New tutorial on how to create Parquet Floors and Rugs for Interior Visualisations

Using Macros

In addition to the core nodes, RailClone includes several handy macros to add extra functionality to your graph. You can see a full list of these by choosing the Macros tab in the Items list. In this example, we’ll use the Invert Value macro to automatically turn a positive number into a negative, and vice versa. Wire the Invert Value macro to the Random Number node, and wire the Segment’s X Size attribute to the Macro. You will now have a floor with randomly offset joints, and because the distance is based on the size of the segment, you can easily change the size of the plank and the style updates automatically.

Create a herringbone floor

Let’s turn this into a herringbone style to create a second type of floor. Delete the nodes connected to the Start input. Find the macro called Segment -> Herringbone and wire it between the Segment node and the Generator. This macro takes care of all the calculations required to create a herringbone floor, all you need to do is change the size of the plank by editing the source geometry. If the boards don’t quite reach the perimeter of the floor, increase the Generator’s Clipping Area > Expand property to enlarge the array. You can now easily add randomisation to the planks using the Segment’s Transform > Random properties.

Randomise and Tint Maps

Avoiding repeated textures on a wooden floor is always a challenge, but RailClone has several features that can help to disguise it by manipulating the UVs and the maps themselves. In this example, the material uses a single tileable diffuse map that we’ll randomly offset to hide repetition. To do this, add a UVW XForm node between the Macro and the Generator. Enable Random Offset and enter the same values used for the map’s real-world size. You can also add a RailClone Colour map to the material and enable the Tint override feature to subtly randomise the colour or brightness per plank.

Creating parametric radiators

RailClone can be used to parameterise nearly anything that has repeating elements. For example, in this scene there’s a radiator model on the back wall. It has been created by slicing a radiator model into 6 repeatable parts. These are wired to an A2S Generator, using mirror operators to reuse the segments created for the left-hand side of the radiator to create the right. The length and height of the array have been exported to Numeric nodes so that it’s easy to change the size of the radiator directly from the Modify Panel.