The Plating Generator

V2.0: You (Can) Redo

The Plating Generator at work

What is the Plating Generator?

The Plating Generator creates customised, reconfigurable panel lines and greeble details on top of your 3D Model.

This add-on is for 3D Modellers and concept artists who find it time consuming to create interlocking panels and details on 3D Models such as spaceship hulls, but still want a unique look and feel. It uses specially designed algorithms to generate different patterns.

Features

  • Generate a panel lines or scatter smaller objects using a random seed.

  • Use on flat or curves surfaces.

  • Choose from a range of completely customizable plating patterns.

  • Create your own greeble objects libraries or choose from the standard default library.

  • The objects can either be created and edited separately or integrated into the base object.

  • Go back and change the patterns and greebles from a fixed control panel at any time when they are created as separate objects.

  • Create from a whole quad based mesh or on a sub selection of quad faces.

  • Control the depth of the grooves, heights of the panels, thickness of the grooves, make corners rounded, and add bevel effects.

  • Add your own materials and vary panel color through vertex colors.

  • Greebles can either be overlapping or non-overlapping.

  • Greebles can either conform to the shape of the face or maintain their proportions.

  • Option to completely remove the grooves and leave the plates intact.

How does it work?

For instance, a manual method is to extrude edge loops over and over, which can be very time consuming. The more detailed you want the mesh to be, the longer it will take:

Manual Process Automated

Manual Process Automated

This add-on greatly speeds up the process, allowing you to quickly create a selection in a plating pattern and and extrude the edges accordingly.

Plating Generator in Action

Plating Generator in Action

Plating Generator combined with the Shape Generator addon can quickly create detailed models which can then be further refined. It can also be used to create libraries of curated objects.

Indices and tables