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AutoCAD 2008 Material Definition Toolpalette 4

3 Comments Sep-18-2008 | Posted by Erhan Toker | Printable Version | Level |

Textures are the most important parts of material. Textures are also named as ‘Texture Maps’. Now, let’s proceed to the second section of our material definition tool palette ‘Maps‘ where we control the material textures:

Maps :

Fig.1

In ‘Maps‘ part, we have three textures in total for each material . These are general texture of material (diffuse map), opacity texture and bump map.

Diffuse map : It is the main texture of the material, Generally, materials are made up of this texture. It is the main texture of the material. We have explained about this section in detail in article Creating Render Material in AutoCAD – 2. In this article we are continuing to give details only about the material definition tool palette.

Opacity map : It is some kind of a masking process. Simply, black areas in the picture that we give here will be transparent and the white areas will be completely opaque. In article AutoCAD 2007 and Landscape Objects, we have given detailed explanation about this subject. In Fig. 2, you can see an example.

Fig.2

Bump map : In the picture that we give in this channel, the light colored (more white) areas look raised and the darker (more black) areas will look more lowered.

Fig.3

Corresponding control buttons (Fig. 4) will appear near each texture channel according to the map type that you select.

Fig.4

Mapping type can be any of Texture, Checker, Marble, Noise, Speckle, Tiles, Waves, Wood pre-definitions. If ‘Texture Map’ is selected, then you have to define your own texture picture. Texture colors can be any of bmp, gif, jpg, pcx, png, tga or tiff types. These pictures must be all together in one location and this location must be defined inside the OPTIONS window in AutoCAD (Fig. 5).

Fig.5

The other mapping types are pre-defined templates. Simply by changing some parameters, you can create textures like marble, bath tiles or wooden textures. However, let me remind you that they are not very realistic. Using your own texture pictures is the more appropriate way.

Near mapping type, you can find the button by which you can access the settings that belongs to the selected mapping type. There are separate settings for each of the mapping types. To return back from the mapping type settings, we can press the small button near the main list on the upper part (Fig. 6).

Fig.6

I will explain about the mapping type settings in the next article. By using the slider bar that is that is just under the mapping type text (see top part of Fig. 1), you can determine how much ratio will the texture picture be shown. By using the button near the bar, (Fig. 4), you can select a texture page that is stored inside your PC hard disk. However, this option is only available in ‘Texture Map’ mapping type. By using the small button just near it, you can simply delete the mapping type from the material. And the second small button is the synchronization button. This button is working with on/off principle. If the synchronization is open, then the mapping type settings that were made affects all of the channels. The last button opens a preview screen about the texture.

Fig.7

So, here we finished the mapping type section too. Hope to see you in the next article. Until then, good bye!

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