Managing Plan Materials

All materials that come with Chief Architect are stored in the Library Browser. You can also create your own materials and save them in the Library Browser. The Library Browser offers complete material editing capabilities. See "Editing Materials".

Use the Plan Materials dialog to manage only those materials that are used in the current plan. To access the Plan Materials dialog, select 3D> Materials> Plan Materials .

Plan Materials Dialog

This is the list of materials in your plan. Select a material to preview it to the right.

If an X displays in the In Use column, the material is used by an object in your plan or is defined as a default material for one or more objects in your plan.

Click OK to close the dialog and save any changes, Cancel to delete any changes made during this session in the dialog and return to the current view, or Help for more information about materials.

Edit opens the Define Material dialog for the selected material.

New opens the Define Material dialog to create a new material.

Copy creates a copy of the selected material and opens the Define Material dialog where you can make changes to the copied material.

Purge removes unused materials from your plan.

Delete removes a material from the list of plan materials. If the material is used in the model, you cannot delete it.

Click Add to Library to add the selected material to the Library Browser, making it available for use in other plans. See "Adding to the Library".

The preview window on top shows how the material appears in vector and cross section views.

The bottom preview shows how the texture appears in render views. If the words "No Texture" display, either a texture has not been assigned to the material or the texture file could not be found on your system. In either case, the material displays in render views as a solid color.