Scaling fabric pattern appearance in render studio

Cedric_Eveleigh

I would like to adjust the scale of a carbon fabric pattern appearance in the render studio. The width of the carbon fiber tows (ribbons) shown below is unrealistic for my part because it's too big. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Paul_Arden

@Cedric_Eveleigh it depends on exactly which of the available carbon fiber appearances you have used, however all of them have a parameter to adjust their scale. It is either called "Texture scale" or just "Scale" under the "Transform" group. You can adjust this to change the size of the weave pattern.

Cedric_Eveleigh

@Paul_Arden For the appearances in "vMaterial 2", there isn't a texture scale option for "Carbon fiber - shiny uncoated" but there is for "Carbon fiber - shiny coating". This is odd. Thanks for letting me know about this option.

Paul_Arden

@Cedric_Eveleigh do you have a screenshot of the appearance panel you are seeing since I am definitely seeing the "Texture Scale" parameter in the "Transform" group for both appearances.

Cedric_Eveleigh

For "Carbon fiber - shiny uncoated":

Cedric_Eveleigh

Not sure if I'm halucinating, but I just checked again and the scale option appears to be gone for "shiny coating" as well. 

Paul_Arden

I am definitely seeing it. I assume you are able to scroll the panel ok? There are more settings than can fit on the panel so you definitely need to scroll to see it.

Cedric_Eveleigh

I figured out what's going on. The texture scale option is available right after I drag and drop a carbon fiber appearance onto the part. But if the part already has the appearance and I click on the part and go to the apperance tab, there isn't the option. It seems like the option should be present in that second scenario of having already previously applied a carbon fiber appearance.

Paul_Arden

Looking at your screenshot there, the appearance shown isn't the Carbon Fiber one at all which is why the parameters are missing. My guess is that you are seeing a material assigned at another level of your scene graph. What do you have selected when this comes up? If you are selecting the entire Part Studio or Assembly you'll see the default appearance not the one on the individual parts.

Cedric_Eveleigh

I have the carbon fiber part selected when that shows up. You can see that it's highlighted with an orange boundary and the grey and black parts on the right and left edges of the screenshot aren't highlighted. 

Paul_Arden

Are there any face colours on the part or was it possibly imported geometry that did not have the face colours cleared? While the part may be highlighted, the active appearance can be driven by a few things and doesn't necessarily correspond to the selection shown in the viewport if there are appearances at different levels of the scene graph.

Did you select it from the viewport or scene graph? Does it make a difference which way you select it? Just to note also that the appearance can also be brought up by selecting it in the "Scene appearances" folder in the appearance library.

In any case, it's probably best to file a ticket at this point so we can investigate more fully what you are seeing. When submitting the ticket if you are able to capture a video of the issue that would help a lot in reproducing. Full screenshots showing the scene graph as well could be helpful.

Cedric_Eveleigh

I'm not sure what you mean by face colors.

It doesn't matter if I access the appearance menu for the part by clicking on the 3D model of the part or clicking on the part in the list on the left. In both cases, I don't see a texture scale setting.

For now, I'll just drag and drop the appearance every time I need to change the texture scale.

Paul_Arden

Face colours are appearances assigned to faces, which Onshape itself allows you to do. If geometry is imported (e.g., from a STEP file) then it might also contain these and we map those across to Render Studio so they might still be on the underlying faces if they are there. Without the actual scene (or an example that does the same thing) however I can't really specifically say what's happening there.

One negative to dragging and dropping each time is you are creating new appearances, so for example if you drag and drop onto 5 parts you'd need to change 5 appearances if you decide to come back and edit.

Dragging the first one out from the library and then subsequently dragging it from the "Scene appearances" folder I mentioned earlier avoids that problem and doesn't create extra appearances so then if you want to edit the parameters you only have to do it once. It will also always show that appearances parameters when you pick it in the "Scene appearances" folder since that doesn't rely on the selected parts for that.

Cedric_Eveleigh

Ah, ok. There are no face colors on that part and it's not imported. It's a plain Onshape part.

I'm not seeing the carbon fiber appearance in the "scene appearances" folder. Maybe I'm missing something.

Paul_Arden

In the Scene appearances the name won't be Carbon fiber but you should be able to tell which it is from the thumbnail, if in doubt you can right click it and select the elements it is assigned to to check.

Cedric_Eveleigh

I looked through them and couldn't find one looking like carbon fiber.

Paul_Arden

In my case it looks like this (the CF is the first one). If its assigned to something in the scene then it should definitely appear in that folder.

Cedric_Eveleigh

Ah, I found it. It doesn't look very much like carbon fiber. When I click on that carbon fiber appearance in the scene appearances folder, I have access to the texture scale option. But it seems like this option should also be accessible by clicking on the part and going to the appearances tab. 

Paul_Arden

Yes, it should be accessible if the selected part has it applied, however as mentioned which one is shown can depend on a few factors and without the scene or an example reproducing it I can't really say why you're not seeing it when you pick the part.

Cedric_Eveleigh

Should I submit a support ticket with document access and ask for it to be forwarded to you?

Paul_Arden

Yes since I'm definitely not reproducing what your are seeing with any of the documents or scenes I have.

Cedric_Eveleigh

I created a support ticket and Lauren Little replied to it, and the issue is apparently related to the fact that I'm working with a composite part. A possible improvement in the user interface was identified.