brick texture

[Anonymous]

hi everyone!

i would really appreciate any help here! so here's the thing:

i would like to try out different textures on my brick facade (see screenshot) and up until now i have been modelling single bricks out of slabs and copying them to generate the desired texture. my question is:

- is there a way to define these patterns as objects or even better as a wall material? or is there any other Suggestion how to do this in a more time and Memory consuming way?

thank you in advance!

[Erwin Edel]

As long as the pattern is fairly repetitive, I'd use a texture and/or vectorial pattern.

Textures you'd have to make in some photo editing software.

Custom vectorial fills are fairly easy to make using lines and where needed some hotspots.

Tiny engineering rant: I've seen a lot of examples of intricate brick patterns recently in NL that are ignoring the strengths and weaknesses of masonry. Projects that were featured heavily in the magazines 5-10 years ago and are now sometimes literally falling apart. Something to consider

example:
http://www.architectuur.org/images/neutelings03_3.jpg
http://www.bouwwereld.nl/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/nico2-1024x685.jpg

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your quick reply!

i'm not quite sure i understand what you mean by vectorial Patterns though. i would like to create the 3d effect (shadows, lighting..etc ) that's why i'm not using texture mapping. my question was if it's possible to define 3d Patterns and use those on walls for example.

as for the Engineering rant: it's a ventilated clinker facade attatched to a concrete structure using Halfen consoles so i wouldn't worry about it falling apart in the next 5-10 years! 😉

[Erwin Edel]

If it must be 3d and you want to repeat it around fairly easily, you could save your slabs as a custom curtain wall panel and make a curtain wall grid with empty panels and filled panels with your custom panel. That's the quickest 'dirty' fix I can think of that doesn't require using the wall accesoires addon and some fancy programming.

You could set up a little 3D work shop on a separate story somewhere below your model and try out different combinations there and saving them as panels.

[Anonymous]

You could use a pattern of fills as a Complex Profile and using either a wall or beam extrude the pattern perpendicular to your main wall.