How to create a new Material
Materials control how model elements display in views and rendered images.
Materials define the following:
Graphics characteristics that control how the Material looks in a non-rendered view, such as:
The Surface Colour and Transparency that displays in a Shaded or Consistent Colours view.
The Pattern and its Background and Foreground Colour that display on the Surface of an element (if any) in a Shaded, Consistent Colours or Hidden Line view.
The Pattern and its Background and Foreground Colour that display when the Element is Cut (if any) in a Floor Plan, Reflected Ceiling Plan or Section.
Identity information about the Material, such as Description, Manufacturer, Cost, and Keynote.
The Appearance that displays in a Rendered or Realistic view.
Physical properties used for Structural Analysis.
Thermal properties used for Energy Analysis.
A Material is built from a series of Assets. Assets such as Appearance, Physical and Thermal Assets can be used by multiple Materials. The Identity and Graphics Assets are only used by the one material. Because of this fact, it can be a little confusing to create a new Material without inadvertently effecting many other Materials. For example, if you modify an Appearance Asset, this might be used by many different materials, so your changes will effect those as well.
Quick Step Guide to Materials and Assets
This guide takes you through the process of creating a new Material without impacting other elements.
Open the Material Browser by going to Manage ► Settings ► Materials
Find a similar Material and Right Click on it and select Duplicate, ensuring you immediately update the Name to be appropriate for the new Material as per the Naming Standards.
Work through the Material Tabs from Left to Right.
Open Identity tab and update any relevant information.
Open the Graphics tab and update any relevant information.
Open the Appearance tab;
In the title you will see a picture of a hand with a number over it. This is how many other materials are using this Shared Asset. As this Material was duplicated from an existing Material it will have at least one other Material using it. If you change any settings on this Asset it will impact the other Material!
Use the Replace1 or Duplicate Asset2 buttons to select an alternate Asset or create a copy of the Asset to customise, respectively. If you are unsure about all this ask!
This is just a very brief introduction to the Materials dialog. Read on for further information.
Materials and Assets
This guide outlines the detailed process for creating/editing Materials and their associated Assets. Here is a link to the Autodesk Help on Materials also.
Open the Material Browser by going to Manage ► Settings ► Materials
It’s always easiest to select an existing Material and duplicate it or load one from an external library. Below outlines the Material Browser dialog sections:
Project Material Browser
These are materials within the document. You can use the Search bar to instantly filter the list to find the most applicable material.Library Material Browser
These are the material libraries that are not in the document but loaded from an external source library file. There are built in Autodesk libraries, and you can also load your own custom libraries. Use the button in the lower right corner to load additional libraries (.adsklib files). Revit, Inventor and Civil 3D can share libraries. The icon with the + allows you to create a new material from scratch. The remaining icon shows/hides the Asset Browser.NOTE: Material Libraries unfortunately do not store all the settings of a Material (exactly as they do in the document). When saving a material to a Library, all the settings on the “Graphics” tab are lost! As such they are not as useful as you would hope. Instead you are better storing your materials in a Project file or Template.
Material Assets
There are up to 5 Asset tabs on the selected Material. Identity, Graphics and Appearance Assets exist on all Materials. Physical and Thermal Assets are optional. Appearance, Physical and Thermal Assets can be shared with multiple Materials.Identity Asset
This is the Name of the Material and all the data that can be tagged and scheduled in your documentation. You can also add custom parameters to materials (not shown).Graphics Asset
This is how the Material will appear in Hidden Line/Shaded/Consistent Colours views and when Cut in a Project.Appearance Asset
This is how the Material will appear in a Rendered or Realistic view. The hand with the number is how many other materials are using this Asset. If you do not want to impact other materials, always ensure this is 0 by duplicating the asset first and then making the change. The above example is of a “Generic” v2 Material showing all the potential options. Depending on the Appearance Asset you start with will depend on what options you have to customise it.New Appearance Asset
In Revit 2020, Autodesk added some new Advanced Appearance Asset functionality and a very limited set of templates which when used, look more realistic than their older counterparts. If you are seeing an exclamation mark next to your material, its nothing to be alarmed about, refer to this article.Physical Asset
This data is used by Revit only and contains all the structural analysis properties. In this example you can see that its used by 8 other materials (9 total).Thermal Asset
This data is used by Revit only and contains all the thermal analysis properties. For instance, the Thermal Resistance (R) value of a wall is calculated by the sum of the Thermal assets that make up its structure. In this example you can see that its used by 12 other materials (13 total).
Find an existing material that most matches what you are trying to create. For example, if it is a type of glass, use a glass material as a basis. Right Click on the Material and select Duplicate.
Name the Material as per the Naming Standards and update the parameters on the Identity tab as appropriate for the new Material. In this example a Green Tinted Glass is being created.
Next set the Graphics tab properties as you would like the item to display in documentation. In this example, the original Material used for duplication already has the correct graphic settings, so no changes are necessary.
Open the Appearance tab. Some Appearance Assets have different settings than others. This is because there are simplified “Presets” for common material classes such as Glass, Concrete, Tiles, Metal, Plastic, Stone and Wood. Sometimes this can be limiting and you may need access to edit all the settings. In this case, Right Click on the Appearance tab and choose “Duplicate as Generic”. A Generic Appearance Asset has access to all settings.
We must ensure we Duplicate the asset so we don’t change the Appearance of the original Material we duplicated. Update the Name to match our Material. NOTE: If the hand has a 0 over it, we know we are safe to make changes without effecting anything else.Make the necessary changes to achieve the desired Appearance. In this case, expand the Generic section and update the colour to apply a Green tint.
The preview will update as you make changes. The fly down menu next to the preview allows you to switch the scene, environment and quality to allow us to better visualise the changes in the most suitable environment/scale for the use case.Open the Physical tab. Make any necessary changes or replace the asset. In the example, the settings are fine.
Open the Thermal tab. Make any necessary changes or replace the asset. In the example, lets Replace the Asset.
This opens the Asset Browser. Use the Search Bar at the top to search for “Lime”
We want to load the “Glass - Lime Window”, hover over the row and select the Replace Asset icon that appears on the Right. This Asset has now been applied to your Material.
Select the OK button to close the Material Browser to Save your changes. NOTE: Avoid using the Escape key in this dialog as it will close the window and you will lose any changes!
This is just a very brief introduction to the Materials dialog. There are numerous other more advanced features like Procedural Maps, Bump Maps, Texture Alignment, Cut-outs, Self-Illumination, Transparency/Reflectivity, organising Libraries and Assets and custom material parameters. If you are doing a lot of rendering then its suggested you read up further in the Revit help files.