Wood grain texture Custom Feature

TimRice · January 2020

Often when modeling furniture and other objects created from wood I want to communicate the orientation of the wood grain on a part. This eliminates confusion when creating the parts in the workshop. To solve this I created a Wood grain texture custom feature! This low resolution feature is intended to demonstrate the overall grain direction without degrading performance with too much detail.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/au/8nxdv41y8cyq.png

Add to your toolbar here:
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/f5cd9f4b2ec8e9eea7266f1e/v/59e3340e9e7ef9d664172a84/e/595af5842cd8801d37dc3da5

john_mcclary · January 2020

Ha! that's pretty cool!

Would have been easier if y'all would add colored faces/textures

TimRice · February 2020

Updated V1.1.5 now supports multiple orthogonal faces on input for more realistic grain mapping:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/xw/u1tu9wn7plib.png

Check it out!
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/f5cd9f4b2ec8e9eea7266f1e/v/37c68c0d9ae053e9f22e23b6/e/595af5842cd8801d37dc3da5

Cache_River_Mill · March 2020

Thank you!

Cache_River_Mill · March 2020

Wood Grain feedback:

This is probably the most well made custom feature I have used.

I only ran into a few issues.
The grain "sketch" was not large enough for large parts and would only put grain on a portion of the part. - (Consider having the sketch stretch to fit the selected part)
The grain was not dense enough to see easily on small parts. - (Consider adding the option to have more or less dense grain)

Again, very nice feature!

david_mcmahon · March 2020

I agree with the stretch comment. Changing the density of the grain pattern would be an awesome enhancement. Also, a few instructions regarding locating the origin would be helpful.

TimRice · March 2020

@cache_river_millworks Thank you for the feedback! Which grain pattern are you using that is not large enough? You should be able to use a Linear feature pattern with Apply per instance on for larger pars. A screenshot of the use case would be great.

@david_mcmahon Thanks I will add some info on setting the origin in the FS doc.

Cache_River_Mill · March 2020

This is would be one example, but being in the wood industry, it will be most helpful if we can apply the grain to almost any size of material. We use very long boards, and very tiny boards as well. It is hard to use this unless it is a specific size of material.

I was attempting to use the feature to show that there will be grain on these portions of the cabinet when viewed from the side for architectural drawings. The grain was not large enough to fit on all of the portions. I tried using the linear pattern and switching the grain up, but it would not come out quite right. I think being able to select how close together the grain is and to be able to pick any size of part, will be useful.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/79/tsemru5vgd04.jpg

TimRice · March 2020

@cache_river_millworks
Great, thank you for the example! In this case I would imagine you would need to apply an individual feature for each major part. Then you can use a Feature linear pattern with Apply per instance workflow that I mentioned above. You can control the interval between pattern instances to get a repeating end grain across the given part. The trick here is to offset the origin so only a portion of the grain pattern fits on the part:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/pd/mqq60vgy6qat.png

I also can see the need to control the overall scale of the pattern. I will work towards adding this in the future!

Cache_River_Mill · March 2020

Great work! We appreciate it.

TimRice · March 2020

@cache_river_millworks @david_mcmahon

Added a scale input and instructional PDF in V1.2.3! Just update the reference in your toolbar to get the latest features!

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/vi/6excgvpmwx4y.png

Cache_River_Mill · March 2020

Legit! We will be using this for our production drawings.

Thank you!

TimRice · September 2020

Big update in V2.0.5 to make the feature dialog much easier to use and more efficient. Also added a new Sheet option with a more realistic pattern. Update the feature or add to your toolbar to get the latest!

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/ku/q9wytg0lmueg.png

Cache_River_Mill · September 2020

Excellent work!

Theo_R · September 2020

Brilliant. Thank you.

MichaelPascoe · September 2020

Tried it out today. It's so user friendly now, nice work!

harry_rawlins · January 2021

how do u use it

TimRice · January 2021

@harry_rawlins
First you can add it to your toolbar:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/d6/9y3q1slv3hol.png

and then apply it to entire parts:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/bs/s37u04lrmp60.gif

ryan_mcgoldrick47 · January 2021

Just used this today for some fun to improve the look in the workspace.

If anyone needs a 3D printable Desktop monitor stand/riser quick and dirty model, but should work fine.
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/8f1c02b49f744604f6da68c5/w/e1a6bb0fb9cf01d0a2238898/e/a9cca57a6d711aaac1ae0b3e

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/5e/sicdaja2w0gk.png

joseph_murphy146 · April 26

This is great! Thanks for sharing. This comment might be a duplicate, not sure where my original went but anyway. Couple questions: I see a mention of offsetting the origin but other than picking one of the corners or center of a face, I don't know how to move the origin somewhere else, like offset from the face itself for example. Also, I move the slider at the bottom to dial down the transparency but how can I get this transparency to stick? i.e., I want to tone down the grain lines a bit but not sure how to do so. Any guidance appreciated! Thanks! Joe

edit: figured out how to offset the origin by just clicking on the mate connector box in the wood grain pop-up.

john_mcclary · April 26

Since decals became available, this is basically obsolete.

I just google an image of wood, then add it to the faces of the part.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/wl/oqyipw2oi19u.png

here is the raw image you can download for plywood:

rick_randall · April 26

Hey John, How did you treat the edges of the plywood? Or would that be going overboard?

john_mcclary · April 26

I just made the part base color sorta match the wood tone.

but if I wanted more clearity I would go download a side view image of plywood then make it long enough in MSPAINT...

That's how I did the brushes on that project

Obviously I couldn't find matching colors for bristles when I did it, but the representation is there. In this case it looked better this way rather than having a smooth face. But for the wood handle, I didn't bother with wood texture, since it looks good enough to get the idea across that it's a hand brush

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/wu/det6g3xsyfg3.png

On that note:
the plywood got nixed before release, so we went with a pallet,
Since a pallet is obvious, I didn't find the need to texture it with wood, just a wood tone.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/2n/soleewvysu5u.png

I only did the bristles and plywood, because it made it easier for the customer to identify everything from a PDF assembly.
and also because we do a lot with sheet metal, and I have seen them burn a piece of 1/2" sheetmetal on the laser to make a part, because they didn't check the material was plywood

lol

joseph_murphy146 · April 26

I dunno about "obsolete." I for one like the look and functionality of this wood grain custom feature.

john_mcclary · April 27

Don't get me wrong, it's cool.

but you're going to take a performance hit by using it

rick_randall · April 27

TimRice, I do like you're F.S., and probably will use it for small projects, but I also like john's approach as well - and can envision using a hybrid version of the two together. And by the way John, I have a broom in my garage that looks exactly like your brush (two tone color and all) lol - nice texture work

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