Drawing a Simple Cinder Block Wall

[Rich_Winsor]

You know, it's funny how sometimes the most seemingly

simple task can turn out to be an ordeal. I needed to model

a short section of cinder block wall that is holding up a roof

support beam in a carport (see first thumbnail) . Easy peasy, 

right? 21 blocks (14" long x 7 1/2" wide x 6" high) stacked

in 3 columns. Well, after 45 minutes of futzing around with

those confounded pattern and texture settings in the "Define

Material" dbx I was still unable to get a wall that displayed

properly with all the rendering techniques. Finally I just gave 

up and in about 15 minutes modeled the wall section out of

Polyline Solids and converted it to a symbol. Not only does

it display properly in all views but I can change the color of

the grout if I choose to do so.

 

Am I missing something? Is it possible to create this simple

wall section using Chief's Wall tools? 

[rlackore]

You can get pretty close with a standard Chief texture, but you need to adjust the X-offset of the pattern and texture (depending on where the wall is in the world space), and you have to live with the fact that Chief doesn't apply textures to the top of walls properly:

 

[Rich_Winsor]

Thanks for having a look Robert. You tweaked your

texture settings more finely than I did but it looks like

we have similar results. Pray tell, how did you calculate

the amount of the texture X offset required? Or do you

just do like I do and plug in some values and watch

which way the Texture moves? I find the Pattern offsets

are fairly straightforward and I usually get the anticipated 

results, but the Texture offsets and Scale settings are a

mystery to me. I have no idea what they are in relation 

to. Is there some way to calculate the what the values  

should be other than by trial and error?

 

[rlackore]

Pray tell, how did you calculate

the amount of the texture X offset required? Or do you

just do like I do and plug in some values and watch

which way the Texture moves? 

 

Just like you - trial and error. I know we've had a few forum posts discussing UV mapping in Chief; this conundrum is another example of how we need better controls.

[Ridge_Runner]

Just like you - trial and error. I know we've had a few forum posts discussing UV mapping in Chief; this conundrum is another example of how we need better controls.

 

Or better visual feedback while you are still in the dbx as to what the change is going to look like without having to close all the dbx's only to find that was not what you wanted. The little teapot is a start but will not tell what it is "really" going to look like on a wall, solid, material region, etc.

 

Mike

 

Mike

[Rich_Winsor]

Amen Mike. As I mentioned, the little Pattern graphic

sort of works that way but the Texture visuals in the

dbx remain unsolvable to me. That teapot is a crock

and the cube isn't much better. Anyhow, in this case

my wall symbol functions just as I want it to so I will

stick with that approach for now.

 

Here is my wall symbol at work. Still haven't fleshed

out the landscape but the structures are looking good.

 

[Ridge_Runner]

OT Rich, but I wonder if the neighbors' dogs fight over who gets to claim the tree?   Good job.

 

Mike

[Rich_Winsor]

Just an update for anyone who may be following along

at home. Here is the completed carport with the funky

cinder block wall segments.

 

BTW, (standing up and shaking my fist at the monitor and

          probably about to regret making this statement  )

 

I defy anybody to create that right side carport wall using

Chief's wall tools and textures so that it will display properly

in all view types. Here is a "crappy" 10 pass ray trace and

the corresponding watercolor w/line drawing showing the

results.

 

 

 

 

 

[JJohnson]

What is that kind of 'pop out' upper wall ?  Storage ?  Shelves inside ?

 

Never seen that before.

[Alaskan_Son]

I think the way you ended up building those walls (solids/symbol) was the best way.  Just for the heck of it I tried to use the wall tools to reach the same result.  Here's the best I could do.  Its not bad, but what you did was better. 

 

 

Cinder block.plan

[Rich_Winsor]

What is that kind of 'pop out' upper wall ?  Storage ?  Shelves inside ?

 

Never seen that before.

 

And if your lucky Jere, you won't ever see that construction.

I'm not sure what is keeping the whole thing from flopping

over. Believe it or not that pop out upper wall is basically

cosmetic. I'm not sure what look they were going for. Sort

of a poor mans "Falling Water". Unfortunately a more

appropriate description would be "Falling Market Value".

The cinder block sections have a rudimentary anchor for

the vertical 4 x 12 posts. The vertical 4 x 12's have no

hardware securing them to the horizontal 4 x 12's above

them. In fact 2 of the horizontal roof support beams are

not even seated on the corresponding vertical posts. 

[Rich_Winsor]

I think the way you ended up building those walls (solids/symbol) was the best way.  Just for the heck of it I tried to use the wall tools to reach the same result.  Here's the best I could do.  Its not bad, but what you did was better. 

 

That's a lot better than what I had with the wall tools Michael.

If I had gotten that close I probably would have run with it. I

haven't had a chance to look at your plan yet to see how you

got the top of the wall to display properly. Anyway I'm happy

with the wall symbol because it just looks more like a cinder 

block with nice crisp edges and there is the added bonus of

being able to change the color of the mortar.

[MickeyToo]

Rich,

 

You said earlier that you could change just the grout color. Can you explain how you would do that?

 

Also, any chance we can get you to post that symbol? (Would understand if you did not want to.)

 

Thanks

[Rich_Winsor]

Rich,

 

You said earlier that you could change just the grout color. Can you explain how you would do that?

 

Also, any chance we can get you to post that symbol? (Would understand if you did not want to.)

 

Thanks

 

Hey Mickey,

When I constructed my wall section I used different Polyline Solids

for the cinder blocks and the mortar in between them. Then when

you convert the model to a symbol you can assign different textures

and colors to the individual parts. Now when you open the object

you can change these features using the Materials tab.

Cinder Block Wall.calibz

[JJohnson]

And if your lucky Jere, you won't ever see that construction.

I'm not sure what is keeping the whole thing from flopping

over. Believe it or not that pop out upper wall is basically

cosmetic. I'm not sure what look they were going for. Sort

of a poor mans "Falling Water". Unfortunately a more

appropriate description would be "Falling Market Value".

The cinder block sections have a rudimentary anchor for

the vertical 4 x 12 posts. The vertical 4 x 12's have no

hardware securing them to the horizontal 4 x 12's above

them. In fact 2 of the horizontal roof support beams are

not even seated on the corresponding vertical posts. 

Thanks for taking the time to show that.

 

Craziest wall structure ever.

 

Plan checkers nightmare.

[MickeyToo]

Thanks, Rich. Learned something new today.

 

Good job, btw!