Creating and Editing Appearances

Creating and editing appearances are nearly identical procedures.

Before you create or edit an appearance, it is helpful to see the visual effects of the changes to the appearance's parameters if you first apply the new or revised appearance to a part in the project. You can do this by dragging and dropping the appearance from the Appearances tab to a part in a model.

To create and edit appearances:

  1. In the Palette, on the Appearances tab, do one of the following:
    • To create a new appearance, click Add and click New Appearance.
    • To edit an existing appearance, select an appearance in the Appearance tree.
      You can double-click a part in the viewport to select its appearance in the Appearance tree.
  2. In the General tab, select an Appearance Type. Choose from the following types:
    • Enterprise PBR Shading Model
    • Car Paint
    • Metal
    • Basic
    • Emissive
    • Textile
    • Leather
    • Wood
    • Glass
    • Plastic

    The software displays the parameter groups available for the Appearance Type you selected. For example, the Car Paint Appearance Type has three parameter groups: Base, Flakes, and Coating.

  3. Expand each parameter group to specify and adjust values, such as Albedo, Roughness, or Transparency.
    1. To apply a texture, click +.
    2. Enter a decimal value or adjust the slider to apply an effect on the whole surface.
  4. If you cannot find all the required parameters, select Enterprise PBR Shading Model to expose all the DSPBR parameters. See Appearance Parameters for details.
  5. In the Texture tab, specify values such as Brightness/Contrast, Hue/Saturation, Tiling, Rotation, and Resolution. See Texture Parameters for details.
  6. In the Texture Mapping tab, specify values for Texture Mapping Mode, Transform, and Displacement. See Texture Mapping Parameters for details.
  7. Optional: Add the appearance to the Appearance library: Select the appearance in the Appearances tab, and under Save Appearance, click To Library.
    Regardless of whether the appearance originated in the Appearance library, saving it from the Appearances tab to the Appearance library adds the modified appearance to the library as a new appearance.