[jimminy]

I'm not great with dealing with textures and mapping in rhino so I usually just futz until I get the scale looking right, but lately I've been trying to speed my workflow and thought it would be nice to be able to drag and drop a maxwell material onto an object using the real scale option in the mxm.

Presumably, if the real world size of the maps in the mxm are known and set, this should be simple. So I have been modifying my arroway based mxms based on the scale arroway gives for the map. As I understand it, you go into each map in the material editor (a real PITA), change all of them one by one from relative to meters, and in the tile x & tile y input the size in meters. Perfect...except it doesn't work.

The maps are not scaled correctly at all when I apply them to an object and I don't know where the problem actually is.

I have applied a map channel in Rhino to the object (which doesn't seem to work the way I understand mapping channels to work, but that's another thread), changed it to box mapping (shouldn't I just be able to leave it as surface mapped?), and when I get the scale of the map applied to an object of know size scaled correctly the map scale always ends up being some arbitrary value . Meaning, to get the correct result I'm futzing the scale of the gizmo until it looks right which is what I am trying to avoid in the first place.

If anyone can tell me where my misconception is, it would be most appreciated.

[JDHill]

I have applied a map channel in Rhino to the object (which doesn't seem to work the way I understand mapping channels to work, but that's another thread), changed it to box mapping (shouldn't I just be able to leave it as surface mapped?), and when I get the scale of the map applied to an object of know size scaled correctly the map scale always ends up being some arbitrary value . Meaning, to get the correct result I'm futzing the scale of the gizmo until it looks right which is what I am trying to avoid in the first place.

Except in very specific scenarios, you do not want to mix explicit mapping with Real Scale. By using Real Scale, you are asking the plugin to handle the mapping, so you need to allow it to do so. Regarding the question of why it won't work with surface mapping (although you will apply no explicit mapping, the plugin will ask Rhino to generate an appropriate cubic mapping internally), it is because by definition, Real Scale does not make sense in such a context. Consider, for example, surface-mapping an hourglass: what meaning does Real Scale have in this case? It is similar with spherical and cylindrical mappings (though not with their top/bottom, when capped) -- it is only the planar and cubic types which make sense for Real Scale.

Presumably, if the real world size of the maps in the mxm are known and set, this should be simple. So I have been modifying my arroway based mxms based on the scale arroway gives for the map. As I understand it, you go into each map in the material editor (a real PITA), change all of them one by one from relative to meters, and in the tile x & tile y input the size in meters.

Rather than using MXED, you could try using the plugin's material editor. There, you can hold down CTRL+ALT+SHIFT when you enable Real Scale, and the change will be applied to all contained maps in the entire material. Ditto for any other texture parameters.

[jimminy]

I still don't understand how to do what I'm after, but that last bit about applying settings across all maps is really useful. Thanks!

So, does this mean I should not do any texture mapping in rhino? and, er...then I don't know.

Honestly, I couldn't get this to work in maxwell studio either. It might mean I'm just fundamentally misunderstanding real scale.

I guess the question is just how do I set things up so I don't have to tell my software the size of my maps when that is already defined. After all, a brick is pretty much a brick when it comes to size and I would prefer to not have to explain this to my software every time!

[JDHill]

Yes, for objects you would like to map using Real Scale, you should not do any mapping in Rhino. Have you already read the Real Scale tutorial in the plugin manual?