Base Parameter Group

The Base group contains parameters that let you replicate the appearance of many real-world materials, both dielectrics (transparent and opaque) and conductors.

Albedo

Name Albedo
Type RGB color
Range R: [0..255], G: [0..255], B: [0..255]
Usage Uniform Value or Color Texture
Description Albedo specifies the overall color of a material. You can also use it to apply color to thin walled transparent materials.

When adding a texture to the Albedo color, do not include any lighting effects such as shadows or specular highlights. This is because SOLIDWORKS Visualize simulates these effects automatically when it renders the image.

Examples
Example with Texture

Metallic

Name Metallic
Type Decimal
Range [0..1]
Usage Uniform Value or Grayscale Texture
Description Metallic determines whether the appearance is nonmetallic or metallic on a scale from 0 to 1.

Pure materials are either nonmetallic or dielectric, with a value of 0, or fully metallic, with a value of 1. Only use values other than 0 and 1 in specific situations, such as a rusty iron surface.
Examples
Example with Texture

Roughness

Name Roughness
Type Decimal
Range [0..1]
Usage Uniform Value or Grayscale Texture
Description Roughness controls the level of shininess or roughness of a surface, on a scale from 0 to 1.

A value of 0 represents a highly shiny, while 1 indicates a very rough surface that diffuses the highlights.

Examples
Example with Texture

Anisotropy

Name Anisotropy
Type Decimal
Range [0..1]
Usage Uniform Value or Grayscale Texture
Description Anisotropy simulates a surface with an asymmetrical specular highlight that changes when the surface rotates relative to the light sources. You can adjust the appearance of the highlight by defining its intensity on a scale from 0 to 1.

You can use this parameter to create an anisotropic appearance with grain or directionality, such as brushed finishes on metallic surfaces.
Examples
Example with Texture

Anisotropy Rotation

Name Anisotropy Rotation
Type Decimal
Range [0..1]
Usage Uniform Value or Grayscale Texture
Description Use Anisotropy Rotation to adjust the highlight. To maintain the default orientation, keep the value at 0. For a full 360-degree rotation, set the value to 1.
Examples
Example with Texture

Normal

Name Normal
Type 3D Vector
Range X: [0..1], Y: [0..1], Z: [0..1]
Usage Normal Texture only (DirectX convention)
Description Normal textures add the appearance of details such as bumps and dents to the surface of a model without changing the size of the geometry. They are stored as RGB images, with the RGB components corresponding to the X, Y, and Z coordinates of the surface's Normal.

There are two standard formats of Normal textures, DirectX and OpenGL. Both have the same capability only their green channel is flipped. SOLIDWORKS Visualize and SOLIDWORKS both follow the DirectX Normal textures convention. If you use OpenGL textures instead, shadows incorrectly display rotated at 90 degrees.

Example with Texture

Displacement

Name Displacement
Type Decimal
Range [0..1], (=0.5 no displacement, <0.5 negative displacement, >0.5 positive displacement)
Usage Grayscale Texture (Height map) only
Description Displacement textures modify the position of surface points by specifying the length and direction of displacement for each point. They change the geometry of the surface. Displacement textures are also referred to as Height maps. They can also be combined with Normal textures.

Displacement textures only affect vertices that are already part of the 3D mesh, which can lead to unexpected results if the surface has very few vertices, such as a cube. To improve the resolution, you can increase the Displacement Density in the Texture Mapping tab. This feature subdivides the existing 3D mesh to create more vertices. Be careful when increasing Displacement Density, as this parameter increases rendering time and memory usage.
Example with Texture

Translucency

Name Translucency
Type Decimal
Range [0..1]
Usage Uniform Value or Grayscale Texture
Description Translucency controls the amount of light passing through a surface while also diffusing it, making it difficult to see the other side of the model. You can scale it on a range of 0 to 1.

Try experimenting with this parameter when you are creating a subsurface scattering effect for appearances such as wax, leaves, or skin. This renders faster than subsurface scattering at the expense of some realism.
Examples

Transparency

Name Transparency
Type Decimal
Range [0..1]
Usage Uniform Value or Grayscale Texture
Description Transparency controls how see-through or glass-like a surface appears, on a scale from 0 to 1.

A pure material can be either opaque (0) or transparent (1). For example, only if you want to layer something like dust on glass, you can specify a value between 0 and 1.

Examples

Cut-Out Opacity

Name Cut-Out Opacity
Type Decimal
Range [0..1]
Usage Uniform Value or Grayscale Texture
Description Cut-Out Opacity acts like an alpha channel on geometry. It is usually a texture, which defines holes, letting you fake highly detailed geometry boundaries without additional polygons.

A value of 0 results in a completely invisible object.  A value of 1 is a completely opaque object. Values in between 0 and 1 result in some degree of faded geometry.
Examples
Example with Texture

Specular

Name Specular
Type Decimal
Range [0..1]
Usage Uniform Value or Grayscale Texture
Description Specular determines how much reflection you see on a nonmetallic surface, on a scale of 0 to 1. The default is set to 1.

All surfaces have specularity to some degree. There are no surfaces that are completely diffuse. In most cases, do not adjust the Specular parameter, even for appearances such as cardboard, cloth, or concrete. If you are modeling mostly diffuse materials, use the Roughness parameter instead.

Examples
Example with Texture

Specular Tint

Name Specular Tint
Type RGB color
Range R: [0..255], G: [0..255], B: [0..255]
Usage Uniform Value or Color Texture
Description Specular Tint colors the specular reflection of nonmetallic surfaces.

Be careful with this parameter. It provides you with some artistic freedom but can result in appearances that do not exist in the real world.

Examples
Example with Texture