Working with Materials

Introduction

Materials are used to apply some color to an object or to map a texture onto its surface. Materials also determine how an object reflects and dissipates the light.

The program includes a material library which is located in the Library panel. You can add new materials to the library.

The Object Materials tab of the Inspector is used to work with materials already applied to objects.

You can export customized materials as a backup archive. This backup can be imported later in order to be added to the library. This is useful when you need to restore your library after reinstalling the program, or if you wish to transfer the library on a second computer.

In addition to backing up, there is another possibility to get materials into and out of the library. This can be done using the Export Library Archive and Import Library Archive commands. They are designed primarily for sharing user's materials with other people who collaborate on the same project and who need the same set of customized materials. Exporting and importing can also be used to back up particular materials.