Wheres my materials? 2007 AutoCAD

[kellenhaskell]

Ive been using autocad 2005 for a while until recently when i changed jobs and upgraded to 2007. One problem im having now is that i cant figure out how the "materials" work in 2007. I cant seem to find a list or any sort of catalog of the materials i have. The only thing i've seen is a material window that allows you to display it in about 5-6 different styles. So if anyone could help point out the probably obvious i'd appreciate it. Thank you!

[Cad64]

Type TP at the command line. This should open your tool palette. Either that or go to your "Tools" menu and select "Palettes" and then select "Tool Palettes". You will find all the materials in there. Provided they were included during the installation process.

[kellenhaskell]

Alright i did that. I guess my boss didnt buy the one with materials, because this is all i can come up with

 

 

 

 

So in this case is there any way i can add materials to my autocad? or am i dead in the water?

[Guest]

If by chance your rendering materials are not on the tool pallets, you will need to install them from the installation disk for 2007. You can find out if the textures are installed by looking at C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2008\Textures. If there are a bunch of images there, then you should have the textures installed. If not there will be a help file that says 'where are my textures files'.

[kellenhaskell]

unfortionately.....i have that help file that says 'where are my textures files' and the rest of the folder is empty

[kellenhaskell]

and when i explore the disk i have for autocad 2007 i see this.

 

 

 

 

Obviously no textures and the other folders are empty.. So from here is there somewhere i can go to to add textures to my autocad library? I only would need some wood grains and maybe some glass. THANK YOU

[Cad64]

As Secretagdan said, the materials are on the installation disk. Just get the disk from your boss and install them. You can also make your own textures or get images from the web. Take a look at THIS thread for sites that offer free materials.

[kellenhaskell]

Ok so about a month later now i found my textures. It was located under "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2007\R17.0\enu\Textures\" thing is i have the image files for the materials but no actual materials when i type in TP except for the few wood ones i created. Is there any way I can get all these textures assigned material names and characteristics? Hopefully so because i dont want to do each individually

[shift1313]

there is a link to a bunch of materials in this forum. I downloaded a few(roadways, brushed metal, rust etc) and used them in acad07. when you open the materials window and only one block is shown, there is a drop down list for things like wood, metal, advanced metal, etc. these will change a few of your options and presets. from there you can see three options for loading a map. i think one is the material, one is bump, and one is mirror. Dont quote me on that im not infront of 07 right now.

 

at any rate you can load a bmp or jpeg etc into the first box as your material, you can then play with its scale, orientation, and other properties by clicking the box off to the right. Ill try to take a screen shot for you when i get back to work.

[kellenhaskell]

Yes i understand that method of adding the materials but the thing is that autocad should come with all those materials already pre set. I just have image files and i DONT want to add every single material texture as well as bump map and play with the properties. That would take entirely too long and i'm hoping to be proving that its also the wrong way to do it. I'm looking for an answer on why i have a folder full of textures and bump maps but not one material in autocad.

[Cad64]

Have a look at THIS thread.

[qball]

I think I have the same problem as kellenhaskell. I found the textures, but they're not on a palette. Do I have to manually create all new palettes for each texture group (wood, sitework, etc.)? It seems some people had a default material palette. All nice and organized.

[qball]

oops, just deleted MEDRUST (.jpg) or something like that. Anyone have that so I can get it back? I will probably never use it but who knows.

 

oh, and I created new palettes under a new palette group and clicked and dragged from windows explorer to the new palette. relatively painless.

[ReMark]

qball:

 

We're talking materials here right?

[ReMark]

qball:

 

Take a look at this thread.

 

http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?t=36286

[qball]

yep, materials.

 

"Looking for your additional Material Library content? If you don’t see a Material Library tool palette group, right-click on the Tool Palettes titlebar and go to Customize Palettes. Drag all the palettes ending in “ – Material Library” on the left side (Palettes) into the Material Library palette group on the right side. Close the Customize dialog, and your Material Library palette group will now be fully populated with additional content."

 

This didn't work because under my Customize Tool palettes none ended in "- material library".

So as mentioned I created the palettes by dragging the .jpg images to a palette, but I don't think they are materials. I can't drag from the palette to a solid or surface on my drawing. It seems to just insert a 2d raster image.

 

here's a screenshot showing my created palettes, Customize menu, and RMAT tab in the background. The image on the right is solids and surfaces that I created a while ago, but deleted the images that I used from the internet before I found the acad materials library. It's a long annoying process to get the materials on that image using RMAt and browsing and picking each .jpg to attach from C: drive. I should just click and drag to the solid. And then edit in RMAT. Right?

[Cad64]

In "Options" check your texture maps search path. You may need to repath your materials. Otherwise, you may need to insert your installation disk and run a repair.

 

I've deleted your other post. Please only post your question once.

And in the future, please start a new thread when you have a question. :wink:

[qball]

Cad64, sorry about the other post... seems I get over one wall and then just hit another. Seems like a double posting, I know they're annoying.

My Texture Map Search Path matches the .jpg material locations. I just can't click and drag from the palette to the object on the screen. Which makes me think my custom Material Palette isn't set up right. And there was no default Material Palette.

1st image shows that search path is right.

2nd image shows that I try to drag from palette to the green solid, and the materials just end up a flat 2d raster.

All the instructions on line just say "click and drag"???

 

edit: just realized I'm repeating myself a lot and I sound like a ********. But it's pretty frustrating. It seems so (potentially) simple.

 

haha ^^^^ automatic sensoring! too funny!