Surfacing problem

[Omega561]

Hoping someone can help with this:
I have an object that is a single sheet of corrugated iron that I plan to use to make a fence consisting of multiple sheets of iron. I want to individually surface each sheet but when all the sheets are assembled in a row I want to add a image (like a painted sign) that stretches across ALL the sheets.
So I'm not going to use clone or instances.
This seems like a simple idea but I cannot work out how to lay a surface over a group of other surfaces.
Can such a thing be done?

Appreciate any thoughts.

David

[ernpchan]

If you set your image to use a reference object and sit in world space that should work.

[prometheus]

That must be totally dependent on wether or not you use object segments in modeler in the first place, or if you plan to use the object sheets as individual objects in layout?

[Omega561]

That must be totally dependend wether or not you use object segments in modeler in the first place, or if you plan to use the object sheets as individual objects in layout?

I planned to use each sheet as an individual object . Didn't know you could just place an image in space using a reference object.
If I use this method how will the image conform to the corrugations ?

[prometheus]

I planned to use each sheet as an individual object . Didn't know you could just place an image in space using a reference object.
If I use this method how will the image conform to the corrugations ?

Not sure, if you use it in layout and reference to a null..then you can not use a UV map, so it´s a matter of choosing the right projection such as planar, cubic or cylindrical, spherical etc, but you can scale the texture with the x,y,z channels, or simply use the null to scale it or stretch it as you see fit.


Scenefile attached,One shingle instanced, but note..Lightwave 2019.1.5 version windows.
Move the instance shingle around to see how the texture updates, and also move the null reference and scale it with size.
For rapid scene setup, I forgot to add thickness to the shingles

[Omega561]

Great. Thanks for this. Didn't realize you could use a world reference like this.
Have played around with your example and will see if I can use this method on my object.
I should add that I am not animating. This is just a single image.

Cheers

[Axis3d]

I was going to suggest the prometheus method also. Here's an old trick. If you had an object with corrugations that absolutely needed to have the texture conform to the curvature, you could create your sheet flat in Modeler, then create a morph which has the corrugated version. When you apply the morph in Layout, and apply the texture, the texture will conform to the irregular surfaces. You can still use a reference null, but now it acts a little more like a UV map.