2011

■ Click Main Window Preview to close the preview window in the Material Editor and instead preview
the material on the item in the Scene View. This is updated interactively while you change the parameters.
The preview will be represent the material shown in Autodesk Navisworks during navigation, but the
quality will not be as high as the photorealistic render.
4 For a simple material, there is only a single Material tab on the Material Editor, whereas for a texture material,
whether procedural (generated from an algorithm) or bitmap (generated from an image), there is an extra
tab called Texture.
■ The Material tab contains simple parameters that affect the material’s color, scale, shininess and so on.
In the case of the Breeze Block, there are parameters for the overall scale of the material, as well as a
block’s width and height, the block’s color and mortar color, its roughness and reflectivity. For bitmap
textures, you need to define the location of the image in the Image File Name box. On a glassy material,
other factors would affect the transparency and refraction properties of the glass. Some of these factors
will not be apparent in the interactive OpenGL window and will have to be rendered with the Render
to be seen.
■ The Texture tab contains parameters that specifically affect a texture material’s texture mapping properties,
such as its rotation, offset (origin) and S- and T- (sometimes called U- and V-) scales. These parameter
values are applied in relation to an origin point (see “
Advanced Materials” on page 359 for more
information). There are S- and T- Reflect check boxes, which will show the reflection of the image in
either (or both) of these axis. Finally there is an Offset Center check box, that repositions the origin to
the center of the image (again, see “
Advanced Materials” on page 359 for more information). When using
the Main Window Preview, texture changes can be made instantly allowing interactive positioning of
materials on an object.
5 At any time, click Apply to apply the parameter edits to the material in the scene.
6 Click OK to keep the changes made or Cancel to discard any changes made (since the last time you clicked
Apply at least).
To create a texture using your own image
1 Expand the Templates material archive, and double-click the Plain Texture material to add the material to
the scene’s palette, and to open the Material Editor.
2 On the Material tab (or Color tab, if in Developer profile) click the Browse button (...) next to the Image
File Name text box. The Open Image File dialog box opens.
358 | Chapter 14 Create Photorealistic Visualizations