AECOsim Parts vs. Material Projections vs. Material Maps for Elevations

Is there any news on the situation with AECOsim Family & Parts vs. the ability to use Material Projections? I'm specifically interested in how Material Projections can be used with Material Maps in Hidden Line view mode to properly adjust the materials shown in elevations. It would seem that this would have been solved by now. Am I missing something here?

  • I'd like to understand what you're talking about because it sounds spot on, answer to prayers etc

  • Are you talking about somehting like a block material that when rendered it it is the wrong location or in the wrong direction?

    I have that issue when I place shingles as I have at least 4 different directions for that product.

    Ustn since 1988
    SS4 - i7-3.45Ghz-16 Gb-250/1Tb/1Tb-Win8.1-64b

    Eric D. Milberger
    Architect + Master Planner + BIM

    Senior  Master Planner NASA - Marshall Space Flight Center

    The Milberger Architectural Group, llc

  • So if you use vanilla MicroStation material mapping to elements like Surfaces, Meshes, Solids, or Feature Solids there are a set of tools whereby you can adjust the material mapping location, scale, and/or rotation. Think Aux Coord Sys for material mapping on individual elements. You can find these tools under TOOLS>VISUALIZATION>MATERIAL PROJECTIONS.

    There are five tools in this palette:

    + Attach Projection

    + Edit Projection

    +Match Projection

    + Create Projection Group

    + Remove Projection

     

    Look them up in Help for further information. Suffice to say that that allow you to modify how the material is mapped to the element. There have been problems with these commands, but they slowly get better (less buggy) with each release. Some basics are: don’t use these with material maps using an angle of anything but zero; some problems with multiple maps for a material. I believe most of the effort has been to get these working with simple material maps in MV as well as in Luxology. I don’t know that there has nee an effort to make them work with Material Maps, but they seem to work fine from my experiments. However, DB Part Material Maps (Rendering Settings) override the simple attach material and so Material Projections don’t seem to work. I spent a fair amount of time this weekend experimenting and they simply don’t work with Part Definitions in DB ss5.

    There is some buzz on the Visualization Forum, but Part Mapping is a BD thing so I’m asking the question here. This seems a must to properly map all manner of 3D elements using in building design, but especially for forms and walls where something like CMU, brick, shingles, metal panels, wood siding, etc. For example to make a comparison, the “R” software can do this with their material mapping on their wall elements and it is very, very easy and intuitive (though not always controllable). Right now, we resort to drawing segments of wall that which have lengths in multiples of even modules of materials and then throw in end segments to extend the wall and make up the odd end. This works for some materials, but not others. For angles, or scaling folks must copy a material and then modify the angle.

     

  • Yeah...  I'm not sure that the Material Projection tools were ever intended to work with Part Rendering, which does match up with your results.  The only alternative I know of is to use the Dynamic Map tool instead, though it's not as real-time interactive as far as I can tell.

    If this is an important feature for you I would recommend logging a Service Request with support to have an Enhancement filed on your behalf (assuming one does not already exist).



    Answer Verified By: Tom MacKnight 

  • If I apply a material like shingles to a gables roof (four sides all sloping from the top downard

    The material in plan is all in the same direction so that only one side is correct

    If I change the orientation it effects it for the entire material so no another side is correct but three sides still are not.

    SO I have to have a different material for any variation

    Ustn since 1988
    SS4 - i7-3.45Ghz-16 Gb-250/1Tb/1Tb-Win8.1-64b

    Eric D. Milberger
    Architect + Master Planner + BIM

    Senior  Master Planner NASA - Marshall Space Flight Center

    The Milberger Architectural Group, llc