Material Editor dialog box

Used to create or modify a material palette. Opens when the Define Materials tool is selected in the Rendering tool box, when Settings > Rendering > Define Materials is chosen, when you double-click the material preview window in either the Apply Material tool dialog box or when you select Edit Material in the righ-click menu of the material preview window.

When working with Bentley Building products, you can modify a material from within the Material Editor dialog box, but you its part assignment can be changed only through the part editor for the particular product.

Two modes are available in this dialog box — Basic Mode and Advanced Mode. The title bar of the dialog box displays which mode currently is active. Additionally, in Advanced Mode, you can choose to display/hide Samples and Descriptions. In both modes, expandable/collapsible sections let you customize the dialog box to your requirements.

When the palette tree is visible, the Material Editor dialog box is resizable, by dragging the border. Only when the dialog box is at its minimum height, however, will collapsing a section reduce the size of the dialog box. When it has been re-sized to a larger size, collapsing a section will not reduce the size of the overall dialog box.

In the tree view, you can use a right click menu to manipulate materials. Additionally, you can use drag and drop to move or copy materials from one palette file to another. That is, you can:

• Click-and-drag selected materials to move them from one palette to another.

• <Ctrl>-click-and-drag to copy selected materials from one palette to another.

Material Editor dialog box, showing fully expanded Basic Mode(left) and Advanced Mode(right).

Palette

Displays the current material palette. A drop-down menu lets you select other palettes that have been loaded.

Material

Displays the current material, which is contained in the current palette file. A drop-down menu lets you select other materials that are contained in the material palette.

New Material icon

Creates a new material entry in the currently selected material palette. The material has the default settings and focus is on its name, to let you input a new name.

If no material palette is selected, then a new palette is created to contain the new material.

Open Palette icon

Opens the Open Palette dialog box, which lets you select a palette to load.

Save Palette icon

(Enabled only when a change has been made to a material palette) Saves the currently selected material palette.

If the palette is new, the Save Palette As dialog box opens, which lets you save the new palette file.

Cut icon

(Enabled only when a material is selected) Copies the selected material to the Windows clipboard and deletes the entry from the palette file.

Copy icon

(Enabled only when a material is selected) Copies the selected material to the Windows clipboard.

Paste icon

(Enabled only when one or more materials have been copied to the clipboard) Pastes the contents of the Windows clipboard into the selected palette.

Revert to saved material icon

(Enabled only after a change has been made to one or more settings for a material) Lets you revert to the saved version of the material.

Apply Material icon

Starts the Apply Material tool, with the selected method active. The active icon reflects the same icon as displayed on the Apply Material tool dialog box. Method can be selected from a drop-down menu that opens when you click the arrow to the right of the icon. Options are:

• Assign Material
— To assign a material by level and color.

• Remove Assignment
— To remove a material assignment by level and color.

• Attach Material
— To attach a material to an element, or face of a solid.

• Remove Attachment
— To remove a material attachment from an element or face of a solid.

• Preview Element
— To preview the material on one or more elements in the model.

Filter materials icon

Lets you define which materials are displayed in the palette tree. When the Filter icon toggle is pressed in, then the current material filter becomes active. When the Filter icon is not pressed in, then no filter is applied. Hovering the pointer over the Filter icon displays a tool tip that displays the selected filter that is in use, or will be used if the Filter icon is pressed. The arrow icon, at the right of the Filter icon, opens a menu to let you choose a filter. Choosing a filter, automatically turns on that filter. Filter options are:

• Filter Used
— Displays only those materials that have been assigned in the DGN file and/or those that have been attached to elements in the active model.

• Filter Assignments
— Displays only those materials that have been assigned by level and color in the DGN file.

• Filter Attachments
— Displays only those materials that have been attached to elements in the active model.

• Filter Part Assignments
— (Bentley Building products only) Displays only those materials that have been attached to parts.

• Filter Unused
— Displays only those materials that have not been assigned by level and color in the DGN file.

Table menu > Open

Opens the Open Table File dialog box, which lets you choose a material assignment table (.mat) file to load.

Table menu > Save

(Enabled only when a change has been made to the material assignments) Saves the material table.

Table menu > Save As

Lets you save the current material table to a file with a different name.

Table menu > Environment Maps

Opens the Environment Maps dialog box, which lets you assign image files to the faces of the environment cube. These images replace the background color in ray traced images when viewed through transparent materials, or as reflections in shiny materials.

Palette menu > New

Creates a new palette entry in the current material table.

Palette menu > Open

Opens the Open Palette dialog box, which lets you select a material palette to load.

Palette menu > Save

(Enabled only if a change has been made to the selected palette file) Saves the selected palette file.

Palette menu > Save As

Lets you save the selected material palette to a file with a different name.

Palette menu > Unload

Unloads the selected material palette file.

If any materials from the selected material palette file have been used in the current DGN file then an Alert box appears to warn you of this fact. If you still accept the unloading of the material palette file, then those materials are either resolved from other material palettes (having materials of the same name) or moved to the Missing Materials palette.

Material menu > New

Creates a new material, using default material attributes, with focus on the material name so that you can give it a name of your choice.

Material menu > Import

Opens the Select Palette File, which lets you select a material palette file, from which to import one or more materials via the Import Materials dialog box.

Material menu > Assign

Starts the Apply Material tool with method set to Assign by Level/Color.

Material menu > New Assignment

Creates a new assignment of the current material, to be edited in place.

Material menu > Remove Assignment

(Disabled if no assignments associated with the material) Starts the Apply Material tool with method set to Remove Assignment.

Material menu > Edit Assignments

Opens the Material Assignments dialog box, which lets you manually edit assignments of the material by level and color.

Material menu > Attach

Starts the Apply Material tool with method set to Attach.

Material menu > Remove Attachment

(Disabled if no attachments associated with the material) Starts the Apply Material tool with method set to Remove Material Attachment.

Material menu > Preview Element

Starts the Apply Material tool with method set to Preview Material.

Material menu > Revert

(Disabled if no changes have been made to the settings of a material) Reverts a material's settings to its previously saved state.

Edit menu > Delete

Deletes the selected material. An Alert box gives you a second chance prior to deleting the material. If the material has been assigned to an element in the DGN file, then another Alert box warns you of this. If you delete a material that has assignment, its assignments will be moved to another material with an identical name if one exists, or else the material is moved to the Missing Materials palette at the bottom of the material tree.

Edit menu > Rename

Lets you rename a material.

Edit menu > Cut

Copies the selected material(s) to the Windows clipboard, and deletes them from their respective material palette file(s).

Edit menu > Copy

Copies the selected material(s) to the Windows clipboard.

Edit menu > Paste

(Disabled if clipboard empty) Inserts material(s) from the Windows clipboard into the current palette.

View menu > Advance Mode

If checked, the advanced settings are displayed.

View menu > Samples

(Advanced Mode only) If checked, displays color swatches that display the effect of the individual material components.

View menu > Descriptions

If checked, displays descriptions of the slider ranges for each of the material attributes.