Assigning new materials to walls

I want to assign a material that is not included with the "existing" list of materials. So I open the materials library and I try to do all that I can to convince one of the materials to join the "existing" list but nothing helps. The wall material remains unchanged.

I double click the desired material from the library and it jumps up to the "document materials:all" and here I click the jumped material and drag it to the wall, all looks OK, with one tiny issue, materials are unchanged (although when I r-click on that material and select "select objects applied to" the wall is highlighted. Also, when I r-click on the material (from the document materials) and select "Add to" > "Active Tool Palette" nothing happens and the tool palette remains unchanged (this used to work...).

Thanks for your help.

I will appreciate any help here. Thanks.

Here are the steps I would use.

1. Open the Material Browser

2. In the bottom left corner click the icon for "Create a new material in the document".

3. Choose Wall Paint if the material will be a solid color or New Generic Material if it will have a pattern like wall paper.

4. Give the new material a descriptive name and fill in other parameters.

5. If you are making a material with a pattern then select the image to associate with the new generic material.

6. From the Material Browser drag the material to the object you want to have the material.

7. Verify that the object has the material with Properties and check under the 3D Visualization properties.

8. Change the display mode to Realistic. You should see the pattern. If you do not, try the following.

What can go wrong.

9. Duplicate geometry - Move the object to a unique layer and freeze all other layers so all you have is the one object in view. Very often a user may have two objects on top of each other. They think they are editing the material on the object they see but they are really editing an object that is being obscured by an overlapping or duplicate object. Give the render command.

10. Inappropriate Material Mapping - check that you have an appropriate mapping type (planar, box, etc.), size, and orientation. Sometimes it can be difficult to see the mapping gizmo so choose another mapping type and see what happens.

11. Bad mapping scale - In the Materials Editor, double-click the image and then edit the scale. If the wall is say 10ft long (120in) and you want a repeat of 10 images across the wall the scale should be 12. If you want just one big image on the wall set the width to the wall width and the height accordingly. Sometimes I have set a very large scale or small scale (100, 1000, 1, 0.1, 0.01) to see if that makes a difference.

12. Lighting - If there are no lights in your file and the sun is off you should see something after rendering. If you have a light and it is not illuminating the object your render will be black. Since you are seeing the wall I assume lighting is not the issue.

I am sure others can add to this list.

Good luck! ~ lrm

Hello Irm,

This is not working for me.

I do not have any problems with the Document Materials (top part of the Materials library) - This I can see and add and edit and all is fine. Also when I R-click a certain object and choose Edit Object Display I can list and select and override any of the EXISTING materials that have been previously use by me. BUT my problem is: using a new material from the library - this is not working for me.

Can anyone add any ideas here? what do I do wrong? But when I assign a NEW material, all looks OK (no error message is displayed) but materials are not changed on the screen. The objects remain unchanged.

Walls and other AEC objects that are created in AutoCAD Architecture have materials that are assigned to the individual object components. Instead of having to drag and drop materials onto an object the object is predefined with a material or it can be edited to have a material if one doesn't exist.

Wall styles that are included with AutoCAD Architecture or AutoCAD MEP already have materials added to the wall components so if you used a wall with concrete block on one side and brick on the other, the wall will render with those materials right out of the box.

If you need to edit a style, you can insert a wall in your drawing and select Edit Style from the contextual ribbon. Individual components get named and then in the material tab, you can assign your material. The material needs to already be in the drawing as an AEC Material and the simplest way to add one is to add a wall that already has the material assigned.

Note that AEC Materials have a lot more information than basic AutoCAD Materials. Look in the Style Manager (Manage Tab) Multi-Purpose Objects > Material Definitions. Copy a material that is similar to the one you want to create, then edit the Display Properties. The AutoCAD Material is the Render Material, which is set on the Other tab. This is pretty brief, but I hope helps you understand the process.

I really appreciate your help - but looks like something very basic is not working for me. I just want to be able to add a new material to the list of existing materials. This existing (previously been used) material is displayed when, for example, I select a 3D object (e.g. wall or a mass element), then I right-click and select Edit Object Display, now I can change the material: If I select to change the material, the list of EXISTING materials are displayed (lets call this list "LISTJ"), and here I CAN SELECT A NEW MATERIAL AND ALSO IT IS ASSIGNED AND IMMEDIATELY DISPLAYED.

Now, how can I add a new material from the general Inventory of materials to this inventory of "LISTJ"?

... how can I add a new material from the general Inventory of materials to this inventory of "LISTJ"?

See my earlier reply. You need to create an AEC Material, which is different from an AutoCAD Material. Then it will appear on the list. You may also find additional existing materials in the appropriate sample drawing. In the Style Manager, under Content > Styles > {Imperial or Metric} you can open the drawing with sample styles - Material Definitions (Imperial or Metric).dwg. You can easily copy these from that drawing to yours by drag and drop or right-click copy > paste. For more information, consult the help.

Thanks, Bill

Thanks a lot BillGlennie,

I just managed to change the materials (i.e. I apply a material and I see the results on the screen as expected...).

This is the way I do it:

I display the list of all existing materials in Autocad (MATERIALS command) from the bottom list: "Autodesk Library" I select one of existing materials and load it to the upper list: "Document Materials: All" (Here I also can edit the image of the material).

Then I Right Click the displayed element (e.g. a Mass Element) and select "Edit Mass Style" or "Edit Object Display" and then I select "Edit Materials" and select the view button - here in the displayed list of values I can see and select the new loaded material.

This is different than the way I used to do (by drag and drop) but the results are OK.

Thanks for your help.