Anybody know how to do a photo-realistic James Hardie vertical siding texture?

[EngelsmaHomes]

Hi all,

 

We do a lot of 3D renders for clients, and often they select James Hardie vertical siding in at least some areas.

 

For renders, I've found there's no comparison to individual polyline solids for the battens with the downloaded JH panel texture on the siding and batten texture on the battens. The only problem is, it takes a long time. I use the multiple copy tool with copies every 16", but it still takes a long time.

 

I tried to create my own "JH B&B, 16" O.C." texture using James Hardie's textures and photoshop, but wasn't happy with the results. I even tried a simple bump map, but the shadows seem wrong and the whole thing still feels flat and somehow plastic-y. Attached is an example photo.

 

Any tips would be appreciated. I see CA has the capability to do normal maps and ambient occlusion maps in the texture tab of the material definition box, but no clue how to make or use one. If nothing else, is it possible to group select all my polyline battens and crop to an angled roof line? That would save me a lot of time.

 

Thanks,

Tom E.

 

 

 

 

[robdyck]

Just now, EngelsmaHomes said:

I've found there's no comparison to individual polyline solids for the battens

Material regions

[EngelsmaHomes]

1 hour ago, robdyck said:

Material regions

 

I looked it up and I'm not quite sure how that helps me... I can either apply a texture to the wall or to the material region - how does that fix the fact that the texture looks flat and unrealistic?

 

By "no comparison", I meant no comparison for its 3D results.

 

 

[EngelsmaHomes]

16 minutes ago, solver said:

Material regions cut around doors and windows and roofs.

 

Sorry - I still don't follow. The wall and it's siding layer also cuts around doors and windows and roofs. How is it different than applying a different texture to the walls?

[Lakeside-E]

4 minutes ago, EngelsmaHomes said:

 

Sorry - I still don't follow. The wall and it's siding layer also cuts around doors and windows and roofs. How is it different than applying a different texture to the walls?

dimension your material region to not cut your material and give it the depth you need. set it up the same way you would use polyline solids then multiple copy it. no trimming necessary

 

[EngelsmaHomes]

 

4 minutes ago, Lakeside-E said:

dimension your material region to not cut your material and give it the depth you need. set it up the same way you would use polyline solids then multiple copy it. no trimming necessary

 

 

Ooh nice! I think I understand now. I'll try that.

 

5 minutes ago, solver said:

 

Comments about using Material Regions were in reference to this. You don't need to trim them like you do when using solids. They may be copied from wall to wall too.

 

The general issue of realistic board and batten as been discussed and a forum search should bring up relevant threads.

 

Got it. I did do a quick search but didn't see anything. If you have any in mind, please let me know.

 

Edit: I searched "batten" and that helped. I see a few articles to look at. No further help needed!

 

Thanks!

Tom E.

Edited December 11, 2020 by EngelsmaHomes

[robdyck]

1 hour ago, EngelsmaHomes said:

 

 

Ooh nice! I think I understand now. I'll try that.

 

 

Got it. I did do a quick search but didn't see anything. If you have any in mind, please let me know.

 

Edit: I searched "batten" and that helped. I see a few articles to look at. No further help needed!

 

Thanks!

Tom E.

Sorry Tom, my bad! I assumed you'd know that I meant to use material regions for the battens. Let us know how it turned out!

[glennw]

You may be able to use an addition framing layer on the outside of your wall definition.

Size and spacing can be defined by the material.

Members can be edited in 3D, plan or in the wall detail.

This is all done auto:

 

 

[ShaneK]

8 minutes ago, glennw said:

You may be able to use an addition framing layer on the outside of your wall definition.

Size and spacing can be defined by the material.

Members can be edited in 3D, plan or in the wall detail.

This is all done auto:

 

 

Love it!!!

[mtldesigns]

1 hour ago, glennw said:

You may be able to use an addition framing layer on the outside of your wall definition.

Now that is thinking outside the box Glenn..  Next B&B, I'm trying this.

[GeneDavis]

Glenn's method will yield material counts.  Not so for battens done as material regions.

[MPDesign]

Genious! That is like a doh moment!  

thx Glenn!

[Ridge_Runner]

There are some older threads on the method Glenn shows; a search should bring them up. I believe Mick @Kbird1 even posted some materials for doing cedar battens at the time. Just be aware that some manual editing will be required in the wall details like Glenn shows. I have used this method before and it does look good, but does take time to edit correctly.

[Alaskan_Son]

21 hours ago, GeneDavis said:

Glenn's method will yield material counts.  Not so for battens done as material regions.

 

This depends entirely on how you set it up.  Material Regions can easily produce an accurate Material List as well. 

[GeneDavis]

Show us how.  And how it can yield the count in 16' lengths as it can for framing with structural member reporting.

[Alaskan_Son]

On 12/12/2020 at 4:39 PM, GeneDavis said:

Show us how.  And how it can yield the count in 16' lengths as it can for framing with structural member reporting. 

 

You're kinda moving the goalpost there aren't you? Regardless, reporting specific lengths should be possible too but a lot more complicated and not something I have time to get into.  For an overall count though, here is a very quick, down and dirty example.  Just select the Materials List Polyline in the attached plan and click Calculate Materials in Polyline.  You should see an accurate report.  Then adjust the polyline to narrow the selection down and run it again.  You should see that the Material List adjusts accordingly. 

 

ML example.plan

 

P.S.  This is only showing one method of many.  The Material List capabilities we have are very robust.

[Alaskan_Son]

7 hours ago, GeneDavis said:

And how it can yield the count in 16' lengths as it can for framing with structural member reporting

 

Decided to double check what it would take to report as required 16 footers before I turned in for the night.   Way easier than I was even thinking it would be...

 

ML example 2.plan

 

Anyway, these are just a couple simple examples of what can be done with the Materials List using the Components tab, and I'm really only scratching the surface with these.  No, we can't get quite the level of reporting control using the Components tab that we can with Structural Member Reporting, but we can get some pretty accurate counts and actually have a quite a few extra capabilities that Structural Member Reporting could never provide us with. 

[Kbird1]

On 12/11/2020 at 3:19 PM, glennw said:

You may be able to use an addition framing layer on the outside of your wall definition.

Size and spacing can be defined by the material.

Members can be edited in 3D, plan or in the wall detail.

This is all done auto:

 

 

 

 

This works well ...still requires some editing though, been doing it this way when needed since X9.....

 

https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/16852-board-and-batten-library/?tab=comments#comment-141647

 

M.

 

[EngelsmaHomes]

On 12/11/2020 at 3:20 PM, robdyck said:

Sorry Tom, my bad! I assumed you'd know that I meant to use material regions for the battens. Let us know how it turned out!

 

It works so much better. Soo much easier. I should've searched the forum and found this method a long time ago. Thanks for getting me up to speed everyone!