Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

siding or material color changes?

Anonymous
Not applicable
I know there are lots of old post on this, but I could not find an easy way to change the color of my siding (lap siding for example). I read something about changing the actual image file that is referenced - a .png? Does AC-18 not have an easier way? Not concerned about any rendering - just want to show my clients the model in a color that they like.

Thanks,
4 REPLIES 4
Anonymous
Not applicable
OpenGL simply shows the texture image as the surface (material). If you want a different colour, you need a different image.
Anonymous
Not applicable
So, should I use something other than OpenGL? There has to be an easier way to change colors?
Anonymous
Not applicable
If you are flying around your model in the 3D window with your client looking over your shoulder then OpenGL is a reasonable choice. Internal engine is slow and has no textures, but does have vectorial fills. Therefore the easiest way to change the colour of your siding is to duplicate the image used and adjust the colour in Photoshop or other image editing software. Easy for plain colours, harder for textured materials like wood grain, but that would depend on your level of expertise. Mine is not great. Assign the new image to your surface (must be in an available loaded Library).

Of course you could search the internet for a suitably coloured image and replace your surface texture with that. There are plenty out there.

If you have, say, 3 siding choices in your surfaces (e.g. light, medium and dark) you can have a whole range of images available in various colours to assign to these options. Then if you want to change the colour of your light siding, just replace the image and all elements using that surface material will change. So you don't have to have materials set up for all colour options initially.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thanks S2art! Good info...