Importing Created Content Not Showing Materials

[theKurt]

Hello,

 

I'm new to Chief Architect Premier X15 and when I needed a specific vanity from Costco, I made it in SolidWorks and imported it (via STL). The problem is that if I change the material to oak, the quartz top and hardware turn oak as well. How do i separate the top and hardware from the base so that the materials can be selected individually? 

 

[DBCooper]

I don't think you can.  I just tried this by exporting a model from Chief and noticed that when brought in as an STL that you only get one material.  You might want to try using a 3DS model instead.

 

BTW, you could probably model that cabinet in Chief as well but that wasn't what you asked.

 

[CADustin]

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.

[Chopsaw]

7 hours ago, CADustin said:

I then need to apply the materials to the correct locations on the model then export/import should show the material layers in Chief.

 

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."

[MarkMc]

On 3/4/2024 at 11:04 PM, theKurt said:

Chief Architect Premier X15 and when I needed a specific vanity from Costco

Welcome aboard  while you didn't ask as @DBCooper suggested you can do this in CA mostly with cabinet tools which have some advantages. It would likely be easier to make a few parts on SW since you know that. (Legs and hardware- rest in Chief)

I did all of this in CA.

 

Advantages being: would show in cabinet schedule, simple to resize/reuse, change doors/drawers/hardware, and of course materials. I understand that this is an off the shelf item but down the road you never know and I like to minimize remaking things.

The most tedious part in CA are the legs which I started before fully awake so fiddled a bit. Unfortunately the bead molding around the cabinet can't be done within the cabinet since it won't wrap the legs. Just before posting it occurred to me that it should be turned into a symbol to be easier to resize width and length so put one in the plan.

Plan attached including some of the failed parts for legs before I woke up. I didn't bother to do custom door or drawer symbols, just fished something close out of mfg catalog. Plan attached.

 

Cosco vanity.zip

[CADustin]

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.

[theKurt]

Hello,

 

Thank you all for the responses!

 

I ended up using SolidWorks to make the files (base/Top/Hardware) and exported to STL. Using Blender, I imported the base/top/hardware STLs and exported that assembly to DAE for CA import.

 

[theKurt]

12 hours ago, MarkMc said:

Welcome aboard  while you didn't ask as @DBCooper suggested you can do this in CA mostly with cabinet tools which have some advantages. It would likely be easier to make a few parts on SW since you know that. (Legs and hardware- rest in Chief)

I did all of this in CA.

 

Advantages being: would show in cabinet schedule, simple to resize/reuse, change doors/drawers/hardware, and of course materials. I understand that this is an off the shelf item but down the road you never know and I like to minimize remaking things.

The most tedious part in CA are the legs which I started before fully awake so fiddled a bit. Unfortunately the bead molding around the cabinet can't be done within the cabinet since it won't wrap the legs. Just before posting it occurred to me that it should be turned into a symbol to be easier to resize width and length so put one in the plan.

Plan attached including some of the failed parts for legs before I woke up. I didn't bother to do custom door or drawer symbols, just fished something close out of mfg catalog. Plan attached.

 

Cosco vanity.zip 1.99 MB · 4 downloads

Looks really nice and thank you for the zip! below are ours together. How long did this take you??? SW is my professional tool and its fast for me, but CA looks a bit daunting, I'll try to see if I can do this is CA next time.

 

[theKurt]

On 3/5/2024 at 3:49 PM, CADustin said:

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.

I'll look into 3DS, thanks!

[MarkMc]

15 hours ago, theKurt said:

How long did this take you???

Not sure as I said legs and molding are the longest part. FWIW I made this from the one I already had in under 10 minutes. (used the symbol for the bead instead of the molding lines)

 

Oops just saw you are using full overlay few more minutes though I cheated a bit, just change the default separations and knobs.