How do I create new textures?

I have several unique fabric textures that I need to create for SolidWorks. Where can I find tutorials for creating texture files? Or maybe “save as” an old texture file and then editing it. I don’t want to use jpegs, but create a new texture file from scratch, thanks for any suggestions.

2 Answers

You have to select a surface, than choose the "appearances". In this window hit the button "advanced", this will allow you to browse a picture that you want to have as texture and now it's only necessary to save this picture as ".p2m" file.
You can use this picture as texture.

Take care that you save the picture in an folder where you can find it (SW will try probably to save it automatically somewhere in the folder Textures).

@Steven: in terms of process, can materials be applied so that it updates properly with the model, no. What I would say is that generally think of texturing much like drawings, you'd no sooner make an engineering drawing before the 3D model is done. (granted the drawing aspect is parametric, but just wanting to illustrate workflow).

That said SW UV'ing of materials/decals aren't quite capable of updating with your model in the way that you want it to. So either wait until the model is closer to being finished or update the textures/decals after the model is changed.