of offered as catalogs on the 3D Library please don't hesitate to reach out here or our suggestions e mail.  I'm always game to make more.

Hey BK, I'll put it on my list.  I know I have 'Wood Grain Tile" on there to add to the tile builder but it just might be easier to put grout in the wood builder.  I'll keep you posted when I start working on it again.

This ^

Hit me up if you don't find what you need and I'll get it on the update list.

I'll add these details to the bug report.  Not sure why the shape would matter, but it looks like it does.

Morning Gang...

Super interesting find you guys have here.  I don't think I've ever tried to scale that small before but I tested the attached object and sure enough, its popping itself back to default.  I'll log it as a bug.

Looking at what you have now however, I don't think that material would be able to get to where you need it to be if the hard cap on scaling is tied to whole unit increments, you might need to make a new material (mentioned above) or "remap" your object.

For those that don't know what mapping is, here's a quick breakdown.

When we make 3d objects that will go into Chief, we need to "map" each face so the direction and scale of any applied materials behave correctly (think wood grain direction on cabinet doors) with this data hard locking into the object.  While we are outside of Chief we can control these values as needed, but once the object is IN Chief, it's locked in place and we can only manipulate the materials that we apply.  Shown below is an example made in 3ds max using a testing material that I use to dial in direction and size.  The squares are mapped at (Chief Default) 20", 10", and 1" and you can see the testing image tile more and more as we scale it down.

If you use Chief to model something, or if your model doesn't have any mapping data on import I believe, then the mapping would default to 20".  This default of 20" is why your material looks so big initially, and if your hard capped at 1" as your minimum, why you can't scale it down super tiny.  Looking at the wire mesh image, the sample size is a 6x6 grid... 

So each square, if mapped at chief default would be 20"/6= 3.33~ inches.

If we mapped the object at 10", now your squares will be 10"/6= 1.66~ inches

And finally if we mapped the object at 1" we'd end up with 1"/6 - .1666~ inches which would be closer to what you are after.

Here's that example of default 20", 10", and 1" from 3ds max...

As you can see the mesh gets smaller as the mapping value gets smaller.  The same wire mesh material is on all three squares, set at 20"x20" but since our object mapping is different, we can get smaller or larger results.  

Now you can scale that Chief material down to 1" and get super tiny...

So, if you need a smaller scale, and want to remap your object, you can bring it into pretty much any 3d software suite and map whatever size you need, just remember that it will multiply by whatever your chief scale value will be.  Blender is a free option that should get the job done, or as mentioned above, you can tile your material a couple times in photoshop or other image toolsets to increase the pictures sample size, either or.

Hope that helps, and again I'll log the 1" minimum as a bug.

Let me know if I whiffed on the question or if anyone needs clarification.

I'll put the species on my list too...

I'll also look at adding the scale feature from the tile builder to the wood builder as well so you'll have more control over grain size. That one might be tougher to implement though just because the wood builder is wired differently.

Same rules would apply though with texture scaling, larger textures with the same amount of pixels (512, 1024, etc)  You'll lose some detail of the wood when looked at up close, but when looked at from afar, you should be fine with a larger surface area coverage.  Wood we make in-house is usually scaled for indoor use, but I like the idea of having an option to size up for decking, rafters, siding, etc. Maybe a catalog of large format 16' wood mats.

More options are rarely a bad thing.  Thanks for the feedback.

Hey Chopsaw, good catch.  It's a bug.

The "Uncut" wood is kind of a misnomer since, as you saw, there is some vertical offsetting going on that is kind of hard to see unless you catch a knot on a seam or load an external image like you've found out already.  This was added purely to help the wood tile less obviously but I kinda forgot about it when I added the image input to the system a couple years later.  

I'll add it to my todo list.  I'll try to make it so it doesn't slice up image inputs but keeps slicing the wood selections for better tiling.

In the meantime can I ask what you're trying to make in case I can help you out in the meantime?  If you have a seamless wood texture already, are you using the builder just for image manipulation like color/hue/lightness/etc? 

I think you're right, X11 got the pocket wall feature...

The NanaWall catalog also might help, it just got updated late last year.

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/3d-library/index.php?r=site/detail/991

Small update today...

Tile Builder

A lot of folks have had issues with the scale of the raw materials in the tile builder when working with large format tile so now it has a "Material Scale" so if you have large marble hex tile or 2'x4' offset slabs, you can scale the tile material till it looks correct. 

-Each Tile Type has an independent scale slider.

-Scale goes from 0% to 500%, if anyone needs more than that, let me know.

As always if you have any questions or find any bugs let me know here.  To see the updates you'll have to redownload the Tile_Builder.sbs from the first post on this thread.

Hey Stephen, If you want to take a crack at the wood builder, it has a shiplap option.  Under "Cut" just scroll down to Shiplap - Seamed or Shiplap - Seamless and export.

Hit me up if you hit any snags.