AutoCAD 2002 Tutorial: Create A Mirror-Like Material
By Alireza Parsai,
August 28, 2002
Are you familiar with rendering 3D models in AutoCAD? If yes,
you also know that materials you can assign to your models are a
limited number. Fortunately you can define new materials based
on the current materials. Take a look at the following picture
(Figure 1). There I have used a custom material to show the
effect of mirrors. Let's create this material step by step.
FIGURE 1
1. Invoke RMAT. You can invoke the command by clicking its icon
on Render toolbar (i.e. ). The Materials dialog box appears.
Select Standard from the drop-down list on the right side of the
dialog box and click New button (Figure 2).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 3 -
Click on image to enlarge
2. Type a name for the material (e.g. WHITE MIRROR).
3. Make sure Color/Pattern radio button is selected in
Attributes column.
4. In Color section remove By ACI tick mark. If you select this
option the color of material will be the same as the color of
the selected object.
5. Enter 1.00 in Red, Green, and Blue boxes (Figure 4).
FIGURE 4
6. Select Reflection in Attributes list. Set the value to 0.5 or
higher to guarantee a good quality for the reflected light
(Figure 5).
7. In Color section make sure that both Lock and Mirror are
selected. Lock option makes the color of reflection light the
same as the color of object. Mirror creates a mirror-like
material (Figure 5).
FIGURE 5 -
Click on
image to enlarge
8. Set the Roughness and Transparency values to 0. Click OK.
Now the mirror material is ready to use. Attach it to a proper
object. Set the scene and invoke RENDER command. Make sure that
Photo Raytrace rendering type is used. This is the rendering
type that enables viewing light reflection.
You can download a library of mirror-like materials at:
http://www.geocities.com/cad_tips/downloads.htm. You can
also download a drawing file there to test the topics discussed
here.
About the Author
Alireza Parsai is the founder of cadpanel.com. He is a
mechanical engineer with more than 12 years experience with
AutoCAD. Alireza is an Autodesk Authorized Author, the AutoCAD
consultant for Al Khawarizmi Institute, a contributing editor
for Augiworld magazine, a writer for CAD Digest, an instructor
for AUGI Training Program, and an elected speaker for Autodesk
University 2002. He has written 7 books in Farsi, 3 booklets in
English, and more than 30 articles for different magazines and
newsletters. You can reach him at
alireza.parsai@cadpanel.com or visit his website
www.cadpanel.com.
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