How to Create a Decal That Can be Projected

Decals are easily created by creating a flat, square plane and then applying a material containing your decal's textures to that plane. The plane carrying the decal can then be projected manually via the Decal Planar MeshOp, or created automatically by pressing the Decals... button found in the create tab.

When creating a decal, there's no set rules on what texture maps should or shouldn't be used, but it is recommended to use a mask as a stencil layer to ensure that the decal appears on the asset correctly.

Decal using a mask. Materials applied to the asset the decal is being projected on are visible in areas that have been masked out.

Decal not using a mask. The edges of the plane carrying the decal are clearly visible.

Tip:  If using texture maps that follow PBR naming conventions, Modo's PBR Loader can be enabled to speed up the creation of materials. For more information on the PBR Loader, see PBR Loader

To create Decal that can be projected:

Your decal is now created and ready to be projected onto a mesh.

Material containing a decal assigned to a flat plane.
Transparency is caused by the mask texture set to Stencil.

It's important to note that if you wish to move your decal from the origin of the work plane, it must be moved while in Item Mode and not while in a Component Mode. For decals to be projected as expected, transformations on both the decal and the asset it is being projected on must be frozen at zero. For more information on freezing transformations and different selection modes in Modo, see Freezing Geometry and Selection Modes.