Tiling a surface with a single tile is quick and easy when you need to use a single tile, uniformly, in a solid installation pattern. All you have to do is drag and drop the product onto the surface.
When working with more complex tiling installations, we recommend using our dynamic laying patterns in order to easily insert different patterns, different sizes, multi-sku patterns, or any other installation necessary.
Let's take a look:
From the 3D Navigation window, we can select the Patterns tab from the Components window. Then, search for the pattern that you wish to apply to the surface (floor, wall, 3D object); you can use the search bar, filter by number of tiles, or simply scroll through the patterns available.
After you've picked out the pattern you need, select the correct tiling button on the bottom of the screen for the type of installation you want (cover entire surface, horizontal rows, vertical columns); you can also set the rotation and the grout if desired.
Then, drag and drop the pattern onto the desired surface, as shown in the following image.
Now, you'll see that the floor has an installation with the characteristics of the pattern selected; at the moment, there are no tiles in the installation but only colored placeholders (also called slots) with the number and proportions that make up the dynamic pattern.
To fill these slots, select on the Tiling tab of the Components window and search for a tile that you want to place within the first slot. Select the "change similar tiles" button from the bottom of the menu and drag and drop the tile over the relative slot. The colors on the pattern will help identify which slots still need to be covered with tile.
The dynamic pattern will automatically resize based on the actual size of the tiles used. Drag and drop the second and third slots in the above image to finish the installation pattern.
The same procedure with the same commands can be used to tile walls; you can also use the "Apply the pattern horizontally" button and set a specific height for the rows.
For more complicated patterns (for example, containing different sized tiles), you may run into cases where the selected sizes are not compatible with one another. In this case, DomuS3D will alert you of the incompatibility of the selected tiles and the list of sizes in the components window will highlight compatible sizes (in green) and those that are not compatible (in red).
In case of an error, you can hit "undo" (or Ctrl + z), and then redo the operation.
Among the most common dynamic laying patterns are solid, offsets (or brick), herringbone, or random staggered, which are often used with multi-format wood-effect tile for example. Below are three examples of multi-format random staggared laying patterns.
CHANGING LAYING PATTERN FOR TILES ALREADY APPLIED
A new capability introduced in the 2022 version of DomuS3D is the possibility to change the laying pattern (aka installation pattern) of a tile that has already been applied to a surface. In previous versions, users had to first select and apply a laying pattern and then apply a product to the pattern using drag&drop. It is now possible to modify the laying pattern of a tile that is already applied to a surface, as long as the pattern is compatible with the product that is already present on the surface.
For example, if we initially lay this wood plank in a straight-lay pattern (the “Solid” laying pattern within the program), we have the following floor:
We can now stagger the installation by dragging & dropping the “Staggered 1” laying pattern onto the floor:
Or we can apply a herringbone pattern, again by dragging & dropping the “Herringbone 01” laying pattern onto the floor:
If you need to change the color and dimension of your Grout, right click on the tile from this window and select "Grout". See this article to learn more
Check out the video tutorial on laying patterns here!
This article is valid for the 2022 version and later.