AutoCAD 2013 Raster Materials and Rendering

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AutoCAD 2013 Materials & Rendering

This step-by-step tutorial is designed to help you create, attach and render a new rastermaterial in AutoCAD 2013. This tutorial is not compatible with earlier versions of AutoCAD.There are 3 prerequisites for this tutorial.

a. You must have a jpeg image ready to use as the basis for your new material.b. You must be able to see (so that you can pick) the object to which the new material

will be applied in the current viewport.c. Both the object and the image must have the same aspect ratio. For example, if the

object is square, the image must also be square. If the image and object havediffering aspect ratios, the image will be stretched to fit the object and may appeardistorted.

Setting up your workspacea. Make sure that you are using the 3D Modeling workspace.

b. Using the View tab on the Ribbon, set the visual style to Realistic.


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c. On the Rendertab, click the Materials Editorbutton (small arrow in bottom-right ofpanel) on the Materials panel to display the Materials Editor palette.

Creating the material1. Click the Create New Material button in the Materials Editor, and select New Generic

Material

from the pull-down menu.


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2. Replace the Default Genericname with something more specific for your newmaterial in the Name text box.

3. Next, click the small down-arrow next to the Image list and select Image from thepull-down menu.


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4. Use the Open File dialogue box to select the image to use for the new material andclick the Open button.

5. You should see that the materialpreview now shows the selectedimage.


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6. Using the slider to set the Glossiness to 0 (zero).

7. Select Edit Image... from the Image pull-down menu to display the Texture Editorpanel.


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8. In the Texture Editorpanel, click the Transforms down arrow and then the Scaledown arrow to reveal the Sample Size settings. Set both the Width and Height 1200.

That completes the creation of the new material. You can close the Texture Editorand Materials Editorpanels.


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Attaching the material

1. Click the Materials Browserbutton on the Materials panel on the Ribbon.

2. Drag-and-drop your new material from the Materials Browseron to the front face ofyour panel and hold down the Control key(Ctrl) on the keyboard as you do it. The

control key causes the material to be applied only to the face and not to the wholeobject.


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3. You should see your material applied to the panel object.

4. If your material doesnt look quite right, you may need to adjust the Mapping. Try

setting the mapping to Planarusing the Material Mapping options on the Materialspanel. Hold down the Control key as you select the face you applied the material to.


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Rendering the model to a file

1. Click the Rendertab on the Ribbon and click the Advanced Render Settings button(small arrow in bottom-right of panel) to display the Render panel.

2. Click the small render to file button in the Render Context bar.

3. Click on Output file name and then on the ellipsis (3 dots) to display the RenderOutput File dialogue box.


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4. Set the save location by clicking on the My Documents icon then give the file a nameand select PNG from the Files of type drop-down list.

5. Click the Save button to display the PNG ImageOptions dialogue box.

6. Click the 32 Bits radio button in the PNG ImageOptions dialogue box. This option saves a selectionwith the rendered image, making it easier to workwith in Photoshop. Click the OK button.

7. Finally, click the Render button at the top-right ofthe Advanced Render Settings panel.


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8. You can follow the progress of your render in the render window it should take nomore than a couple of minutes. Once you see a small red tick against the file name,the render is complete and the image file can be opened in Photoshop.

David Watson - April 2012