Rendering a brick arch

By Simon Gillis, Autodesk UK

You have a brick arch over an opening and would like to be able to render it in your visualisations. You can achieve this by creating a decal for the arch.

Prepare your Images

To successfully apply a decal you will first need to prepare the images to be used.

You will require an image file for the finished appearance and also an image file for the ‘cut-out’ (If required the ‘cut-out’ image can also be used as a bump pattern.)

1. Example image for finished appearance

2. Using an image manipulation application create the ‘cut-out’ image by decreasing the colour depth to 2 colours (black and white) and convert to a negative image.

Create a Decal Type

1. From the Settings pull down menu select ‘Decal Types’ and create a new decal type.

(Note: the Decal Types dialog will also appear when selecting the Decal tool from the Modelling Design Bar when no decal types already exist in the project. You can also duplicate an existing type within Element Properties and amend the decal attributes)

2. Configure the Image File, Bump Pattern Image File and Cut-out Image File for the Decal Type.

3. Select the Decal Tool from the Modelling Design Bar and apply the brick arch decal to the arch extrusion. (Hint: When applying the decal, hide your wall within the view so that the decal is applied correctly to the arch extrusion). Size the decal using the options bar if necessary.

4. When rendering a view, the brick arch decal will be shown.