[vbs_muc]

Hi everyone,

I'm using the SolidWorks plugin, and so far it's perfect to work with.
The only thing I couldn't figure out is how to work with decals. I've spent some time in the forum to find out about it, but coudn't find answers to my problem:

How can I map a e.g. brand logo on a product?

I found some suggestions to add it as a weight map or on to the reflectence 0° section, but I don't know how to change the size and position. Most of the topics in the forum talk about texturing on complete parts, but I only need a logo on a surface.

So is there somebody who can give me a short step-by-step tutorial on how to do this (re-sizing, set position)?

OR: is it currenty impossible to do this within SolidWorks? I want to avoid using MXS, because it's so convenient to work within SolidWorks if you need to change something....

I'd be happy to get some advice on this.

Thanks & greets,
Roberto

[JDHill]

Hi Roberto,

It's a bit tricky to do that in SolidWorks, due to poor texture-mapping support. I would set everything up, then move over to Studio where I can precisely place the logo using the planar/box/cylindrical texture-mapping tools. However, here's a quick example done with just the plugin, which uses a weight-mapped material on one face:



You can download the .sldprt & textures here if you want to take a look at how this is done using a weight-mapped material. You would want to use higher-resolution maps than those used in this example.

Cheers,

JD

[eddiepom]

her is a good folowthrough in studio http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... highlight=

[vbs_muc]

Hi guys,

thanks a lot for the help, I'll take a look at it.

Infact, I already managed to do it in MXstudio, but if I need to change anything etc, I would have to do this again and again. Unfortunately.

But maybe there will be a better way to handle decals within the plugin in the future.... who knows...

Greets
Roberto

[vbs_muc]

Well,

after some testing and further research, I think it's almost impossible to use the plugin for branding/labeling/texturing. So hard to control, and I couldn't find out how to move the texture on a surface. Plus, the texture sometimes is not int the correct ratio, and strangely I couldn't change the X and Y tiles seperately... they always changed together...

I think, the studio is the only option, unfortunately. What's the point of having a plugin which can't handle all the functions anyway? I don't mean this as a critic, it's just that I need precise logo mapping all the time, and it's just sad that I can't use the plugin ... Is this going to be "fixed" in the future? Working with decals in PhowoWorks is really nice, isn't there a way to make Maxwell accept PhotoWorks decals?

Anyway, I tried to do it in the Studio, and still it's pretty hard (for me) to understand this. I downloaded the standard material scene and had a look at the sub-surface bars, which are mapped. I can't figure out how it's done. If I chance the UV-parameters from locked to anything else, I can't get the texture to be mapped as it was before. It's loosing it's reference and just floating somewhere on the part. Maybe I'm messing this up, but it really confuses me. I can't see how it's done in the first place....

Deleting the texture and trying to map again didn't work for me. I couldnt get the texture into it's former position, I couldn't even make it readable...

I'm curious why it's so hard for me and not many people seem to have problems with it, because as a product designer, I'm having logo- and type prints on almost every of our designs... So that's a really big part of the work....

But anyay, I'll stop whining now and will get into the next battle me against the logos...

Happy for any comment though,

greets & thx
Roberto

[eddiepom]

hi,

After working whit the maxwell render for some time now i wondering why it's not possible to apply a logo pict or something like that only on one side of an object. The closest i get to this is using the planar UV setting, but then it is repeated on the back side. if u dont count the picking of triangles.. (not that great i think)
Dont get me wrong here i love Maxwell!! but making this possile (and easier) would exponentially inprove this program.


And to follow the previous speaker im looking forward to seeing this in the plugin for SW.

Best regards Eddie

[vbs_muc]

I totally agree with Eddie, I love Maxwell and it's is by far the best renderer I've ever used and really nice to work with. Simple "image-on-a-surface-functions" however should improve and be quicker and easier to use. ...

Regards
Roberto

[mtripoli]

I'll throw this into the mix... I cheat when doing this stuff. I import the "label" into a sketch and then either cut or extrude the sketch in a tiny cut (or extrude). I can then apply any kind of surface and texture the way I like.


One of the nice things about this is that if you extrude (0.0001) and uncheck "merge" then you get solid bodies you can do anything you like to...

[vbs_muc]

hi mike,

you're right, this is a way to "brand" products with logos, in fact i used to do that in several projects before. it's a nice and controlable way to deal with branding and if you have vector logos, you can easily export them to e.g. dxf through illustrator.

of course, this way is limited to simple shapes and labels, as soon as you have multi-coloured stickers, packaging design, textured graphics or display panels & interfaces, it's getting impossible to "sketch"...

but anyway, to put a logo on a product, this is definitely the best way to do so far... (at least the most convenient)

greets & thanks for the comments,
roberto