Problem applying render materials to pipes

[sandiegophil]

Hello,

 

I have a large pipe network. All works well with one exception. I am trying to apply a render material to the pipes and it renders very poorly. I drew a cube and sphere next to the network at an appropriate size, applied the same material and the cube and sphere render great but the pipes are nasty. I tried adjusting my ucs to one of the pipes and reapplying the material but I get the same result. Then I drew a cylinder in plan view the same size and length as a pipe and it worked great too. What am I missing? All suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Phil

[Emigrato]

Seems like that pipe is not a unique polyface mesh, so the render applies to each single 3Dface, sir.

 

[sandiegophil]

If anyone is interested I have a ticket open with Autodesk regarding this issue. They tried everything I did and their 'solution' was to explode all pipes and structures, then apply materials. This is now a confirmed bug in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Although their solution works I do not think it is an appropriate one.

 

Regards,

Phil

[lrm]

Try applying the material in a plan view (where you said it looks good) and then convert the pipe to a block. Orient the block so that the pipe is in the correct position. I have used this technique in the past. Controlling material mapping in AutoCAD has become very difficult in recent versions. ~ Lee M.

[sandiegophil]

Lee,

 

I will certainly give that a try. The pipes and structures look lousy in plan and model views. The manually created cylinders and boxes look great in both when rendered. Also, my model has over 300 pipes and ~90 structures. Thanks for your reply, much appreciated,

 

Regards,

Phil