Normally our surfaces for th emoulds we build are needed to be smooth. I have a client wanting a coarse sand paper etch effect and now were stuck! I need to be able to machine the model by 3axis at the end of the day and with small tools. If this is not possible then we are pushed down the route of spark erosion and blasting the final mould with grit!
Thanks in advance.
Hi, you don’t say what your mould is to be used for. Nor why the client wants a course sand paper effect. But in case you are dealing with resin products, might this be an alternative to difficult/impossible machining?
https://www.resincoat.co.uk/en/high-build-epoxy/133-resincoat-anti-slip-floor-paint.html?bt_product_attribute=25349&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0brtBRDOARIsANMDykYmtXQz3vt0U1wZ4HREK6ryMxq3H60pMj2xzUv-Cr6s1RpI_r-5IOcaApx0EALw_wcB#/size-1kg/colour-clear/profile-coarse
Thanks Jeremy your solution would not apply to the moulds in question. The cavities are quite small and the moulds are metal. We are interested in applying textures to surfaces (could be logos I guess too) and then machining them. This client wants an abrasive texture on their product. The depth of texturing should be <0.8mm.
Thanks again!
You could use the Displacement modifier with a Grit Bump Texture and fine settings according to your specifications.
Extracting the render mesh of a displaced surface will give you the texture “baked” onto the mesh representation of the surface.
Be careful though, displacement creates huge meshes.
(At the settings i show here, the rendermesh is around 390mb)
Hi @lando.schumpich,
What tooling would you use to produce this surface on the OP’s 3-axis?
I didn’t consider how to machine this in 3 axes, actually I’m quite certain the example i posted would be pretty much impossible to mill as the curvature is too high. I guess to really know if the sand-paper effect can be feasibly achieved on a geometry level we would need to know more about the specifications.
For pieces with flat-ish sides displacement can certainly work, also for things like logos.
@paul11, I added a cnc tag to the topic to notify people in that arena.
Thanks Lando, we will take a look at this method.
Thanks Jeremy. We are being asked to texture mould surfaces more & more…I wonder if creating a pattern and using GH might be a fast and lightweight way to go? I have never used GH but perhaps it is time we looked into it 
Is this any help: https://www.lightmotif.nl/mold-texturing
Thank You and apologies for my slow response. We used a combincation of meshes/surfs and then some trick d-bit cutters to machine the surface, it worked really well but in the end and after all the efforts the client wanted smooth!!!
Keep well, Paul
How do I control the ratio of the image scale to the object per say?
