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Material Dialog Box

The Material dialog box helps you manage physical materials. You can work with pre-defined materials, create custom materials, apply materials to parts, and manage favorites.

To display this dialog box, open a part, right-click Material in the FeatureManager design tree, and select Edit Material.

Material Dialog Box Interface

The left side of the dialog box contains a tree of available material types and materials. Tabs on the right display information about the selected material. If SolidWorks Simulation is added in, more tabs appear.

Material Tree

The material tree organizes materials into:
  • Libraries. Initial libraries are SolidWorks Materials and Custom Materials. The materials in SolidWorks Materials are read-only and are shared with SolidWorks Simulation.
  • Categories, for example, Steel, Iron, Plastics.
  • Materials, for example, Aluminum Bronze, Brass, Copper.

SolidWorks Materials

Right-click a material in SolidWorks Materials and select:
Add to Favorites Appends this material to the list of favorites displayed when you right-click Material in the FeatureManager design tree.
Copy Copies the material so that you can paste it in Custom Materials or a library you create.
You can also copy categories and paste them into custom libraries.
New Library Creates an additional library to store copied or customized materials.
Sort by Library Sorts materials by library, category, and material name. The default sorting order.
Sort by Category Sorts materials by category, without listing library names.
Sort by Material Sorts materials by name without categorizing them.

Custom Materials

In Custom Materials or a category you create, you can also select:
Rename Renames the item.
Delete Removes the item.
Move Up Moves the current item up.
Move Down Moves the current item down.
Cut Deletes the item and copies it to the paste buffer.
Paste Pastes the item that you have copied.
New Material Adds a new material to the category.
  • Material Dialog Box - Properties Tab
    Use the Properties tab to assign physical characteristics to a material. These properties can be used by SolidWorks and SolidWorks Simulation. The Properties tab is available for editing when the selected material is in a custom library.
  • Material Dialog Box - Appearance Tab
    Use the Appearance tab to associate a new color or texture with the selected material. Changing the appearance affects the visual presentation only, not the physical properties of the part.
  • Material Dialog Box - CrossHatch Tab
    Use the CrossHatch tab to define the pattern to display for the selected material in section views of drawing documents. This tab is available for editing when the selected material is in a custom library.
  • Material Dialog Box - Custom Tab
    Use the Custom tab to add non-standard properties to a material. You can retrieve the properties with API calls. This tab is available for editing when the selected material is in a custom library.
  • Material Dialog Box - Application Data Tab
    Use the Application Data tab to record notes about the selected material, for example, to document processing, manufacturing, or test information. This tab is available for editing when the selected material is in a custom library.
  • Material Dialog Box - Favorites Tab
    Use the Favorites tab to manage the material Favorites list. The list appears when you right-click Material in the FeatureManager design tree. Select from the list to apply a material.
  • Material Dialog Box - Fatigue SN Curves Tab
    Use the Fatigue SN Curves tab to define SN curves for a fatigue study. SN curves are used in fatigue studies only. Some materials in the material library have fatigue SN curves already defined. These materials are identified by a suffix (SN) attached to the end of their names in the material list of the material library.
  • Material Dialog Box - Tables & Curves Tab
    Use the Tables & Curves tab to define temperature-dependent material properties for linear material models. This tab also allows you to define stress-strain curves and stretch ratio-stress curves for nonlinear material models.
Parent topic: Materials Overview
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