material maps from SHAPE are not working in Bricscad V19

Horia
Horia
in 3D Modeling

I made a 3d-model in Shape, setup materials. (File attached here!)
Then I opened it in Bricscad and the materials do not display correctly.
When opening the materials in the Material Editor, one can see that the MAPS (raster image files) are missing.
For some reasons, Bricscad searches for them at a location that does not exist...
See attached screenshot:
the red coloured path for the maps shows that the requested map was not found!
The path where Bricscad is trying to find the maps is only relative, not absolute, so it says: ".../Textures/xyz.png"
I searched in the installation path of SHAPE for those files (maps) but there are no maps there, only... dwg files, for some curious reason...

I hope this matter could be solved!
However, from trying to see if these two softwares are useful for me, I ended doing debugging for Bricsys. Not a glorious time.

Why do two pieces of software produced by the same company have such problems, especially when they are advertised by a lady named Heidi to work seamless together?

Comments

  • Michael Mayer
    Michael Mayer
    edited May 2019

    Menu : File : Package
    Should "export" a DWG including all referenced data like Textures.

    "../" means one Folder above in a File Tree
    So in this case, it expects Image Textures in a Folder "Textures"
    that lays beside the Folder which contains the DWG (?)

    EDIT _
    But "/" forward slashes are for Mac/Free BSD/Unix/Linux Paths.
    That won't work in Windows.

    I did similar from Bricscad today (called eSubmit ?)
    ("eTransmit" in Bricscad or "Package" in Shape)
    Where it creates a Zip or Folder with all Files but without any
    Sub-Folders. Also Bricscad said it will change or adapt
    Reference Paths. Maybe Shape would do the same.

  • Horia
    Horia

    @Michael Mayer
    Thank you for the details! I would have never guessed how it works, especially because there is no reference whatsoever about when and why does one need such an export package (I searched the web before posting here), and the fact that it is called differently in shape and bricscad.
    Also, in some promotional articles, it says that the DWG format can hold all data necessary, even for BIM. So I presumed it will be everything inside.

    Other software tells you if something is missing, in the very moment you open the file, and prompts you to indicate the place where the missing files are located. This helps for a fast and intuitive solving of the problem.

  • Michael Mayer
    Michael Mayer

    when and why does one need such an export package

    This a quasi standard for most 3D and CAD Apps.
    Took me a while to realize in the past too.

    Also, in some promotional articles, it says that the DWG format can hold all data necessary. So I presumed it will be everything inside.

    Vectorworks keeps all resources, except referenced files,
    stored in the design file. That has also pros and cons.
    Not sure about Texture Images included in DWG or just linked by
    (absolute ?) paths. I think export formats like FBX can embed them.
    I got DWG Materials into Vectorworks fine so far but would have
    to look deeper at textures.

    even for BIM

    I think it was meant mainly about DWG being improved by Bricscad to
    embed non-standard data like file and numerical data, like BIM
    information, not resource files.

    Other software tells you if something is missing,

    I think Bricscad will also warn you when it misses things like reference files.
    I recently learned that it will also warn about missing Texture Files ...
    but only after you hit "render" for the first time.