Materials and Effects - Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Practical 3D Drafting and Design - page 392

Summary
This chapter includes all commands and concepts related to materials and environ-
ment. We started with an introduction to materials and textures followed by an explan-
ation of the Autodesk Material Library, which includes more than 700 materials almost
ready to assign, and where to find more than 1,000 textures available to create our
own materials. The MATBROWSEROPEN command displays a palette that allows load-
ing and managing the scene materials, also assigning these to objects.
The advised way to assign materials is by layer, which can be achieved with the
MATERIALATTACH command.
From the MATBROWSEROPEN palette we may create materials based on several ma-
terial templates, such as Generic , Ceramic , Concrete , and others. To define or modi-
fy materials, we have the MATEDITOROPEN command, also available from the pre-
vious palette by double-clicking on a material slot. To several material parameters,
we can apply images and procedural textures/maps, such as Checker , Tiles , and
Noise . To edit images or textures, such as defining scales, we have the Texture Ed-
itor palette.
Sometimes, material textures are not well placed on faces, so we need to adjust map-
ping coordinates, with the MATERIALMAP command.
Two of the effects available are, background that can be defined with the VIEW com-
mand or the BACKGROUND command; and fog or depth cue that is defined with the
RENDERENVIRONMENT command.
In the next chapter we will present 3D meshes and surfaces.