Texture Tiling versus UVW map

Hi, for a couple of years I've been trying to use the tiling facility with textures on geometry instead of UVW mapping, as it's handy when requiring two levels of mapping to the same object, here begins my trouble. The tiling works on basic geometry, boxes etc. but not on anything that has an edit poly modifier attached or has been converted to edit poly. Also it does not work on lines that have been extruded to create 3D geometry. By the way I am clicking 'Show Shaded Material In Viewport' The reason it's so important is because I'm producing lots of houses in different models and at the moment I'm having to write down the UVW parameters so all the textures are the same model to model, if the tiling worked the mapping would be embedded in the material. I know how to add two levels of UVW mapping but tiling would be easier. For those of you in the know Austris Cingulis uses this technique all the time and there is no better!. Many thanks guys.

Even thou there are many reasons why a UVW map is better choice than a simple tiling control, There are a few ways you can approach this.

One way can be just apply a UVW modifier and select World coordinates. From this you can control the tiling and rotation from your material.

Other way can be just applying an UVW map and give a general number such 1 Ft to all the coordinates then control the tiling in your shader.

You can also setup one UVW map and just copy to other geometry, also when you close your mesh every changed made to one geometry will be updated in the other ones.

or the very fast and dirty way, can be select all the different geometries and apply a single uvw map to all of them, the you change one and all of them follow.

Hope this help, pretty sure some else will pop with more options

Great, thanks for the advice, so, just be clear, it's not possible to utilize tiling without some sort of UVW map?

When you create an object in max, it will apply some sort of uvw mapping by default. You can still add your own to overwrite the default, or you can add another uvw map for a different channel. If you apply a real world scale UVW map, you need to set a size of your texture in units, and it will repeat across the surface according to how big it is set to be. However, if you apply a UVW map with a fixed size, you can set the tiling in the texture instead, and the texture will tile however many times you set it to inside of the UVWmapped area, and of course repeat that pattern all over the UVWmapped surfaces.

Right, the two things are independent of one another. UVW Map or Unwrap sets where on the model the 0-1 texture space is located. Tiling just adds tiling within that 0-1 space (in essence if you set it to 2 you divide the UV in 1/2 or if you set to .5 you double it).

Brilliant, thanks for all your help, lots of things to investigate.

You should really have a play with the UVW unwrap modifier to see what is going on behind the scenes of the normal UVW map modifier. You will get a much better understanding of what is actually happening.

Thanks Jason, ta fellas, good forum.