How do I display a 3D Texture to a custom .3ds model?

[s_cardinali]

I made the file name less than 8 characters and browsed for it under general properities, however it does not show up on the .3ds model. The only way I am able to see the texture is if I apply it to a Visual > Plane. I can see the texture in 3dsmax so I know the UV's are correct.

[sam_stubbsYXX86]

Could you post both the model and the 3D shape so we can try to replicate this on our end?

[s_cardinali]

test01.png torus.3ds

[s_cardinali]

Thanks for looking into it.

[sam_stubbsYXX86 · Accepted solution]

So I looked at the object and the texture. There are two ways to accomplish what you're trying to do. First, is to load the texture you want directly into the 3D shape in whatever 3D editing software you're using. The other way, is to have an object have dynamic loadable textures in FlexSim, is to add a png file named "fstx.png" attached as the texture to your model (This is also done in your 3D modeling software) With the fstx.png file attached to your model, FlexSim will be able to load other textures onto the model from within FlexSim.

You can find out about this information in the user manual under 3D Media > Preparing a 3D file. Under the section of "Getting the Object's Texture to Bleed Through:

"Getting the Object's Texture to Bleed Through

For .3ds and .ac files, you can also have the FlexSim object's defined texture show up on the shape instead of the texture defined in the file. To do this, just add a texture named "fstx.png" to the object in your 3D software."

I've reattached your 3D shape with the fstx.png method applied to it using AC3D. If you load this torus shape into FlexSim, you can change its 3D texture dynamically.

torus.3ds

test-2.png

[s_cardinali]

Thank you for your help. I posted a video of me going through the steps above. Can you watch and tell me where I am going wrong? Or perhaps post your own video walk through of the process?3d-texture-attempt.zip

its 1min long, no audio

Thanks

[philboboADSK]

Put the fstx.png file into the same directory that you are exporting teapot.3DS so that the path to the texture is just "fstx.png" in the 3DS file when you export it instead of an absolute path ("D:\FlexSim Steph\stock texture maps\fstx.png").

The teapot.3DS that you are exporting in the video has "D:\FlexSim Steph\stock texture maps\fstx.png" as the path to the texture. It needs to be just "fstx.png". If the texture is in the same directory when you export the file as a 3DS file, then 3ds Max will just put the relative path instead of the absolute path into the file.

[s_cardinali]

That worked! Thank you. I need to have about 50 plus unique .3ds models with unique textures in a file. I am assuming I can't name them all fstx.png. How do I add more? Any tricks there?

[philboboADSK]

You can use that same fstx.png for all of your models. The file itself isn't important; just getting the string "fstx.png" into the 3DS file's diffuse texture path is what is important. That signals to the FlexSim 3DS importer to use the FlexSim object texture instead of looking for a file on the hard drive.