HELP! Can't change color of materials

[Anonymous]

I constantly struggle with the "Materials" in ArchiCAD, probably because of my lack of knowledge on them. I want to take the material " Siding-4" H" and change the color from the default white to a gray. So, I open Options-Element Attributes-Materials. What do I do from here? I've tried changing the surface color, the specular color, etc to no avail. Can anyone guide me on this seemingly easy task?

[Erika Epstein]

Steve,
First, duplicate the material as you never know how other library parts or a colleague may use the original.

To change the color of the material, double click on the colored rectangle to the right of the words "surface material".

I was going to admonish you for not looking in the help or reference in the Help menu, but there doesn't seem to be an explanation.

I also suggest buying one of Dwight's books as they go over the basics of these settings box and you will find his tomes invaluable.

[David Maudlin]

Steve:

In addition to Erika's advice, be warned that the materials' Alpha Channel Effects do not appear in the 3D Window (even OpenGL with textures). The correct color will show in Renderings, but the material you show in your screen shot (for example) will always appear white with black lines when showing textures in OpenGL, or as the color you set under "Surface Color:" under the Internal Engine Shading (or OpenGL without textures).

David

[Karl Ottenstein]

....and so if it is essential to see the color in the OpenGL window, you need to edit the texture image in a photo editor and change the color there...

[Dwight]

Erika wrote:

I also suggest buying one of Dwight's books as they go over the basics of these settings box and you will find his tomes invaluable.

"Tome, tome on the range, where the beer and the fingertips play…"

"LightWorks in Archicad" remains on sale throughout the Christmas season as indicated below.

[Anonymous]

Dwight wrote:

Erika wrote:

I also suggest buying one of Dwight's books as they go over the basics of these settings box and you will find his tomes invaluable.

"Tome, tome on the range, where the beer and the fingertips play…"

Ohhhh, that gave me quite a laugh!

I see now, for some stupid reason you can't tell the color in the 3D window, you have to do a photorender to actually see the color change.

All the countless hours spent messing around trying to change the color when it was changing all along....

OK, so what if I want to show a client a project by "flying" around it in 3D perspective using the explore tool, and have the siding changed to a different color? Do I have to manually update the color in a separate photo software, then bring it back in, as Karl explained?? You should be able to change the color and have it change all around; 3D window, photorender, and the preview box in the material settings.

WISH!

[Anonymous]

I second that "stupid". Good grief, for such an expensive program it sure has some dumb characteristics.

Wish, wish!!

[Dwight]

Just to clarify, in case anyone is confused, that the various methods of rendering an Archicad view aren't connected and neither are material definitions. Changing the appearance of a material throughout all rendering methods is a tedious, manual task.

This comes about since Archicad evolves from imaging technology from the last century. Before some of you were even born.

So sorry. Being Canadian, let me apologize for Zoltan and Laszlo who have no doubt been sent to the basement to make outlandish materials as punishment for this oversight.

Things were well connected before LightWorks arrived. Then, a single definition made in the Internal engine renderer controlled color, reflectance and texture mapping. The internal 3D viewer and the Internal rendering engine both referenced these values.

When LightWorks arrived, a whole new way of surfacing came along and the only way to use the existing definitions is through repeated use of the "Match With Infernal Engine" button.

It probably won't get fixed. Rendering is obviously not a Graphisoft priority and ten years ago, when I complained about Archicad's bad materials, I was told "Let them buy the Artlantis shaders…" I think that man descended from Marie Antoinette.

[Anonymous]

Dwight,
Thank you for the history and explanation. But, being a total beginner at these material/rendering things, I'm still not clear on what you said.

I tried changing the surface color of 06 | w Siding-08" H and then clicking on "Match with Internal Engine". What is that supposed to do for us? It didn't show the new color with the texture in OpenGL in the 3D window. Should it? If not that, then what does it do?

Thank you,
Doug

[David Maudlin]

Doug wrote:
I tried changing the surface color of 06 | w Siding-08" H and then clicking on "Match with Internal Engine". What is that supposed to do for us?

It changes the LightWorks settings to match the Internal Engine settings, it does not effect the OpenGl at all.

Doug wrote:
It didn't show the new color with the texture in OpenGL in the 3D window. Should it?

No, see my earlier reply (Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:49 am) in this thread.

David