Autodesk 12812-051462-9011 User Guide 3 - Page 1774

Materials and Linked AutoCAD Architecture Objects Materials in 3ds Max are vital to making your visualizations compelling and realistic. The native material attributes that 3ds Max relies on are those that tell it how to render the surface of an object given certain lighting conditions. Those material properties that are so central to architectural visualization (that convey surface coloring, surface texture, transparency, and so forth) are only one of many sets of properties covered in an AutoCAD Architecture (formerly Architectural Desktop or ADT) material definition. To make your work more efficient, the rendering material properties stored and assigned in AutoCAD Architecture are designed to flow transparently to 3ds Max through the File Link Manager on page 6987. See also: ■ Propagate Materials to Instances on page 5328 Assigning Materials to Linked AutoCAD Architecture Objects Material assignments exhibit special behavior on linked AutoCAD Architecture objects and blocks, and the behavior is controlled by the Propagate Materials To Instances toggle on page 5328. In the default state, assigning a material to any component of any linked AutoCAD Architecture object or block is equivalent to assigning the same material to every instance of that component of that object or block throughout your scene. As an example, let's say you have multiple instances of a block named Telephone in your AutoCAD Architecture drawing, which consists of two nested blocks named Handset and Base. If you assign a material to one Handset anywhere in your scene, all the Handsets in all the Telephones throughout the scene will receive that material. If you want to keep materials from propagating between instances in your scene, turn off the Propagate Materials To Instances toggle on page 5328. File Link | 7029