The Material Editor is used to configure the Indigo materials in the scene.
Indigo for Revit will automatically convert your existing Revit materials, however in Revit 2013 this conversion is somewhat limited by available information to plugins. To this end, the material editor allows you to edit the converted materials to make them more lifelike.
Revit 2014 exposes material definitions with lots of additional information compared to previous versions, allowing for a much higher quality conversion. Therefore, Indigo for Revit 2014 does not currently feature a material overriding system.
To create full custom Indigo materials from scratch, use the Indigo Material Editor that comes with your Indigo installation.
The online Indigo Material database is a warehouse for quality user-created materials that can be downloaded and used for free under the Creative Commons Licence. You can find it here: Indigo Material Database
Start by choosing the material type you would like to make, and then adjust the attributes below it. Changing the material type will change the options available.
Most materials have similar material appearance settings, allowing you to specify a single colour or an image map as the basic material colour. Image map is used to link to external texture files. Indigo can use PNG, TIFF, JPG/JPEG, TGA, BMP and EXR file formats. Bump maps add fine details to surfaces without creating more geometry, a great way to add realism.
Sample width specifies the size in mm of the image map , then tile.
See also: Indigo Materials, Material Types, Material Attributes.
Matte
The matte material type models surfaces which reflect light almost equally in all directions, such as wall plaster, clay and other rough materials.
Glossy
This material type can be used for shiny or glossy materials such as plastics, wood, fabrics etc.
Smoothness
You can define how sharp the reflection is by the 'smoothness' slider. 'Rough' gives a matte surface that diffuses the reflection; 'smooth' gives a sharper, glossy reflection.
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| A rough glossy material | A smooth glossy material |
Reflectivity
This value controls how much light is reflected by the surface. Insert values into the reflectivity box for fine control.
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| Rough with low reflectivity | Rough with high reflectivity |
Translucency
Translucency allows light to pass through the material surface and light the opposite side without being transparent or clear. Can be used for thin, coloured plastics, or even thin fabrics like a curtain or lampshade.
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| Fully Opaque | 80% translucent |
Metal
The metal material type is used to create metallic surfaces.
You can define how sharp the reflection is using the smoothness slider. 'Rough' gives a matte surface that diffuses the reflection; 'smooth' gives a sharper, glossy reflection.
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| A rough metal | A smooth metal |
Lab-Measured Metals
Indigo comes with accurately measured metal materials that can be found here. They refer to their element names, as given by a Periodic Table.
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| Gold: Au | Aluminium: Al |
Transparent
This is used for any materials through which light can pass e.g. glass, clear plastics or water. Frosted Glass introduces the following extra parameters:
Reflectivity
This value controls how much light is reflected by the surface.
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| Low reflectivity | High reflectivity |
Smoothness
You can define how sharp the reflection is by the 'smoothness' slider. 'Rough' gives a matte surface that diffuses the reflection; 'smooth' gives a sharper, glossy reflection. This attribute is only available for Frosted Glass.
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| A rough frosted glass | A semi-smooth frosted glass |