A material is defined by a number of properties.
The available options depend on the material type selected.
You
can create a new material in the Material window. The Material window can
be activated by selecting Tools from the pulldown menu, Palettes,
and Materials. The Material window is displayed. Select the Create
New Material button below the Available Materials in Drawing panel
and a new material will be created. In the Material Editor section
of the Materials window you can select a type of material and a
template to create your new material. After you set these properties
you can modify your
new materials even more by using maps, such as texture map or procedural
maps, Advanced Lighting Override, Material Scaling & Tiling,
and Material Offset & Preview settings.
In
the Material Editor panel, you can set the following properties:
- Realistic
and Realistic Metal types. Materials based on physical
qualities. You can select a material template from a list of predefined
materials such as, Ceramic Tile, Glazed, Fabric, or Glass, and so
on.
- Advanced
and Advanced Metal types. Materials with more options, including
properties that you can use to create special effects; for example, simulated
reflections. Advanced and Advanced Metal types do not offer material
templates.
One
material is always available in a new drawing, GLOBAL; by default,
it uses the Realistic template. This material is applied to all
objects by default until the material is changed on an object. You
can use this material as a base for creating a new material.
Depending on the type of material you use, one
or more of the following properties may be available for you to
refine your material.
Color
The
color of a material on an object is different in different areas
of the object. For example, when you look at a red sphere, it does
not appear to be uniformly red. The sides away from the light appear
to be a darker red than the sides facing the light. The reflection
highlight appears the lightest red. In fact, if the red sphere is
very shiny, its highlight may appear to be white.
You
can set three types of colors for a material that uses the Advanced
or two colors for the Advanced Metal material type.
- Diffuse.
The main color of the material.
- Ambient.
The color that appears on faces lighted by ambient light alone. The
ambient color may be the same as the diffuse color.
- Specular.
The color of a highlight on a shiny material. The specular color may
be the same as the diffuse color.
The Realistic and Realistic Metal templates
use only Diffuse color.
Shininess
The
reflective quality of the material defines the degree of shininess
or roughness. To simulate a shiny surface, the material has a small
highlight, and its specular color is lighter, perhaps even white.
A rougher material has a larger highlight that is closer to the
main color of the material.
Other Properties
The
following properties can be used to create specific effects:
- Opacity.
A completely opaque object does not allow the passage of light through
its surface. An object with no opacity is transparent. (Not available
for metal material types).
- Reflection.
The reflection slider controls how reflective the material is. When
set to 100, the material is fully reflective and the surrounding
environment is reflected in the surface of any object to which the
material is applied. (Not available for metal material types.)
- Refraction.
In translucent materials, light rays are bent as they pass through
the material and thus distort objects that are seen through the material.
For example, at 1.0, the object behind the transparent object is not
distorted. At 1.5, the object is distorted greatly, as if it were
seen through a glass marble. (Not available for metal material types.)
Material | Index of
Refraction |
|---|
Vacuum | 1.0 (exactly) |
Air | 1.0003 |
Water | 1.3333 |
Glass | 1.5 to
1.7 |
Diamond | 2.419 |
- Translucency.
A translucent object transmits light, but also scatters some light
within the object; for example, frosted glass. The translucency
value is a percentage: at 0.0, the material is not translucent;
at 100.0, the material is as translucent as possible. (Not available
for metal material types.)
- Self-illumination.
The object appears to be emitting its own light. For example, to
simulate neon without using a light source, you could set a self-illumination
value greater than zero. No light is cast on other objects.
- Luminance.
Luminance causes a material to simulate being lit by a photometric
light source. How much light is emitted is a selected value in photometric
units. No light is cast on other objects.
- Two
Sided Material. Two Sided Material sets the property
of the material as two sided. Set this property if you want both
sides of the fabric to be rendered in the scene.
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