FreeFormElements should hold UV parametric spaces for the right Texture Mapping just like DirectShape do, or DirectShapes should support Material Parameters

[nandor_csapko]

Dear Revit Development Team,

FreeFormElements currently flips the UV parametric spaces  of  Faces of the Solids in an awkward way depending on the FreeFormElements direction, which destroys the right/predictable texture mappings which normally should calculated using UV space of Faces.

At the same time, DirectShapes (which do the textures mappings in the right way, and calculate them by the UV space of Faces)  are not able to handle material parameters, so  dynamic (maybe textured) materials are not possible using them, and - further more - there are no visibility settings can be applied to them.

As currently no other Geometry Container possible in Revit, these facts mean that currently Revit can't handle dynamic textured materials on the right way.

You have two half solutions now. You should add material parameters and visibility settings to DirectShapes just like you do in case of FreeFormElement or you should not flip UV spaces of FreeFormElements just like you do in case of DirectShapes.

See my notes at Revit API forum, for further deatils.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-api-forum/directshapes-vs-freeformelements-vs-texture-mapping/m...

Wishing you the best in 2023,

Nandor Csapko