Introduction

Every time I tried to create a 3D package for my client in Swift 3D v3, my images became distorted after they were mapped to their pre-sized objects. It took me some time, but I finally got it.

Here are the steps that you’ll need to follow to accomplish image sizing in Swift 3d v3:


1) Prepare 3D Object

Download the file above and open up the cube.t3d file. This file contains a 1 x 1 unit cube that was created in the Extrusion Editor so all 6 sides are separate objects. This can be helpful if you need to map different images onto different surfaces, plus you have more control over how images get mapped to extrusions/lathed objects than primitives.

The cube was built by drawing a 1 x 1 unit cube (with one unit = 10 grid lines) in the Extrusion Editor. The upper left corner of the cube was placed at 0,0 so that the bitmap would begin wrapping from that point (if the cube was centered at 0,0, the bitmap would have mapped starting from the center of the cube instead of the corner).


Back in the scene editor, I changed the depth of the square (under Sizing) to 0 and then made 5 copies and arranged them to form a cube. (The only thing you need to be careful of is keeping the front face of the extrusion outward, so when making the back surface of the cube, you need to rotate the extrusion 180 degrees so that the front is still facing out.)


2) Image Mapping

And finally do a Select All and group the sides together. I would keep this cube.t3d file saved to a safe place for use in future projects so you do not have to create it again. If you have not already, import your bitmap into Swift 3D and set its wrap in the Material Editor to Planar Solid.


Apply the bitmap to the front surface of the cube (use the Render Window button just to the left of the Animate button on the main toolbar to see what it will look like rendered to raster.)


Click on the cube and go to the Scale page of the Properties Toolbar and change the scale height and width size to match the original imported image height and width size (this will scale the mapped image back to its original size). That's it!

If you have any questions, please search or post a question to the forum. You can also email me at webmaster@newsourcemedia.com.