Add PCB as a Material & Appearance

[threadbuilt]

After seeing what you guys managed to do with wood I'd love it if you could make a simple (or complex if you wish) Printed Circuit Board material/appearance. So that it could be used to better indicate a typical or nominal circuit board without going into too much detail and downloading models or drawing something to give that effect.

Keep up the good work on this front.

[zicher2]

Hi. No updates that I know recently. But the idea is not dead.

Just a few weeks ago I tried the integration Fusion-Eagle and used some Eagle masks to create a Layered material. This is what I came up with.

That confirms that Eagle can generate the right maps (with minor extra work, as I had to adjust a couple of them in Photoshop) if it wants, and the renderer could provide a pretty good preview of the PCB.

So, the pieces are there, but someone has to connected them. Let me send an email and have someone check this thread again.

[threadbuilt]

Hi @zicher2 & @colin.smith , given that IdeaStation (as I understand it) is being deprecated/closed I am just owndering what will happen to items such as this where they sort of got adopted/endorsed but as far as I can tell haven't been completed. The rudimentary PCB material that @zicher2 managed to create is perfect for my needs as I do not have access to PCB software or Photoshop as do many other Enthusiasts or students - nor would I be able to really make any use of these in a short time without significant investment of time. One day when I upskill I will look at this but right now it would be great to be able to make crisp indicative renders with PCB as a material in place..

Cheers,

David

[zicher2]

The PCB is a special case of layered material, and based of our material model evolution (as I see it happening), it will be a fringe case that won't be addressed by a single material shader anytime soon. I can only hope that past the current phase of materials improvements (part of our MaterialX effort), once all is settled and tools for materials creation are available, some PCB-like material will be possible. But will take a while to even be able to test that.

[roambotics_scott]

Just to be clear I think all that is needed is something that roughly looks right with different solder mask colors.

I don’t think anyone is asking for a full EM mechanical and thermal model of FR-4 and Rogers here.

[zicher2]

Yes, that's clear. But a proper PCB "look" material would need more than one layer, and what I see being worked on for now has only one layer and might not handle color for a proper solder mask.

Ink, solder masks holes... not in scope.

I have a proposal feature paper written long ago that addresses most issues. I'm waiting to see if the final design of the MaterialX work allows for a composite material that would satisfy that paper.