bootcamp

Hi. Got back and tried the above, tried voxel painting first but realised why I had gone back to pixel painting. I had and have become very frustrated with only occasionally being able to see my object! - I realise that it is inexperience but the GUI is far from intuitive and as this is just a small part of the workflow I can't really justify spending buckets more time on tutorials and "hunting down" options in menu-sub-menu - etc Feel disappointed as .have been in the computer industry since days with punched card and as a coder and computer journalist and feel "beaten" for the first time. Going to have to look for a less capable piece of software but one which will do my little bit - easier. As 3d printing starts becoming more "domesticated" I will keep looking back at new 3d coat tutorials in case just the right one comes along. Thanks again. A beaten D

Brilliant. Thank you again digman. Will try later when home. It was while using your method. I found totally by accident. It was just so very very fast. Happy to use any mode. Will stick to your original method as a) it got me in the right direction and was brilliant And you know your way around it while I still stumble around and I fully accept my lack of experience is a problem. As 3d coat is such a small step in what is a quite time intensive workflow from photographing original building, modelling it, etc etc, I want to spend as little time as possible on learning a new (to me) piece of very capable software. Have already spent more hours in front of YouTube and in PDFs about 3d coat than at work........ I was originally going to print photorealistic "wraps" for the models which do look good it was only when I saw a YouTube video about 3d coat that I thought texture and hand-paint so all this time I have spent has been totally self inflicted! D

Following on from my previous "displacement" question. Actually getting somewhere (thanks to Digman) led to an even faster method of almost getting to what I wanted in a matter of seconds. I have tried a multitude of different settings to get the final result but it is always "pointy" as can be seen and I cant find the setting which tweaks the last part. I have uploaded a 2 min video which shows in real time the procedure and end result in my 3d printing software. As this is the only thing I need 3d-coat for, I would like, if possible, to not have to spend more time getting to grips with things I will not use. Being able to do just this, would make the price worth it. Any pointers would be great. Thanks D https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5866941/workflowConverted.mp4

Thank you - thank you - thank you.... I thought there must be an easy way. - and you got it for me. Within 2 minutes I had the stl I wanted, within 9 minutes, it was printed out. Can't believe I had gone down so many routes to get there. Thank you again. Here it is with an SD card for scale. D

OK. Now completely lost! I am wondering if I explained myself badly at the start and so will try and illustrate what I want with the parts I have. Pic 1 shows an stl file (a wall) with thickness I want to "deform" the mesh with the texture in pic 2 Colour etc is immaterial as it will end up as an stl file for single colour printing. This is a similar texture to what I want to end up with (pic 3) It is possible that 3D-Coat will not do it but it seems the closest to "getting there" As I will only ever have about 3 textures I will ever need a)Brick b)sandstone c)slate I am hoping that there is a relatively simple process to work through. Thanks D

Somehow ended up with double post. See below.

Hi Digman. No, no colour needed. The picture in the first post is almost what I need but a a "better brick or slate texture.". If I make, in sketchup a 10 metre x 10 metre wall with about 250mm thickness and export to a scaled stl file, I then need a texture similar to the one above on one surface. Then re-export that either as obj, dae or stl to print. 3dcoat is just an intermediate step to add the texture. In blender everything came out as huge spikes and was a pig to even get to that stage, 3d coat (as in post 5 is what I want it to look like (the shape isn't relevant) - it's just proving difficult to get what is on screen to translate to a saveable, printable mesh. I am ok on getting the brush to get it to look like it should - It just isnt translating to the final "shape" Hope that is clear. Thanks D

You will be sick of me. I think I have done as you said but my stl is still coming out as a flat cube??? Even wondering if it is a restriction on the trial 3d-coat. I have watched the tutorials again. Tried with a different stl file to start with etc. Changed the brush to the top right one, changed depth 2% 5% 10% etc Tried built in materials in case there was something wrong with my file. Historically, I am a manual reader, - friends call me "3x" as that's the number of times I read manuals before I load software, the daily Mail newspaper once described me as a "computer genius" (though that;s probably no recommendation!......This one has got me beaten though! Out of all the programs I have tried, this seems to be the closest I have got so I would like to stick with this if I can. Thanks Just noticed the other reply, will try that now as well. Thanks D

Hi. Had seen those tutorials (multiple times) but still missing something. When I export my model, my stl still has flat side. I have merged the layers (understand layers from photoshop layers) - One clue is that when I choose the brush and material I am getting the rectangle of texture over my "wall" as per pic I have tried to replicate the screen as in the video to make sure my options are as close as I can get them. but my stl export is still coming out as per second image. I am sure it's something really stupid and basic im missing as I think it has got to the point where I can't see the wood for the trees! D

Hi. Thanks for the response. I have the reference image - produced using "crazybump" which is really easy. Had previously imported this and had managed to "paint" the material onto my imported stl file. Have tried again and this is where I am getting stuck, it looks as if it has done what I want but my final exported file is still a "flat" stl file. I am missing something very very basic but just can't find the step I am missing out. Have been watching tutorials since reading your response - at least I am now going in the right direction and it was nice to see my ref image was along the right lines. It's just that final step of getting it to "deform the mesh". Thanks D

Hi. Over the last four or more weeks I have tried loads of programs and read/watched dozens of hours of tutorials. I think 3dcoat will do what I want but I am struggling to see the wood for the trees. I have an stl mesh of a wall. it started in sketchup as a face with no thickness I have extruded it to make it printable. Exported it as a stl Have imported it to multiple programs to try to add a brick and sometimes a slate texture the actual appearence does not matter or need to "look" realistic so the rendering/lights/animation parts are all "extras" i do not need. One tutorial about 3dcoat I found makes it look as if it would be perfect but within the tutorial there are loads of complexities that are not relevant to my finished result. What I want to end up with is something like this. (attached) or https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5866941/blendimage.JPG but with a more accurate stone/slate/brick texture. Is there a "basics" tutorial out there or an easily described series of steps anybody can help me with? Have spent hours on blender and similar progs. Thanks D