The Material dialog box helps you
manage physical materials. You can work with predefined 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.
Search for Materials
You can find materials by using the Search box in the
upper
left-corner of the Material dialog
box. To start a search, enter an alphanumeric character or part of a material name. As you
type, the Material dialog box displays matches and the number of
results. You can search across all the material libraries. If you sort by category, library,
or material, sort order is maintained in the material tree when you use search.
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.
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.
You can also copy material
categories to custom material libraries.
|