Over the last several months the Fusion 360 software has made huge strides. The product has increased in stability, a number of additional functions have been implemented in both the modeling and sculpting environment, and the ability to showcase various textures, which is what we are going to look at here. In particular, our wood materials are awesome. We have 17 different types that include cherry, bamboo, mahogany, oak and pine. They all look fantastic:
The visualization is really useful for conveying functional information too. For instance, using “contour mapping” allows you to explicitly show wood grain orientation. Right click on the body or component you want to adjust and select Texture Map Controls. Then select Planar and choose the axis you want the grain to be aligned with:
Grain Aligned with Y-axis: Grain Aligned with Z-axis:
For even more fun, don’t forget to try a “spherical” texture map! You’ll get some really compelling and unique renderings!
I’d love to see some of the great textures that you have used, both wood and otherwise. Why not post them to the gallery and tell us what worked for you?