How to Create a Textured Design in Materialise 3-matic

No time to watch the complete video? Jump to the topics of your interest with the time stamps below.

• Adding a leather texture 0:26
• Alignment of a texture 2:50
• Fading of a texture 5:13
• Creating a perforation via patterning 6:54

Adding a leather texture

1. Navigate to the object tree and select the surface that needs to be textured.
2. Creating a UV map:
   1. Go to UV map menu > Create UV map tool
   2. Specify the XYZ to UV factor to obtain an optimal size of the UV grid without additional adjustment after the UV map creation.
   3. Check Launch UV page checkbox OFF and click on ‘Apply’ to create the UV map.
3. Adding 2D texture to the UV map:
   1. Go to Texturing menu > UV based texture.
   2. Select the previously created UV map as an input entity by clicking on it in the object tree.
   3. Browse to the texture file via the image browser dialogue box and select the desired texture from the folder.
   4. To ensure that the 2D texture is being added all across the UV map, the Tile checkbox should be ON. Click ‘Apply’ to run the operation.
4. Convert 2D texture to 3D texture:
   1. Go to Texturing menu > 3D Texture
   2. Select the textured UV map as input entity from the object tree or alternatively from the 3-matic work area.
   3. Check Use existing values checkbox OFF and specify the White offset and Black offset parameters.
   4. Keep Reduce checkbox checked ON to reduce number of triangles while generating the result.
   5. Once all parameters are defined, click ‘Apply’.

Alignment of a texture

1. Creating a UV map:
   1. Go to UV map menu > Create UV map tool
   2. Select the connected surfaces you would like to put texture on. They appear as input entities in the operation page.
   3. Check Single UV map checkbox ON to have the selected surfaces being UV parametrized in one single UV map.  
   4. Check Preserve surface connections option ON to ensure that the connected surfaces preserve their connection in UV map. This ensure that the texture will seamlessly continue over the different surfaces later on.
   5. Specify the XYZ to UV factor to obtain an optimal size of the UV grid without additional adjustment after the UV map creation.
   6. Make sure that Launch UV page checkbox is ON and run the operation by clicking ‘Apply’.
2. Positioning of UV regions in the UV page:
   1. Select the UV regions in the object tree while holding the Ctrl button to highlight them all together.
   2. Go to UV map menu > Rotate UV region tool. Drag the rotation handle to roughly adjust position of the UV regions in UV page.
3. Repeat the unit cell: Create Unit Graph > Select desired Graph set > Select desired graph size and Method > Apply
4. Local alignment of UV regions in UV map:
   1. Go to UV map menu > Align UV. This tool helps to align single or multiple UV regions by specifying the direction for parts of the UV region border according to U and V.
   2. Select the UV map as input entity.
   3. Select ‘Manual (Open surface)’ as a Method.
   4. Select Entities (surface fins, contours or subcontours) that need to be aligned to U or V direction depending on desired orientation of UV grid.
   5. To control the length of selected entities in UV space, you can optionally specify a Preferred length value.
   6. Click on ‘Add’ to populate an Overview list with predefined alignment constraints.
   7. Repeat steps 3.4 till 3.6 until all alignments are specified
   8. Once all required parameters are correct, click ‘Apply’.
5. Adding 2D texture to the UV map:
   1. Go to Texturing menu > UV based texture.
   2. Select the previously created UV map as an input entity by clicking on it in the object tree.
   3. Browse to the texture file via the image browser dialogue box and select the desired texture from the folder.
   4. To ensure that the 2D texture is being added all across the UV map, the Tile checkbox should be ON. Click ‘Apply’ to run the operation.

Fading of a texture

1. Creating a UV map:
   1. Go to UV map menu > Create UV map tool
   2. Select the surface that needs to be textured in the object tree or from the work area.
   3. Specify the XYZ to UV factor to obtain an optimal size of the UV grid without additional adjustment after the UV map creation.
   4. Click ‘Apply’.
2. Adding 2D texture to the UV map:
   1. Go to Texturing menu > UV based texture.
   2. Select the previously created UV map as an input entity by clicking on it in the object tree.
   3. Browse to the texture file via the image browser dialogue box and select the desired texture from the folder.
   4. To ensure that the 2D texture is being added all across the UV map, the Tile checkbox should be ON. Click on ‘Apply’ to run the operation.
3. Create fading effect of the 2D texture
   1. Navigate to Texturing menu > Fade texture tool. Select the texture on which the fading effect needs to be applied. You can find it under UV map in the object tree.
   2. Choose the Fading guide(s), which can be one or multiple contours or curves from your part towards which the texture should be faded out.
   3. Specify the Influence distance value that determines how far the fading gradient will be applied over the image
   4. Select the Falloff curve to define the shape of the fading gradient effect and specify the Fading color.
   5. Click ‘Apply’.
4. Convert 2D texture to 3D Texture:
   1. Go to Texturing menu > 3D Texture
   2. Select the newly created faded UV map as input entity from the object tree or alternatively from the 3-matic work area.
   3. Check Use existing values checkbox OFF and specify the White offset and Black offset parameters.
   4. Keep Reduce checkbox checked ON to reduce number of triangles while generating the result.
   5. Once all parameters are defined, click ‘Apply’.

Creating a perforation via patterning

1. Specify a pattern entity.
   1. Either import or create a patterning object, e.g. a cylinder.
   2. Go to Design menu >Create Cylinder.
   3. Specify the correct dimensions and click ‘Apply’.
2. Creating a UV map:
   1. Go to UV map menu > Create UV map tool
   2. Select the surface on which the patterning and perforation needs to be applied in the object tree or from the work area.
   3. Specify the XYZ to UV factor to obtain an optimal size of the UV grid without additional adjustment after the UV map creation.
   4. Click ‘Apply’.
3. Use UV-based rectangular pattern tool to perforate the surface:
   1. Go to Texturing menu > UV based rectangular pattern operation.
   2. Select the UV map that you just created.
   3. Select the cylinder as Pattern entity.
   4. Specify that the Output pattern is set to ‘With deformation’. By choosing this option you allow the shape of the holes being deformed by stretching effect of the UV map.
   5. Define the relative distance between pattern entities in UV space by Margin U and Margin V parameters. NOTE: this distance is expressed in UV dimensions and thus depends on the XYZ to UV factor that was specified in a previous step.
   6. As holes need to be punched inside the surface, make sure the negative Height offset value is used.
   7. Select ‘Subtract results’ as a desired result.
   8. Click ‘Apply’.