Produral array? is it possible?

[Alessio]

Hi i’m trying to expirement some stuff with nodes. I was wondering if there is a way to create some kind of node set up that makes possibile to array this design i created araound the plain. The only solution that i found at the moment is to duplicate the node group and use a vector math node to move it around and then use math node to add them together, but this process in my opinion is not practical if i want to make like 20/30 of copies in different locations. Here is my node set up with the design i made.

Hope someone can help me. Thanks!

[a59303]

Found this:

How do I create repeating patterns with cycles' procedural textures

[Alessio]

Thanks for your answer. Unfortunatly i can’t make it works for my node setup. I can actually do it like this

and then clean it up by put all of this in a group but the point is that is not very practical because if i want to change some values on the original shape i have to edit every copy of the original node group.
The solution i’m looking for is to put some math nodes after the original group node that make it duplicate the shapes where i want, so then if i would change some values on the original node group all the duplicates change too. I think it is possible but i don’t know how haha i’m not a node expert unfortunatly

[blenderrocket]

You can use the modulo math function to repeat textures (see below); after that you can use masking to limit the area in which the texture repeated.

[Alessio]

Thanks for your answer but how can i incorporate your node setup with my node group? i can’t make it works. I can share the blender file so if you want you can try to make the array PROCEDURAL BLEND.blend (926.7 KB) Thanks.
Edit: i think i figured out how i can make it work. I will update you

[pxlpaul (Paul)]

Hi Alessio,

You might want to check the Node Expression addon which should let you do that kind of thing, I believe. The “Lite” version is free, see https://baldingwizard.wixsite.com/blog/node-expressions

Node Expressions

Cheers,
Paul

[a59303]

Yeah, unfortunately I’m not a node expert either. After a while trying to understand the methods at that link, I couldn’t see how to vary the number of repetitions and limit the repetitions to whole (full) repetitions not parts. I wonder, do you need it variable, that is, the number of times it appears.

[blenderrocket]

[Alessio]

thanks this method actually works pretty good. Only thing i have to understand is how to make it the right dimensions that i want.

[blenderrocket]

Easiest is if you create the initial shape (node group) centered around or close to the 0, 0 coordinates. Then it is much easier to scale and move around afterwards.

[Alessio]

Thanks man i figured it out how to control everything i will update when i finish the project but for now thanks a lot!

[Alessio]

Hello so after a few days i got what i was looking for, i was trying to recreate a solar panel at least the cells part. Here is the result i got at moment

definitely there is a huge margin to make it look a lot better, because as you can see i’m not good at lights and render but i’m happy that i could get the all details that i was looking for just by using nodes. I have also try to optimize the nodes because i used a lot of duplicates nodes and i’m sure there is a way to make it cleaner, so i will defenitly try to clean it and hopefully i could make just one gruop node with all that fancy sliders that control everything, unfortunatly i’m not that good yet.

What do you think?

[Alessio]

Hi It’s me again haha i’ve done a bit of clean up on the nodes but i have to figured out a way to make this all procedural into just a single shader with all the sliders. So here it is how it looks now

I have also create the frame for the solar panel (it is not procedural, i model it), so i was trying to do some render to see how it looks, but i think i’m not able to make good camera angle that makes my model looks good. Probably making a better lights setup than the hdri that i’m using would fix the problem, but i’m not that good yet to create a specif setup for this model. Here are a couple of renders i made (as you can see is not looking enough photorealist in my opinion)

Any tips to improve it is appreciated. Thanks have good day

[RickyBlender]

this looks interesting
but nodes set up is complicated

can you explain how it works and if possible do you have a sample file to share

thanks
happy bl

[Alessio]

Hi, i’m trying to recreate a solar panel based on a real one the most precise and realistic as i can. Since i discovered a guy on reddit that create some solar panels model using only procedural textures/ vector displacement i thought i would love to be able to create the same thing by my self, so i’ve started messing around with it. My idea is to make at least all the cells/bus-bars just by using math, and my goal is to create a node group where,if i want, i can change the number of cells etc. etc. Unfortunatly i’m not there yet because i’m not a nodes expert and i have to learn a lot more knowledge before. I’ll give an example of one thing that i have to improve

That is the nodes setup that i used to cut out the edges of the cells, i think that i have to found and easier way to do it, because in the end i need two values to control the edge

.
That is just one of the few things that i have to improve. By the way i think i will share the file or the nodes setup once i will be satisfied with the result.

[Alessio]

I have just figured out how to do it

So now i can only use one input value to control the edge cut.