Imported background textures

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Christopher H4 asked May 17, '21 Christopher H4 commented May 26, '21

Imported background textures

I've recently imported an 3D scan of our work environment as a background in FlexSim via the visuals-> model background feature.

However, the image appears as a solid color for all surfaces (surfaces and point cloud imported fine).

I also have a .tif file available that has the texture information of the surfaces for my background image. I couldn't find anything in either the properties or the model background import tool that would allow me to update what these surfaces from an external file.

How can I update the background image to reflect my that which is in my texture file?

Software Version:

FlexSim 20.2.3

flexsim 20.2.3 model background

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Ben Wilson ♦♦ commented · May 17, 2021 at 10:12 PM

@Christopher H4,

What is the file format of the 3D scan?

Have you tried importing that shape in as a 3D object, rather than as a background or floorplan?

What program did you use to produce/export the 3D scan? What other export options are there? Can it export to .fbx or any of FlexSim's other supported formats?

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Christopher H4 commented · May 18, 2021 at 06:25 PM

The software used to generate the files is Autodesk Civil 3D. I have exported both the 3D surface (dwg and dxf) and the texture (tif and png) from the same software.

I've just tried importing using a 3D object but I can't even import the 3D surface doing this.

I've since found I can import a texture object in the tree but doing this just changes the color of the surface to a different solid color rather than apply a texture to it.

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Joerg Vogel Christopher H4 commented · May 18, 2021 at 07:49 PM

FlexSim has got not the ability to edit textures for surfaces. You would do this in programs, that exports files with the ability to integrate textures. Those file formats must match with import 3D formats of FlexSim. Then you can import 3D surfaces with textures.

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Answer 1 · 2021-05-18T23:19:30Z

Ben Wilson answered May 18, '21 Christopher H4 commented May 26, '21

As Jörg mentioned, the 3D shape will need to include texture info.

It sounds like you've separately exported 3D geometry, and a render of the texture. However, the separate export doesn't automatically tie the two files together. The 3D shape needs to know how to map the texture onto its geometry. This is the info that would be preserved by exporting to a 3D shape file that includes texture information, like .fbx.

It appears that AutoCAD products (and their verticals like Civil 3D) no longer support .fbx, which is odd because previously this was their interoperability exchange format.

Can you provide the full list of export formats that you have available within your software?

Here are a couple of ideas that could work:

If you have a way to get your environment scan into 3ds Max and then export to .fbx from there, that would probably work.
It looks like Civil 3D might have a Google Earth .kmz export. A .kmz file is just a zipped directory with a collada file and textures in it. You might be able to use that.

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Christopher H4 commented · May 25, 2021 at 03:33 PM

I've gone ahead and manually combined my texture file and my mesh file via Blender and exported to fbx. I've checked various other softwares to ensure that the texture holds to the mesh and they all seem to import the fbx just fine. when I import into FlexSim, no image of any kind appears. Do you know if there are some extra setups to import an fbx into FlexSim?

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Christopher H4 Christopher H4 commented · May 26, 2021 at 02:36 PM

Never mind. It seems the FBX import assigned strange location and scale parameters. when adjusted to reflect the Blender export the background snapped into place with both the mesh and texture intact.

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