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A question from a very new user.


Nicholas&Angel
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Still getting the hang of the program, currently watching the youtube videos to help get situated using 3d coat. Just a few questions, sorry if I am getting ahead of myself, me and my wife are attempting to make tiles 1x1.25 inch for a table top game we play, we've had some pretty decent success creating tiles and printing them through cura using our mono price select v2. The main problem we're having is our tiles end seem to over hang after using stencils depending on the depth of the stencil used, when printed the blocks aren't able to line up properly due to this, I didn't realize until I printed 4 tiles that they over hung and couldn't line up.  (This is a quick example I made to show my problem.)
image.thumb.png.5966093973544a3873e5acf888220b6c.png
So my main question is can I create a shape I can only take away from so I do not end up with uneven tiles.


We were planning on keeping all the corner bottoms even so they can line up but with the overhand the ones we printed regardless of the corners can't line up.image.thumb.png.bbca32b2310883b5fbbf9ad3f9e92c58.png


Again sorry if this is something simple we are both very new to 3d design.
 

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I am very sorry how clueless this post sounds I'm not at all privy. Not a physical problem print, it's a design error on my part. When using the stone stencil it creates crevasses but also raises the skin, if I invert it I get raised lines instead, when I use the stencil on the sides it indents the lines and raises the skin like its supposed to but it causes a belly on the side of the tile, so after I print four they begin to not line up properly due to the belly, the first picture is showing the belly I keep experiencing. The second picture is how we designed all the corners of the original tiles to try to keep the form but the bellies on the side keep the bottoms from touching and lining up.                       ----- Also thank you so much for the reply, didn't realize how poorly I explained it, I hope this helped.
So my question is can I create a shape I can only take away from so I do not end up with bellies

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Your block is so dark in the picture it is hard to see.

Are you looking at something along these lines... shown in picture.

You need a stencil with a alpha channel. If the stencil has both black and white or grayscale areas filling the entire stencil it can both intrude and extrude at the same time.

Create a stencil with just black and an alpha channel to intrude or a white with an alpha channel extrude.

The stencil I highlighted in the second picture has an alpha channel. though it appears black it is really not. Test it and you will see. Hold down the Ctrl key to intrude if you want that kind of cut.

Last picture shows a image with an alpha channel. The Black circles are only filling part of the image the rest is a transparent alpha channel.

Be sure to do all your work in Orthographic view not perspective view. Ortho mode is the number 5 on on your keypad.

 

blocks.PNG

alpha.PNG

alphachannel.PNG

more.PNG

Edited by digman
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Yes very similar to that. I found a website that is doing exactly what we would like to do we're going to use a picture from there site to hopefully make what I'm saying understandable lol. I am trying to keep the blocks uniform at the original sizes while gaining texture. These blocks are textured on all sides but the bottom and line up perfectly. 
image.thumb.png.ed3bd231b0f37d59997e76a2f6443f9a.png
Now when I make designs similar they always seem to bump/bulge out in spots and do not sit flattly beside eachother where I held the brush too long or tried to get more detail from the stencil.

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Hold Down CTRL    (blue line)  to go in.   Any thing White is in.   if you use the  OT_random6  Stencil  and hold CTRL (see a Blue line across brush) the white of the stencil goes in as to have no bulge.  You have to look at which Stencil too use as far as what is all white in it and all black. Hope it helps.

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It depends on the brush/stencil, some of them are natural inies, most are outies though.  Ctrl will reverse an inies the same as it does for an outie. 

As for keeping them uniform I'd say use a smaller more precise brush maybe, and avoid the edges as much as possible except when doing something deliberate.  Alternatively you could freeze the rest of the block you aren't working on, or even vox hide the part you aren't working on (but then you might get strange things going on when you unhide).

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In my previous post,  the bottom cuts were done on purpose, though that is not what you want.  I clearly stated in my post how to use a stencil with an transparent alpha and you needed to be in orthographic projection. 

You are misunderstanding how to use the available tools. You want the texture to be on top and sides. but only cutting into the surface so the sides can still line up. Control the depth of the stencil by reducing the depth in the upper tool panel.

The picture shown not for quality, The top is cut into not effecting the sides. The sides have been cut into and not bulge out. They will line up according to the parts that were not cut into.  The bottom is flat.

I do the work from Ortho mode. From Camera in the preview options and not cube mapping. I use the second rectangle spline tool in the E-Panel. Use my keyboard keys to for the selecting of views, Front, Right, Top etc. etc.

I use Absolute in surface mode to control the depth exactly. I also ran one smooth all the get rid of a few zaggies..

Last picture is similar to the picture you shown  of the stones...

more.PNG

bottom.PNG

stone.PNG

Edited by digman
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Yes, without a doubt I am not understanding the tools, I'm still trying to figure out all the numbers and meanings and how they work together but that is exactly the outcome we are looking for the blocks, literally looks good enough to use. Seeing is everything to me being I have no real computer skill let alone 3d design. Also I'm starting to get there my blocks are looking better closer to what we need, it'll take me figuring out a few things like the absolute in surface mode but I'm sure it's a google away, but I really thank you for taking time to explain it!

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