Adding textures (newbie and using 1.4.1)

[psycholinguist]

Hello!

I'm trying to create some 3D models of my furniture. I got pretty far reading tutorials and such (after giving up on Blender and finding Wings 3D... Wings 3D saved my project).

But I'm having some problems adding a wooden texture to some faces in the model. I must say, I have an old Mac OS (10.6.8) and don't really want to update, so I had to install Wings 3D version 1.4.1.

Problem 1) I didn't really want to use BMPs for my external texture files, but when I tried to change the extension to JPG or PNG, Wings told me I couldn't save the file under that name: "The required extension is BMP".

Problem 2) After editing the external file in the Gimp, I tried loading it by right-clicking on "cube1_auv.bmp" in the Outliner. However, the pop-up menu there doesn't contain "Refresh". It only has "Show", "Make External", "Exxport", "Duplicate", "Delete", "Rename" and "Pick up Image".

How can I fix these problems? I really hope these aren't known bugs in 1.4.1 with no way around them...

Can someone help me?
Thanks!

[micheus]

Hi psycholinguist, welcome to Wings3d and our community.

I can't say nothing about the file format restriction, since I don't have a Mac, but about the Refresh be absent that is happen because you are using a Internal image - it needs to be a external in order Wings3d knows that can reload it. (note the menu option Make External)

If you already have a external texture, then you can use the File->Load Image and then in the Outline window select it and drag over the material. When you release the mouse button you will be prompted about the texture type and you should choose Diffuse. After that, you can delete the old internal one.

[psycholinguist]

Hey,

Thanks for the answer. I think I clicked the "Make external" twice inadvertently, so it changed to "make internal" and back, which explains why "Refresh" was not available.

I have since then deleted my file completely and started from scratch again several times. Sometimes the problem with the file format shows up, sometimes I can use any format I want. I don't why.

Now I have another problem, too. I want wood as a texture for my furniture. So I opened the BMP file in GIMP and used the bucket tool to change it into one of GIMP's wood pattern. Every time, the result looks turquoise in Wings. This happens with all of GIMP's wood pattern, but other textures are fine, and when I preview the BMP in the file manage on the computer, it's fine, too.

[micheus]

So I opened the BMP file in GIMP and used the bucket tool to change it into one of GIMP's wood pattern. Every time, the result looks turquoise in Wings. This happens with all of GIMP's wood pattern, but other textures are fine, and when I preview the BMP in the file manage on the computer, it's fine, too.

Open the image in Gimp again and then use File->Export As...; preserve the name as it is [Export]; [Replace] and in the dialog expand the Compatibility Options and check "Do not write colour space information".
Back to Wings3d, use Refresh option to reload the image. It should looks fine now.

[psycholinguist]

Yes! Thanks, my model is getting better & better :-)

[tkbd]

Hi!! psycholinguist.

Problem 1) I didn't really want to use BMPs for my external texture files, but when I tried to change the extension to JPG or PNG, Wings told me I couldn't save the file under that name: "The required extension is BMP".

I tried it with Wings3D 1.4.1 in MacOSX 10.7.5,and have confirmed the same results..
If use Wings3D Built-in File Dialog,maybe you can save other image formats.
But the Wings3D Built-in Dialog functional is too simple than MacOSX Native's.

Before try follawing way,please save a backup Wings3D Preference.txt file.

For example, you made a directory that named "working", on MacOSX desktop.
The working directory's path is "/Users/(YourUserName)/Desktop/working"
Note: Make sure that there are NO NEARBY file entry of NON-LATIN name in this directory.
This dialog can't read non-Latin charactors,this cause Wings3D'Crush.

STEP 1.
Open Wings3D Prefence.txt for modify,and search following a entry in the file,
{current_directory,"/Users/(UserName)/Desktop/working"}.
... then change a directory-path to working directory.


STEP 2.
Run Wings3D 1.4.1

STEP 3.
Un-check an entry "Mac OS File Dialog" in the File menu of Wings3D.
This mean for using Wings3D Built-in File Dialog.

STEP 4.
This dialog is invoked when does Open/Save/Export/Import commands from menu.
In the dialog to export the texture,it is now possible to select the image format(png etc...).

Important Note (Again):
Be carefully, changing a directory when using Built-in Dialog.
This dialog can't read non-Latin charactors.

When you tried display to current directory...
if non-latin name files are contain in same the directory level.
Wings3D will be Crush!

Move non-latin named files from current direcoty.
To recovery the state of Wings3D, Check "STEP.1" please.

if you want use Mac OSX dialog ,check an entry "Mac OS File Dialog" in the File menu of Wings3D.

---------
tkbd

(Incidentally, when Wings3D save at native dialog in OSX10.9.4, and by changing the file extension, the file format is changed too.)

[psycholinguist]

Hi,

Thank you for the extensive instructions. By habit, I don't use non-latin characters in my file names anyway. So using Wings built-in dialog works fine for me :-)