I’m looking to replicate this crocodile leather texture using NURBS modeling only
Can anyone point me in the right direction? Is it possible?
depends what you need the texture for in the end. you can of course make a physical texture by using heightfield for instance. the outcome could be mesh or a nurbs patch. all you have to do would be to clear up the input texture so that the indentations get black or white and the sublime parts opposite.
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The texture will be used on a production part and the engineering team is requesting a .step file only.
We have been able to successfully create the file using mesh. I tried to use reduce mesh, then mesh to nurbs. Unfortunately the quality is sacrificed a lot, and crashes my computer when I try the mesh to nurbs command…
Typically texturing as you have shown is acid etched or in recent years laser etched into the mold and is not milled from the CAD file.
If you are being asked to provide the texture in the 3D CAD, that might be a sign that the company you are working with does not understand the industry standards for how this work is typically done.
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hi Jenna, Rhino 7 has a remarkable feature called quadremesh which lets you rebuild your mesh to subd and the result can be turned into nurb if you are already that far. that may help you. it also takes hard edges into account or you can use curves to indicate hard edges and to substitute the arrangements of the mesh.
alternatively if you need utmost precision and nurbs outcome you might have to change the tags to grasshopper or post this once again under the grasshopper category. if you provide more detailed textures and example somebody might join the conversation.
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This is what I suspected also! Thanks for confirming this 
I am in the process of reaching out to MoldTech, perhaps they will be able to assist with our custom texture
Great! I haven’t heard of this feature since I am still on Rhino 6.
Think I’ll download a trial and see how this feature works
I 100% agree… you are dealing with a client who does not know how this is done. Most competent tools shops will etch or modtec this. Modeling this in the part is an exercise in insanity. If you are successful your parts will be many many gb large and make everyone in the production pipeline crazy.
You can machine mesh parts, you just need a shop that knows how to do it.