Texture shapes

The Texture shapes tool is used for the manual texturing of shapes and individual faces. For the exact texture mapping, several modes are available. You can open the tool the following ways:

  • Click the Texture shapes tool .
  • Click Shapes > Texture Shapes... in the main menu.
  • Drag and drop an image file from the Navigator onto shapes.
Note:

The tool dialogs are usually modal, i.e. they stay in front of the CityEngine main window to allow repeated application to different shape selections.

Choose a texture image

The Texture shapes tool provides a simple and interactive means for texture assignment. The image the user wants to use as a texture may be chosen as follows:

  • Select the Browse/pick... button and browse to the file within the project. The upcoming dialog also shows (at the bottom) a list of images which are already used in the current selection.
  • Select or drag-and-drop in an image file from the Navigator.

The following is a list of the Texture shapes tool parameters:

Orientation Alignment

Select an orientation for the following parameters, either global or local.

Rotation

Correct the image orientation by the following three options in 'Image Transformation' group:

  • Rotation: None | 90º counter clock wise | 180º | 90º clock wise | Arbitrary
  • Flip horizontally
  • Flip vertically

Arbitrary Rotation

Specify an arbitrary rotation angle in degrees, if Rotation above is set to "Arbitrary".

Texture Coordinates Mapping Mode

(see below for examples)

There are four modes with according attributes for the texture coordinate mapping, which are specified in the 'Texture Coordinates Mapping' group:

  • Keep current mapping

    Leaves the currently set mapping (no attributes).

  • Stretch to polygon

    This mode is used for stretching the texture across the selected face. Note that if entire shapes are selected, the texture is stretched across all present coplanar face groups.

    • Align to: Bottom left corner | Bottom right corner | Top left corner | Top right corner (has only an effect if one of the repetition numbers is not a whole number).
    • Horizontal repetitions: number of times the texture is repeated horizontally (decimal number allowed).
    • Vertical repetitions: number of times the texture is repeated horizontally (decimal number allowed).

  • Dimension

    This mode allows the user to set the actual dimension of the used texture.

    • Align to: Bottom left corner | Bottom right corner | Top left corner | Top right corner
    • Absolute texture width: given in meters.
    • Snap horizontally to bounds: stretches the given texture's width such that it horizontally fits the selected face with a whole number of repetitions.
    • Absolute texture height: given in meters.
    • Snap vertically to bounds: stretches the given texture's height such that it vertically fits the selected face with a whole number of repetitions.

Scene selection issues

The Texture shapes tool acts a little differently depending on the scene selection (colored blue):

  • Single or multiple face selection: The texture is individually applied to each selected face.
  • Single or multiple shape selection: The texture is individually applied to each group of coplanar faces within the selection.

Examples

Stretch to Polygon: using 1.8 horizontal repetitions, 1.3 vertical repetitions with Align to Top left corner

Dimension: using Absolute texture width 5.75, Absolute texture height 8.0, Align to Bottom right corner. And snap horizontally to bounds, so the texture fits exactly three times.