Keyshot 5: Cylinder & spherical mapping improvements?

[fletch1971]

does anyone who has beta tested keyshot 5 know if the abysmal cylindrical and spherical mapping has been improved?
...its the only gripe i have about keyshot...its also something that has regularly popped up over the roll out of new versions but never addressed.

if it hasnt been updated....PLEASE, PLEASE,PLEASE fix/improve this (what takes us several clicks in other rendering software takes 10-15 minutes in keyshot...sometimes impossible to map...sometimes it will map to one object but not another). Something like "centre to object" and "fit to object" or similar would be so useful.

[thomasteger]

Cylindrical and spherical mapping have greatly improved in KeyShot 4.2 and 4.3.

[mcramblet]

Ok, I've had problems with the cylinder mapping tool for a long time. I was using KS via Bootcamp on a Mac, so I never pushed the issue, figuring it was something related to that screwed-up method of running Windows. But now I'm on a true Windows machine, a very good machine and video card and I've upgraded to version 5. The very first time I go to use the cylinder mapping, I get the same results as before, the mapping widget doesn't show up!!! I click on the mapping tool button and the widget is supposed to show up, right? It doesn't for me, I get nothing. The button turns blue, like it's active, but nothing shows up in the modeling window. Is there any solution to this issue?

[fletch1971]

Hi Thomas

yes we are using the latest Keyshot (4.3.18)

i have been going over the mapping these last few days and this is what i have found.
initial setup:
1. drag or apply a decal
2. when you change the mapping to "cylinder" the Y scale wigs out
3. through trial and error i have found that X scale = 0.01 works for the decals i have setup
*i have trialled JPGs as follows 204x110mm @200dpi  i have also changed the size to 24x11mm @200dpi - it does not matter the scaling still works for both JPGs which is weird considering they are vastly different sizes
**i am going to trial different DPIs today to see how that effects the scale
4. in relation to cylindrical mapping: if you are "dragging" on decals directly from a folder then the first decal is ok but the second one, the mapping tool wigs out, BUT if you use the GUI to add the new decal then its ok
5. if you save the file with the wigged out map then you cant reset it but if you delete the decal and save the file then reopen the file it resets the map (using the drag and drop method)...but i guess you just have to use the GUI to get over this. *We use a lot of decals from different folders so the GUI is a slower process for us

*it seems there is something a little strange with the scaling
**it would be great to be able to reset the map - dragging and dropping decals is a really efficient way to apply them - or even better, they dont wig out
***perhaps even allow a manual input of values (azimuth/elevation)

[Rex]

Hey fletch,

Actually the latest version of keyshot is 5.0.80

- Dnd a texture/label onto a part in the realtime view will adjust the shift values so the center point of the texture is exactly where your mouse dropped it. This is useful when adding decal-type labels in certain locations.
- When adding through GUI the texture/label automatically centers itself on the part which would be better for your case since the image wraps around the entire form.
- In your case since your label is much larger and doesn't require "normal projection" I would add it as a color texture. This will allow for your material to show through the texture unlike labels which only show specularity.
- The image scale for cylindrical mapping is optimized to adjust to fit to the part so the "scale wig out" is to be expected.
- In order for DPI values to have an effect on the texture you must save out the material, open the .mtl file in a text editor and input the correct DPI values for the texture you are using and save. Then when you reopen KeyShot the saved material will update with accurate DPI and scale.

Hope this makes sense.