Creating a Custom Material

When you create a custom material, start with an existing material similar to the material you want to create.

1. In a part document, right-click Material in the FeatureManager design tree and select Edit Material.
2. In the material tree, select the material on which to base the custom material.
   1. Right-click and select Copy or press Ctrl + C to copy the material to your paste buffer.
   2. In the material tree, select a category in a custom library. You can use the Custom Materials library or a library you created.
      You can only add custom materials to categories within the Custom Materials library, not to the Custom Materials folder itself. To create a new category, right-click Custom Materials and click New Category.

      When you save a custom material to a custom material library, only the material properties of the source material that the custom material is based on are saved and are editable.

   3. Right-click and select Paste or press Ctrl + V.
   4. Optionally, rename the material. Right-click the material and select Rename.
3. Edit the required properties of the material, then click Save.
4. Optional: Click Apply to apply the new material to the current part.
   If you need to edit any material properties of a custom material that were not included in the source material, do the following:

   1. From the SOLIDWORKS FeatureManager design tree, right-click Material , and select Edit Material.
   2. In the Material dialog box, select a custom material to edit.
   3. For Model Type, select All model types.
   4. Edit the required material properties.
   5. Click Save and Close.