Create HO scale brick wall from photos

[AlanC (Alan Carter)]

I’ve designed a brick wall by making a rectangle and multiplying it both horizontally and vertically (allowing for a 50% offset) and it works fine, but of course all the bricks look brand new with nice clean mortar lines. How do I design a wall so that the edges of the bricks look like they’re aged, chipped, broken etc.? Is there a way I can import a photo of an actual old brick wall, change it to grayscale, and have the laser etch the rough and jagged mortar lines?

[bernd.dk (Bernd)]

If you find a crisp photo of a brick wall and trace it, it should be possible. But the process itself and post-processing, in my experience, exceeds the time you spend by hand drawing about 10 bricks and using them as the starting material in an array.

Btw…

Problem with "cut shape"

After I make a pattern, in this case an HO scale brick wall, I also make a rectangle to use as a window opening in the brick pattern. I then move the rectangle over the brick pattern and use 2 different colors, one to engrave the brick pattern and the other to cut out the rectangle window opening. The problem I’m having is that after I place the rectangle over the brick, click on the brick, click on the rectangle, and click on “cut shapes”, I can remove the brick pattern inside the rectangle, b…

…can’t you use this post anymore?