Free Materials?

[Jacky]

Hi,

I have built the structure of the house, and now I am thinking of applying some materials and render it to make it look realistic, but I found the material list in CAD 2010 very limited, such as the choice of wood floor, and I couldn't find the material stucco for my exterior wall as well. I am also thinking of doing wooden panels for my exterior wall for the non-stucco part. for the paneling, do i have to built the 3d panels myself, and apply the material on to them? or is there a possible material that will make the wall look like panels once applied onto the wall?

 

I am looking for a possible free expansion on the material library that was built in.

thanks

[Cad64]

No you don't have to build each panel, and you shouldn't. More geometry = longer render times. You should try to use materials, whenever possible, to add detail. Only model elements that will be close to the camera. Things that will be seen from a distance don't need so much detail and you can easily get by with good, quality materials. See this thread for sites offering free materials: http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?t=25546

[Jacky]

Hi Cad64

thanks for your resources, they are really appealing.

However, I never imported any material from the website and apply it in Autocad,

so, I am asking a dumb question of how to use the jpeg file after downloading. how do i add it into my library of materials?

thanks

[Cad64]

The first thing you need to do is open up Photoshop and do a little work on the texture so that it will be tileable when you apply it. Check Google, there are many tutorials on creating tileable textures.

 

If you don't have Photoshop, and you don't want to buy it, you can download a free Photoshop clone called Gimp.

 

Once you're happy with the texture, just save it into your texture library. I have a folder on my hard drive where I keep all of my textures, separated into categories for concrete, metal, wood, etc.

 

To use your texture, open the Autocad Material Editor, go to the "Maps-Global" section, under "Diffuse Map" and click the "Select Image" button and then browse for the texture.

[Jacky]

thanks for the help, i'll follow the advices.

[Jacky]

btw, Cad64, how come when i used the method of clicking the select image under diffuse map, when i do so, and get the appropriate image file, that material are automatically applied to everything that i have built in 3d, without even me actually applying the materials to every 3d objects.??

do you know what might be my problem?

thanks

[Cad64]

Whenever you are adding materials to the editor, you need to click the "Create New Material" button. You should not use the first, default, material slot. Whatever material is applied to the first material slot will be automatically used for every object in your scene.