Wood material selection

[PaulMunford]

The wood materials seem to be at a very low resoloution. Is this because they are set up for Inches, and I am working in millimetres? Is there anything that can be done about this?

While you are at it - is there any chance of getting some wood materials that look a little more like wood 😉

[cekuhnen]

Is it also possible to adjust the texture UV direction? Specifically with wood this is important so it looks reasonable and not patched randomly onto the model.

Like in this image I positioned the direction so that the veneer flow is correct and also added a different wood texture for the sides.

I noticed that very often all major CAD packages fail at that, Rhino offers such UV mapping controls.

[deyop · Accepted solution]

Actually the default scale for material images such as wood grain is in centimeters.  I am attaching a video that will give you some direction on modifying a material.  Essentially the Autodesk Library contains all the potential materials.  You can select and apply these directly but if you want to customize a material it will be placed in your Favorites library.  This is stored on your computers disk and will be available each time you open the Material Editor.  When you edit the material you are editing the version in your Favorites library.  You can also create additional libraries where you can store and edit materials to your requirements.

We are currently working on projection mapping which should help when applying materials such as wood so they are mapped to the entire body instead of on a face by face basis.  You could also start from scratch with a "Generic" material and map an image you prefer.

 Wood Material Editing

[PaulMunford]

Thanks deyop,

Could you share that link again? - it appears to be broken...

Note that I didn't ask if I could create a better expreience when applying wood materials to models - I asked if the Fusion 360 team could do it better 😉

An interesting note about editing your own materials though. If the edited materials are stored locally, how do I share them with my collegues?

[deyop]

You save custom materials to a library and share that with a colleagues.  There is a dropdown in the lower left corner of the Material Browser where you can manage libraries.  Then right mouse button on any material to "Add to Library". That library is creates an .adsklib file which can be shared with anyone and contains the stored materials.

[PaulMunford]

So - with a number of people on the same project working on the same files, would we need to send each other the Materials library everytime we add something new, or can this be put on a local server so that it can be updated for everybody?

[deyop]

If everyone has access to the server it should work but I will check to confirm. 

To clarify, materials are always modified in the library and then applied to the bodies or components.  The materials stored with the document are only light weight representations with limited ability to edit.  This means there is reliance on utilizing a common library of materials instead of transporting independent materials with each document.  It also makes the files much smaller for improved loading speed.

Let us know what you think about this strategy.

[deyop]

Sorry for the delay in getting a video link.  You can see the video here:

Editing Wood Materials

[PaulMunford]

Thanks for the Film - good work that man.

As a strategy, I would rather my custom materials be saved in the cloud. If I am working as part of a team I don't want to have to export a materials library out to my local PC and then have to import it onto each persons machine. This is waaaay too old school 😉

I'd also like it If I didn't have to customize the OOTB content to use Fusion. I completely understand that you can't include every species of wood in your materials editor out of the box. But If you do include it - it should look like wood when I use it right? I shouldn't have to re-scale it and save out a different version before I can even complete my first design.

What do you think - You have some great graphics guys at Autodesk, Surely it's not too much to ask to get some decent pictures of wood grain into the product?

[cekuhnen]

With the selected 480 quality setting it is very hard to see clearly the texture differences as well as reading the Fusion360 interface well.

720 will be a great option for this.

[deyop]

I have to confess my ignorance of how the setting can be modified. The original is a much clearer MP4 with a size of 1000X614.   Any guidance is appreciated.

[cekuhnen]

What software are you using? I think as it looks you screen recorded in a higher resolution and then converted it down to a smaller format when exporting from you screen recording software.

I use Screenflow on my Mac side and you can shrink the video to any size you want. Maybe a setting you overlooked?

Let me know if this helped!