Randomising facade textures

Question

Hi there,

I'm currently creating a model of a city and I'd like my rule file to pick a random texture based on the building's height(like the Philadelphia example). I've organised all my photos into files based on the number of floors with multiple textures for each floor, however everytime I generate the buildings it always uses the same texture for each building with the same number of floors and not utilising the others. How does the fileRandom function work exactly- does it iterate everytime you run the rule or by individual feature? I've attached my rule file to make it a bit clearer, it might be as a result of how I've written it!

In a different point altogether, it would be really great if you could within the help files explain how to setup the projections for projecting on to buildings and roofs so everything aligns correctly because it's something I know I've personally found difficult!

Any help would be great!!

Caroline

CityEngineQuery.zip

MatthiasBuehler1 · Answer

no spaces allowed in paths .. !

BenLeslie1 · Answer

I can't get fileRandom to work to assign random textures.  This is the way I want to do it:
attr txtIdent = ""

attr txtPath = "images/New Textures_test/"
attr txtExt = ".jpg"

buildingSide-->
case txtIdent == "":
 setupProjection(0, scope.xy, '1, '1)
 texture(fileRandom(txtPath+"*"+txtExt)
 projectUV(0)
else:
 texture(txtPath+txtIdent+txtExt)

but I have also tried like this, assigning the random file to a constant first as per tutorial 7
const myRandomTxt= fileRandom("images/New Textures_test/*.jpg")
attr txtIdent = ""

attr txtPath = "images/New Textures_test/"
attr txtExt = ".jpg"

buildingSide-->
case txtIdent == "":
 setupProjection(0, scope.xy, '1, '1)
 texture(myRandomTxt)
...

I tried moving the * around and including more and less of the file name but I get nothing in return.  And the textures work if I assign a txtIdent value.

MatthiasBuehler1 · Answer

Hey Caroline.

It's taken some time, but watch this vid I made :
(watch in HD!)

http://video.arcgis.com/watch/1781/tutorial-13-facade-wizard

Cheers Matt