Wood Grain Texture for Ties?

[ednadolski]

Sorry if this has been asked/answered before.   Would anyone have any info on how to add a woodgrain texture pattern to a 3D print, like for strips of wooden ties?

I thought there might be some 3D cad programs that could do this, but not sure if SKetchUp is one of them.

Ed

[wvgca]

i know that you can get the woodgrain pattern separately, for most CAD formats , or just as a vector image ... just place it on top of your tie CAD pattern ..

[wazzou]

In my personal experience and opinion, wood grain on ties is often exaggerated, unnecessarily as even older in service ties don't exhibit as much of it as we seem to think we need in our modeled ties.

[CNR5529]

Blender has been doing the trick for my texturing needs. Its a little bit intimidating at first, but there are lots of online tutorials to get you started.

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=53831.0

[robert3985]

Gotta remember that wood grain on N-scale ties, if done at prototype depth and detail, will get hidden if you're gonna paint and weather your tie strips.  Same goes for prototype sized tie plates and spikeheads.  Gotta exaggerate these details a bit so they don't disappear under one or two coats of paint.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Maletrain]

Gotta remember that wood grain on N-scale ties, if done at prototype depth and detail, will get hidden if you're gonna paint and weather your tie strips.  Same goes for prototype sized tie plates and spikeheads.  Gotta exaggerate these details a bit so they don't disappear under one or two coats of paint.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

To me, it is not the grain of the wood, per se, that I see in photos of real railroad track ties.  What I tend to notice is the splits along the grain lines in some of the ties.  But, reproducing the same split pattern to often looks more fake than no split ties.

[timwatson]

@ednadolski I’m not sure if you saw this but this is some of the wood grain I do to my RR ties.
https://www.tinkercad.com/things/g5ifjBwAmsW-various-wood-grains