Texturing Module

Advantages of
Texturing
Added Functionality

Acoustics

Texture or surface structures can be used to

improve acoustic dampening of flat surfaces

Surface roughness

Hide striations between layers (staircase-

effect)

Add functionality without post-processing

Hide striations 3
Personalization/Freedom of Design

Personalize

Use unique textures

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Materialise 3-matic Texturing Software

For companies that frequently apply

textures, patterns or perforations

To do research for functional surfaces,

surface roughness, …

Also for small parts

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Texturing
Workflow
 1. Color-coded design 2. Textured design
Import & fix CAD file in Materialise Easily add textures in Materialise
3-matic 3-matic

3. Placement and orientation 4. Supported part 5. Slice stack ready to be printed

Build preparation in Materialise Slice-based supports in Materialise e- Slice textured part in Build Processor
Magics Stage

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General Workflow

Starting from color-coded CAD file

1 Import / fix / prepare CAD file in Materialise 3-matic

2 Apply textures and assign size / offsets

3 Positioning / build preparation in Materialise Magics

4 Support generation in Materialise e-Stage / SG

5 Slicing by Materialise Build Processor

Full workflow finished in a matter of hours

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Texturing Workflow in Materialise 3-matic

Most efficient order

1 Import CAD file
2 Fix
3 Group surfaces by color
4 Merge / split surfaces in best suited way
5 Texture entire surface sets
6 Add split curves while in UV page
7 Scale / assign 3D parameters per group
8 Align textures consecutively

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Three Types of Texturing

1. Image-based textures

2. Slice-based textures (Build Processor)

3. STL-based patterns

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1. Image-Based
Texturing
Texturing from bitmaps

Apply texture on STL design using greyscale images

Convert black/white values to 3D texture

Bitmap
to STL

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 Guidelines for texturing: greyscale values
Greyscale
value 0% 100 % Bottom 100 %
6 mm -1 mm -6000 m 8500 m

Comparable to
Top view elevation maps

Side view
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Guidelines for texturing: greyscale values

Gradient towards the Has a visual depth Seamless, correct

edges, not seamless but greyscale black-white values,
values are wrong; no shading/gradient
seamless
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Guidelines for texturing: examples
Egg crate Honeycomb Pyramids Weave Leather Wood

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Guidelines for texturing: UV mapping

Apply 2D image on 3D curved surface

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Guidelines for texturing: UV mapping

Highly curved parts are more prone to stretching

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Guidelines for texturing: UV mapping

Closed/cylindrical surfaces need split lines to fold open properly

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Guidelines for texturing: UV mapping

Adding split lines to achieve more uniform UV mapping

No split lines 1 split line 2 split lines

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Guidelines for texturing: UV mapping

Balance between stretching / deformation and split lines / seams

Same principle for world

maps / sewing patterns / …

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From image to 3D texture

Select surface UV mapping Assign B/W offset values

and image of image and convert to 3D texture

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2. Slice-Based
Textures
Slice-based 3D textures

2D image can be converted to 3D texture by Build Processor

No need to convert to STL (triangles) in 3-matic

Avoids data issues for large textured parts – otherwise nearly

impossible to handle or print

Much more efficient to store texture on slice level compared to

triangles

Greatly reduces file size and calculation times

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Slice-based 3D textures

Simple surface + image…

Convert to STL
… can still take up millions of triangles

Large surfaces & detailed textures …

Convert on slice level

... are still manageable on slice level

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3. Patterning and
Perforations
3D patterning: the basics

Compared to texturing: no image but small STL element

Different patterning layouts

UV-mapping (similar to textures)

Spiral / path based pattern

Point based pattern

Mesh based pattern

Option to unify / subtract the pattern

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3D patterning example: perforations

UV mapped surface to get grid-like placement of unit elements

Subtract the complete pattern to obtain perforations

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Conformal 3D patterns

Patterns or perforations on curved surfaces

Pattern entity bends to stay conformal to the surface

Rib pattern Conformal rib pattern

UV-mapped
curved surface
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3D patterning example: spiral pattern

Define spiral path and Subtract spiral pattern Print the perforated part
pattern cylinders along from the top surface
this spiral
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Case Studies

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With 3-matic Texturing, Materialise engineers where able to
create different 3D patterns by converting 2D monkey silhouettes
into 3D shapes. Kipling and Materialise decided on a structure
with the monkeys’ tails touching to create a pinwheel effect in the
pattern. The result is an impressive 3D printed plastic bag, the
“City Jungle Shopper”, printed in one piece.
With 3-matic Texturing, we created reflection elements on headlights. This
allows great realistic prototypes of headlights within one build!
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With 3-matic Texturing, we perforated holes in a speaker.
The holes can be kept perpendicular to the surface.
Other applications for perforations are for instance filters.

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With 3-matic Texturing, we reinforce large parts. It allows you to keep the
finishing properties of stereolithography, while improving the stiffness and
strength of the part. The reinforcements are made perpendicular to the surface.
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A shark skin texture is printed directly onto the nose of the race car, similar to
the ones found on high-tech competition swimsuits. The aim of the scale-like
ridges is to improve performance on race day.

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The Umicar Inspire solar car from Group T was equipped with a titanium printed steering
wheel by Melotte. This was enhanced with a leather texture for a better grip. Any part
can be immediately equipped with a texture or a range can be made during prototyping
phase to make the best decision!
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3-matic Texturing was used to apply texture to a new Samsonite suitcase. The
highly detailed prototype was enthusiastically received by the Samsonite sales
force as well as by the trade fair attendees. In the meantime, the suitcase has
been mass produced and launched across Europe.
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Samsonite Prototype case

Completely finished & assembled prototype

No need for post-processing to apply textures

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3-matic Texturing was used to apply 453 textures to a shoe insole. Thanks to
the slice-based technology, an STL file of around 2 GB could be avoided. This
shoe sole, 3D printed in stereolithography, provides shoe manufacturers with a
detailed, textured master for casting.
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Importance of slice-based 3D textures

STL file size before texturing: 5.8 MB

# triangles before texturing: 119 000

Est. file size with STL textures: 1886 MB

Est. # triangles with STL textures: 37 Million

Triangle count and STL file size increased 300x

when applying STL-based textures
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Importance of slice-based 3D textures

# of textures on entire shoe sole: 453

File size with image textures: 177 MB

Slicing time: ~1,5 hour

RAM memory used: ~80 GB

File size slice stack: 50 MB

Results depend on # textures, image size, build

orientation, defined detail size, …
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Importance of slice-based 3D textures

1. Untextured design 2. Image-based textures

3. Conversion to STL 4. Sliced textures

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Manufacturing of textured shoe sole

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Importance of slice-based 3D textures

Quickly apply image-based textures

Direct conversion to slices by Build Processor

Full solution for otherwise unmanageable file sizes

Significant time savings

Questions?