Introduction to materials, textures, and effects

Since Version 2011, with the introduction of Autodesk Materials and the inclusion of more than 700 excellent looking and ready-to-apply materials, photo-realistic images can easily be obtained. These materials can be adjusted and we can also create countless materials, generic or template-based.

Materials are defined from several parameters, often including textures or maps. Textures can be photos, images, and also several procedural maps simulating tiles, chess patterns, wood, marble, and others. When using textured materials, mapping coordinates (the way textures are painted on faces, including texture origin, scale, and rotation) can be adjusted.

Until applying materials, a special material, called Global with color defined by the object, is applied to all objects. This material cannot be deleted or renamed. Materials can be applied to objects, to faces of objects or by layer, the last being the preferable way.

As effects, AutoCAD only...