Materials

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.

Double click the Download icon () in the Download colums to download Redway materials ().

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

Name

Type a name for the material. The material name must be unique.

The Global material cannot be renamed.

Description

Type a description for the material. The material description is optional.

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.

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.

Diffuse Map

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

Drag the slider to blend the texture map with the Color settings.

Transparency Map

The selected Texture Map can be applied as Transparency Map or as Cutout Map.

In the examples below, this image is used as transparency map and cutout map:

If Transparency Map is selected, the selected Texture Map image defines a transparency map. The image is recommended to be a grayscale image. White pixels will be invisible, black pixels will be opaque and gray pixels will be transparent.

Notes:

• Colored images are converted to grayscale images in the background.

• The meaning of black and white is the inverse of Cutout Map textures.

• The alpha channel of the image is ignored.

Blend factor: the transparency values in the texture will approach the scalar Transparency setting as the blend factor approaches 0. This means that if the Blend factor is 100, then the transparency value will controlled completely by the Texture Map image. If the Blend factor is 0, the transparency texture will be completely ignored and the scalar Transparency value will be used.

If Cutout Map is selected, then the selected transparency map defines cutouts: parts of the objects will be fully visible and parts not visible at all, depending on the pixels of the selected image. The image is recommended to be a bitonal black-and-white image, without grays. White pixels are visible, and black pixels are invisible.

The Cutout Map Inverted option inverts the effect: visible parts become invisible and vice versa.

Notes:

• Gray scale and color images are converted to black-and-white images in the background.

• The meaning of black and white is the inverse of Transparency Map textures.

• The alpha channel of the image is ignored.

Bump Map

Bump mapping is a technique for simulating bumps and wrinkles on the surface of an object. The result is an apparently bumpy surface although the surface of the underlying object is not modified.

Blend factor range = -1000 / +1000

Left: Diffuse Map only; Right: Bump Map applied.

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.