Materials

BricsCAD (Windows) Pro, PlatinumBricsCAD (Linux) Pro, PlatinumBricsCAD (Mac) Pro, Platinum

 

Creates materials and edits their properties through the Drawing Explorer.

Accessing the Command

command bar:  materials

menu bar:  Tools | Drawing Explorer | Materials ...

toolbar:  Rendering|

 

: materials

Displays a dialog box:

Displays the Materials section of the Drawing Explorer dialog box:

 

 

Command Options

Option

Description

Details

 

New

Creates a new material.

Click the icon, then name the material and optionally fill out the description field (Detail View only).

Delete

Deletes the selected material(s).

The Global material cannot be deleted.

Icon View

Displays the Icon View of the materials:

Select a material to edit its properties. Click the material name to rename.

Detail View

Displays the Detail View of the materials:

Select a material to edit its properties.

Click the Material Name field to rename.

Click the Description field to add or edit the material description.

 

 

Preview

 

Cube

Displays a preview of the selected material applied to a cube.

Cylinder

Displays a preview of the selected material applied to a cylinder.

Sphere

Displays a preview of the selected material applied to a sphere.


Light Intensity

Sets the light intensity in the Preview window.

Do one of the following:

  • Drag the slider.

  • Click before or after the slider.

 

 

Edit Material*

 

Color

 

Diffuse

Ambient

 

Sets the diffuse and ambient color.

Do one of the following:

  • Check the Inherit option to apply the entity color.

  • Click the colored tile, then choose the color in the Color dialog box.

Highlights

Sets the highlight property of the material.

Click the button then choose either Non-Metallic or Metallic.

Glossiness

Transparency

Refraction Index

Self-Illumination

Reflectivity

Defines a property of the material surface.

Do one of the following:

  • Drag the slider.

  • Click before or after the slider.

  • Type the desired value in the settings field.

  • Glossiness: range =  0 - 100

  • Transparency: range = 0 - 100

  • Refraction Index: range =  1.00 - 3.00

  • Self-Illumination: range =  0 - 100

  • Reflectivity: range =  0 - 100

 

 

Maps

Texture maps add detail to a surface which is not included in the 3D model itself.

Diffuse Map

Transparency Map

Bump Map

Diffuse maps apply a texture to the surface of a material such as wood grains, bricks or tiles.

Transparency maps set the transparency of a texture from 0% (black) to 100% (white) and anything between (grey scales).

Bump maps create a bumpy or irregular surface.

To apply a texture map:

  • Check the Diffuse, Transparency or Bump Map option.

  • Do one of the following:

    • Select Wood or Marble from the Texture Map option button.

    • Choose Texture Map, then press the Browse button () and select a texture bitmap file (*).

  • Set the Blend factor for the texture map.
    Diffuse and Transparency maps: range = 0 - 100.
    Bump map: range = -1000 - +1000
    Use the slider or type the factor in the settings field.
    The Blend factor sets the intensity of the texture map.

(*) The TextureMapPath user preference defines the search path for texture map images. In the BricsCAD program folder exist three subfolders under Textures, each containing a number of texture files of the same name. Images in folder 1 have a size of 256 x 256 pixels, folder 2 contains images of 512 x 512 pixels, images in folder 3 have a size of 1024 x 1024 pixels. If the Diffuse map setting of a material uses the image name only (not path), you can control the quality of a rendered image by setting the TextureMapPath user preference to folder 1, 2 or 3.

 

 

Map Transformation

 

Scale

The texture map image is applied at a size of 1 drawing unit multiplied by the Width and Height factors. E.g. if the Width and Height factors or both set to 10, the size of the texture image is 10 x 10 drawing units.

Position

 

Offset

Texture maps maps are tiled starting from the origin of the WCS.

To adjust the tiling you can define an Offset X and Offset Y. The offsets are expressed in drawing units.

Rotation

Sets the rotation of the texture maps. Type the desired rotation in the Rotation field.

* RedWay materials, which are imported in the Materials Browser, cannot be edited. All settings for such materials are greyed out, except for the Map Transformation settings.

Related Commands

MatBrowserOpen - opens the materials browser, which shows an overview of available high-resolution render materials.

Render - calculates a photorealistic image of the 3D model.

Light - creates a new light in the drawing.

VisualStyles - creates and controls visual style definitions in the Drawing Explorer.

 

Explorer - opens the Drawing Explorer dialog box.

 


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