Are decals possible?

    Been searching around trying to find if/how decals can be used in Enscape with SketchUp. I've seen a few post regarding decal cutouts on glass but nothing in regards to adding graphics to walls/surfaces.the Enscape blog post that pops up on the internet for is giving me a 404 message so that's a dead end. Other references refer to Revit as well, and I'm in SketchUp.


    As an example, I'd like to bring in a company logo and do a simple vinyl wall graphic. Quickly grabbed the generic PNG file (with background transparency) from a web search and used it in this example.


    If you just import the image into SketchUp it'll either Z fiight (middle) or shadow (offset from wall any amount - bottom). If you explode the image and use it as a texture, it'll cut out (top).


    TIG's extension for cutting out the image usually produces low poly/jaggy results and can be cumbersome if trying to do a lot of these and testing out certain designs, etc.



    haha - join the club.

    So Generally what I like to do for "decals" is pull it off the surface at the smallest of fractions (.01) so that it does produce any artifacts or z-fighting.


    Also, I will generally use a jpeg with an alpha map. It reduced the odds of a shadow that png maps make.


    I'll give the alpha map technique a shot. In a pinch, I'll also offset the "decal" like 1/16" or 1/8" off the wall, but Enscape renders the transparency as a cast shadow and you can see it to a varying degree at certain angles and distances. Works for a single logo, but gets more problematic for trying to add something like vinyl cutout graphics to walls. Same for doing custom window/glass vinyl graphics you would see commonly on storefront's. Couple examples for a current project I'm working on below. These took a LOT of messing around with to get to work somewhat correctly- enough for me to prove the concept to the client, at least.


    The way I did the wall was overly complicated and not ideal. I had to take a color RGB sample from the "orange" in the client's paint color, paint it in Photoshop and then add these leaves as individual layers, rotated and scaled manually. Then I exported them all combined for use as a material/albedo in Enscape and applied a drywall texture normal map. Then further scaled and positioned the texture within SketchUp. I wanted to option to see what white leaves looked like, but redoing the process is really time consuming. And then again if the client wants a different wall color...well, you see how this goes!


    For the glass, I just reused the same wall albedo from the wall setup above, but faded the color out completely. That left me with a faked glass vinyl pattern. Again, not ideal- but it gets the job done.


    If only we could simply place decals om surfaces and call it a day.

    I've done this one of two ways, for a curved surface, I create a PNG material with a gray transparent background that matches the glass setting I prefer and then I apply the "decal" on top and project this material onto the surface. For a flat surface, I've experienced the shadow issue you mention, but I find that if the image is glued to the surface or 1mm or less off the surface I don't get Z-fighting and I don't typically get the shadow issue, but I don't often put a decal on 2D glass so that may not work. What will definitely work though will be to create a new material as described earlier. Happy to send you an example.

    Quote from amarr

    I've done this one of two ways, for a curved surface, I create a PNG material with a gray transparent background that matches the glass setting I prefer and then I apply the "decal" on top and project this material onto the surface. For a flat surface, I've experienced the shadow issue you mention, but I find that if the image is glued to the surface or 1mm or less off the surface I don't get Z-fighting and I don't typically get the shadow issue, but I don't often put a decal on 2D glass so that may not work. What will definitely work though will be to create a new material as described earlier. Happy to send you an example.

    Thanks! I've followed up in the PM.

    Thats an effective work around Penzluk and Bas.Lab, however seems pretty labor intensive if you have to change any wall materials under your edits. I'd want to quit my job the second time someone asked can we see a different brick option. A true decal wouldn't care what the texture under it is, and would allow for quick changes of materials globally without opening 10-30 photoshop files