Photowallpaper on a wall in archicad 13 is it possible

[Anonymous]

How the hack you put a picture on wall in archicad so it can be rendered later. I have some images that i want to place on my walls instead off textures/colours that are available is this possible.

[Laszlo Nagy]

You should use the library part called "Picture 13" for this.
Enable the "Use Custom Picture" parameter and specify the name of the picture file.

[Anonymous]

Are you talking about hanging a picture on the wall like a painting in a frame or applying a texture to the surface of the wall itself? Both are easy but quite different processes.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like wall rendering instead of pictures in frames. This is actually a fairly advanced subject with books and training written about it. However, here's a quick and dirty introduction:

Begin by looking at an existing material, for example: aged copper. Here's how: >Options, >Element Attributes, > Materials. Click on the "create preview with" button and select "Lightworks Rendering". Look into the Class: Colour, note that Graphisoft Masked Image is selected. Under file name there is Aged Copper. Click on the aged copper file name and then you will see a search window open lower down, clicking on this search feature will lead you eventually to the actual jpg image. It takes a lot of hunting to find where any given file is, AC will not "remember" file structures to help you find locations. Each time you have to start over and hunt again.

What is happening is that the jpg file Aged Copper, is being called up and applied to the material named Aged Copper via a shader called "Graphisoft Masked Image". You can create any simple wall texture with this method. Each shader is a powerful tool for image handling, therein lies the complexity of render materials.

Each class of shaders, ie colour, reflectance, transparency, texture space, etc will affect your material, play with them. Always duplicate an original material to a copy, use the copy to experiment with the settings!

Pay particular attention to:
File location of your image or texture.
Rebuild the library every time you change or add a material image.
Note you have to create a "look" for your material in all 3D modes; Lightworks, OpenGL and Internal Engine. Each one will behave differently.

Most existing materials use a rather small image sample to reduce file size, it takes experience to make a texture that reduces moire and obvious repeat patterns in the final rendering.

Enjoy,
Snap
PS Billboard is a cutout or mask effect using materials - very useful. Also, just search the forum, you'll find tips for materials and rendering all over the place.

[Anonymous]

laszlonagy wrote:
You should use the library part called "Picture 13" for this.
Enable the "Use Custom Picture" parameter and specify the name of the picture file.

Try as I might, it would not work Where should I place the image file? Should I specify the whole path or just the filename?

Sincerely yours

Jan Pociej

[Anonymous]

Place your image in a sub directory of the AC Library. If you did a standard install on a Windows machine, here is a good place for it:
C:\Program Files\Graphisoft\ArchiCAD 13\ArchiCAD Library 13\[TImg] Textures 13\Pictures 13\mypicture.jpg

Once there, you follow Lazlo's instructions, write the name of the file (without extension) in the "Use custom picture" spot. Just the name of the file, no path.

Snap

[Anonymous]

snapcrackle wrote:
Place your image in a sub directory of the AC Library. If you did a standard install on a Windows machine, here is a good place for it:
C:\Program Files\Graphisoft\ArchiCAD 13\ArchiCAD Library 13\[TImg] Textures 13\Pictures 13\mypicture.jpg

Once there, you follow Lazlo's instructions, write the name of the file (without extension) in the "Use custom picture" spot. Just the name of the file, no path.

Snap

Good Lord! It works!!!

God bless you!

Jan Pociej

[David Maudlin]

snapcrackle wrote:
Place your image in a sub directory of the AC Library. If you did a standard install on a Windows machine, here is a good place for it:
C:\Program Files\Graphisoft\ArchiCAD 13\ArchiCAD Library 13\[TImg] Textures 13\Pictures 13\mypicture.jpg

For custom library parts and images, you should create a new folder outside the ArchiCAD folder and add it via the Library Manager. Custom files and folders added to the ArchiCAD Library will be lost if/when the ArchiCAD Library is updated or if ArchiCAD is reinstalled. For ArchiCAD 13, the image could be added to the Embedded Library, which makes it part of the pln file.

David

[Karl Ottenstein]

Just jumping in to second David's advice. Seriously, never add things to the standard library folders. Create a 'Company Library' folder and a 'Project Library' folder, in the least, and add things there ... and possibly add other libraries as needed.

I just dealt with a disastrously slow set of project files because the draftsman had copied every library under the sun into the ArchiCAD 12 library folder... loading dozens of unnecessary libraries as a result, when all that was needed was the 12 lib.

Keep it clean. 😉

Karl

[Anonymous]

Karl / David,
thanks 4 the sage advice.
snap