Different Displacement Map on Two Surfaces of the Same Closed Solid Polysurface

Rendering
1

Hi all,

My first post on this forum! I have been searching through this site and others trying to find an answer to this problem. I am hoping someone can help here.

I have a cube where I want one surface to have a certain displacement map. On the opposite surface I want a different displacement map applied. I can explode the solid and apply them separately to each face, but the problem is that I want to 3D print the part after applying the maps. When I try to join them back together, one of the displacement maps takes over and one is lost. How do I use two different displacement maps on a single solid and keep the model ‘watertight’ so that I can 3D print afterwards?

2

a workaround could be exporting it as STL and make it “solid” later in MeshMixer for example

3

Hi,

Sub-object select (ctrl+shift+click) a face on the cube and then apply the displacement in the Properties panel > Displacement. The render mesh will still join to the adjacent sides. I find it is also helpful to first make sure the cube is a polysurface and not an extrusion (Explode > Join). Then give it a custom render mesh with lots of polys for the base mesh the displacement will use. Then after the displacement looks as you want, use ExtractRenderMesh to get a version you can export for 3D printing as an STL.

1 Like
4

Thanks! I was able to create different materials and displacements on the two surfaces, but when I sub-object select, the option to create a texture map (I.E. box mapping) disappears from my menu. I am not able to change the size or orientation of the texture using the mapping widget. Is this still possible?

5

I got it. Thanks very much for the help. I sub-object selected each side of the cube and applied the texture and displacement I wanted. Then I selected the entire cube and applied the box mapping. I am able to scale the size of the texture together. That should work ok for now. If I wanted to scale the texture separately on each side, is that possible?

6

Sorry, no this is a limitation of sub-object materials with textures (whether displacement or material). I have been hoping we could add the ability for some time and it’s filed as RH-43249. I added your vote to the open feature request.

7

Note that you still can play with the texture mapping settings offset, repeat and rotation.

8

I would unwrap the texture UV of the object and assign the displacement like needed for each part of the object. So, the object stays watertight.

image

9

I like @Micha’s idea and that should work too but you’ll have to make a custom displacement map texture that includes the multiple patterns and a separate material color texture I think. I’m guessing without seeing what the design is.

10

Brian James, thanks very much! Your clear and concise explanation just ended days of failed experimentation.

The only thing that would have made it better would be a statement in in that said, “Displacement Maps are a way to create a 3D printable texture on an object.” so the search engines would find this thread before I found out that fact – because darn near no one looking for how to apply texture to a surface would say, “Gosh, golly! I bet the word to search on is Displacement!”

Hopefully the above will help with the search results for other folks.

1 Like