Materials Window

The material swatches that are available in the drawing are displayed at the top of the Material window. By selecting each material swatch the properties for each material becomes active in the Material window sections.

The sections of the Material window display different property settings.

• Available Materials in Drawing. Displays material swatch previews and tool buttons.
• Nested Map Navigation. Displays the active material and the materials in the mapping tree.
• Material Editor. Displays the Material types, templates, and properties.
• Maps. Displays the Map channels, map type selection, tool buttons, and provides access to procedural map controls.
• Advanced Lighting Override. (Available under the Realistic and Realistic Metal material type.) Sets parameters that will affect the rendering of the material when it is lit by photometric lights.
• Material Scaling & Tiling. Specifies a map channel or synchronizes a scaling and tiling factor to be shared across all maps levels. This section is used for 2D (Texture map, Checker, Tiles) maps and map channels (diffuse, bump, opacity, reflection).
• Material Offset & Preview. Specifies the Offset & Preview properties of maps on materials.

The Material window is displayed. On the left, the panels are closed. On the right, some of the panels are expanded.

As the settings are modified the settings are saved with the material swatch. The changes will appear in the Material swatch preview. When rendering the drawing again the changes occur to any objects with the material that was changed.

The name of the material and the material preview shape can be changed by selecting the preview swatch with the right-click and selecting Edit Name and Description. By holding down the first button below the swatch preview window, a set of fly out buttons display different geometry options for the material preview.

After the changes are made in the Material window the Material Tool Palette will have to be updated if the material has been placed on the palette.

Material Tool Palette

Materials on the tool palette can be modified. Select a tool palette. Right-click on a material and select Properties. The Tool Properties window is displayed. Map Property Settings can be changed. The changes do not automatically update the image on the tool palette. Right-click on the changed material tool on the tool palette and select update tool image.