Controls and indicators explained
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Textures
| (texture table) |
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| Part display | ||
|---|---|---|
| Transparent part | Reduces the part's opacity, colors and textures included, to provide see-through insight | |
| Texture and color display | ||
| Texture | Toggles visibility of any textures | Grayed out if no texture is present |
| Color | Toggles visibility of any colors |
Grayed out if no color is present Actual colors only, not display color |
Colors
| Coloring | ||
|---|---|---|
| Color | Click the color patch to open Windows' color selection. | |
| Brush radius | Radius of the brush used to assign color to triangles | Only enabled when the Brush command is active |
| Maximum edge angle | If there is a crease between triangles within the brush radius whose angle (between normals) is larger than this tolerance, the triangles beyond the crease, on the other side from the mouse pointer's current position, do not receive the new color. |
Only enabled when the Brush command is active Applies to both concave and convex creases |
| Color gradient | Applies the new color to common vertices of adjacent triangles, too | |
| Paint over texture | When active, applying color to a triangle overrides any texturing this triangle has. Otherwise, while the new color is applied, the texture remains dominant. | |
| Part display | ||
| Transparent part | Reduces the part's opacity, colors and textures included, to provide see-through insight | |
| Texture and color display | ||
| Texture | Toggles visibility of any textures | Grayed out if no texture is present |
| Color | Toggles visibility of any colors |
Grayed out if no color is present Actual colors only, not display color |
Face groups
| (face group table) |
Lists available face groups with their ID, name, and a color swatch Clicking an entry selects it
Double-clicking an entry opens a dialog for changing name and color. Face group items in the table provide functions through a context menu:
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The color of a face group is only there to visualize the area it encompasses. It is not required that the triangles it encompasses themselves have the same color, or in fact any color at all. |
| Color actions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Face group to color | Applies the face group's visualization color to the triangles of that face group | |
| Color to face group | Generates or regenerates face groups from triangles depending on common colors and copies the triangle color to the face group's visualization color | |
Randomize color
|
Distributes new display colors to all face groups present on the current model | Changing just the face group colors still requires applying changes to the whole mesh. |
| Part display | ||
| Transparent part | Reduces the part's opacity, colors and textures included, to provide see-through insight | |
| Texture and color display | ||
| Texture | Toggles visibility of any textures | Grayed out if no texture is present |
| Color | Toggles visibility of any colors |
Grayed out if no color is present Actual colors only, not display color |
During texture projection
This context view content becomes available, and temporarily replaces the current context view content, when Project texture is chosen from the menu.
| (Projection primitives) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Flat, Cylinder, Sphere | Choosing a tab switches between projection primitives. | |
| Repeat texture |
For planar projection, the texture is repeated indefinitely beyond the original projection plane. For cylinder and spherical projection, the texture can be repeated up to ten times along the cylinder circumference or sphere equator. |
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| (Positioning controls) | ||
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Scale, Rotate, Position X, Y, Z each |
Adjusts shape, orientation, and position of the projection primitive along the cardinal axes, as applicable |
Note: A texture's projection only applies in its own "down" direction regardless whether it's positioned above or below the mesh in the 3D view. For a non-mirrored projection on the reverse side, use the
Rotate controls to flip it and apply it again. If mirroring is acceptable, enabling
Apply on backside instead can be a convenient alternative.
|
| Texture projection | ||
| Texture file | Choose a texture file to project. | |
| Apply on backside | Also projects the texture onto triangles with normals pointing away from the projection primitive. For example, enabling this on a hollow sphere, using spherical projection also applies the texture to the inside. | |
| Connected faces only | If the texture is set to repeat for planar projection, the texture is repeated beyond the original plane primitive but only for the shell touched by the plane's area of influence. | |
 (texture selection)
|
Library of built-in textures for quick selection, located at <Netfabb installation folder>\TextureLibrary\ | You can add or remove texture files at that location (re-read at program start-up); although new textures only receive a placeholder image for a thumbnail. |
| (uncategorized) | ||
| Project | Applies the texture as projected, and closes texture projection but remains in the Texture and color editor | |
| Cancel | Closes texture projection but remains in the Texture and color editor |
During texture wrapping
This context view content becomes available, and temporarily replaces the current context view content, when Wrap texture is chosen from the menu.
| Texture mapping | ||
|---|---|---|
| "The polygon is not convex. This may produce unexpected results." | Recommendation that appears if the polygon is not convex. Polygons with concave sections can produce unexpected mappings. It is however not mandatory. | |
| (mapping area) |
As you define the area on the 3D part surface, the corner points become available here, too, forming a control net. Move them to adjust size and shape of the segment of the texture to be projected. Note: The order of the control net points matters: Placing the control points in opposing clock orders on the original mesh and in the mapping control inverts the texture projection geometrically. This is intentional.
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Contains a built-in checkerboard placeholder texture by default |
 
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Rotates the control net against the texture clockwise or counter-clockwise | Results in rotation of the texture application opposite to the net rotation |
|
Flips the control net horizontally or vertically | |
| Texture file | ||
| Texture file | Choose a texture file to project. | |
| (uncategorized) | ||
| Show preview | Projects the texture as mapped on the mesh, or updates an existing projection | |
| Generate quadmesh |
Extracts the area specified in the 3D view into a mesh segment, retriangulated into tiles of quads, and adds it as a new part to the project tree. The orientation of the control net against the mapping area axes determine the alignment of the quad borders in the generated segment. Note: The order of the control net points matters: Placing the control points in opposing clock orders on the original mesh and in the mapping control produces a quad mesh extract where the normals are opposite to the ones in the original mesh. This is intentional.
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Works best when the control net borders in the mapping area run horizontally and vertically, or at least closely so, otherwise the quad tiling necessarily results in an extract with aliased edges. |
| Apply texture | Applies the texture as mapped, and closes texture projection but remains in the Texture & Color editor | |
| Cancel | Closes texture projection but remains in the Texture & Color editor |