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AutoCAD 2014 Materials & Rendering

This step-by-step tutorial is designed to help you create, attach and render a new raster
material in AutoCAD 2014. This tutorial is compatible with 2013 (using the 3D Modeling
workspace) but not with earlier versions of AutoCAD. There are 3 prerequisites for this
tutorial.
a. You must have a jpeg image ready to use as the basis for your new material.
b. You must be able to see (so that you can pick) the object to which the new material
will be applied in the current viewport.
c. Both the object and the image must have the same aspect ratio. For example, if the
object is square, the image must also be square. If the image and object have
differing aspect ratios, the image will be stretched to fit the object and may appear
distorted.
Setting up your workspace
a. Make sure that you are using the 3D Basics workspace.




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b. Using the in-canvas viewport controls, set the visual style to Realistic.



c. On the Render tab, click the Materials Editor button (small arrow in bottom-right of
panel) on the Materials panel to display the Materials Editor palette.




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Creating the material
1. Click the Create New Material button in the Materials Editor, and select New Generic
Material from the pull-down menu.




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2. Replace the Default Generic name with something more specific for your new
material in the Name text box.



3. Next, click the small down-arrow next to the Image list and select Image from the
pull-down menu.




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4. Use the Open File dialogue box to select the image to use for the new material and
click the Open button.



5. You should see that the material
preview now shows the selected
image.




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6. Using the slider to set the Glossiness to 0 (zero).


7. Select Edit Image... from the Image pull-down menu to display the Texture Editor
panel (if it does not automatically appear).



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8. In the Texture Editor panel, click the Transforms down arrow and then the Scale
down arrow to reveal the Sample Size settings. Set both the Width and Height 1200.



That completes the creation of the new material. You can close the Texture Editor
and Materials Editor panels.

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Attaching the material

1. Click the Materials Browser button on the Materials panel on the Ribbon.




2. Drag-and-drop your new material from the Materials Browser on to the front face of
your panel and hold down the Control key (Ctrl) on the keyboard as you do it. The
control key causes the material to be applied only to the face and not to the whole
object.




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3. You should see your material applied to the panel object.




4. If your material doesnt look quite right, you may need to adjust the Mapping. Try
setting the mapping to Planar using the Material Mapping options on the Materials
panel. Hold down the Control key as you select the face you applied the material to.


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Rendering the model to a file
Before rendering, make sure that the view you want to render is set up in the current
viewport. For example, if you are matching a photograph, check that the angle and
perspective are correct. You may find it easier to add a camera to the drawing in order to
save your view.

1. Click the Render tab on the Ribbon and click the Advanced Render Settings button
(small arrow in bottom-right of panel) to display the Render panel.



2. Click the small render to file button in the Render Context bar.

3. Click on Output file name and then on the ellipsis (3 dots) to display the Render
Output File dialogue box.




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4. Set the save location by clicking on the My Documents icon then give the file a name
and select PNG from the Files of type drop-down list.



5. Click the Save button to display the PNG Image
Options dialogue box.

6. Click the 32 Bits radio button in the PNG Image
Options dialogue box. This option saves a selection
with the rendered image, making it easier to work
with in Photoshop. Click the OK button.

7. Set the Output size for your render. This should be
at least as big as the background image you will be
adding the render to. Use the Specify Output
Size option for larger or non-standard sizes.

8. Finally, click the Render button at the top-right of
the Advanced Render Settings panel.


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9. You can follow the progress of your render in the render window it should take no
more than a couple of minutes. Once you see a small red tick against the file name,
the render is complete and the image file can be opened in Photoshop.



For best results, you could also render the scene with sunlight and with Sky and
Background Illumination turned on. If you do this, be sure to set the date and time too.



David Watson - J anuary 2014