Presenter materials for basic AutoCAD ACI colors

[dgorsman]

I'm fiddling a bit with the rendering in Presenter under Simulate.  Most of our models (piping facilities) are in "false color" using the AutoCAD ACI index colors so that different objects are readily distinguishable.  They render reasonably well, but there is one problem I'm trying to get around: the default materials assigned to the AutoCAD ACI colors are slightly reflective.  For example, a tank next to a rack will have a slight reflection of the rack across the tank when rendered.  I would prefer that not to be there or at least greatly diminished.

What material property should I adjust to reduce the refections?  Is there a way to globally adjust the materials assigned to the AutoCAD ACI colors, or do I have to create these materials myself and then use the materials assignment rules?

[john.lipp]

Hi dgorsman

Are there Navisworks Materials listed in the palette and that are attached to the objects in your model?  Are these coming through automatically when opening the AutoCAD model?

To remove the reflection on Navisworks materials, please try the following:

1.  Click the Application Button > Options 

2. Expand Tools > Presenter

3. Change the profile dropdown to Advanced, which will provide you more editing options for your materials.

4. In Presenter, double click one of the materials in the palette.

5. Try changing the Shader to something such as Matte,


Please let me know if this helps.


Best regards,

John Lipp

Product Support Specialist
Autodesk Product Support

[dgorsman]

Initially, the objects don't have a material assigned to them and no materials are in the Presenter palette.  Presenter still treats the objects as having a "material" with color properties coresponding to the true-color equivalent of the assigned AutoCAD color index (ACI) value.  There is a certain amount of reflectivity in these default materials which I would like to tone down, but since there isn't a material in the Presenter palette there is nothing that can be modified.

I can create user materials as needed, and using the Matte shader looks to do a good job (if a bit dark...) but it is a little laborious to manually create materials for ~200 ACI values, then use rules to mass-apply the materials.

If there isn't an option to adjust the properties of the default materials already, there probably should be one.

[john.lipp]

Hi dgorsman


Would you be able to post a sample DWG file that demonstrates this issue along with a screenshot of what you see in Navisworks?


Best regards,

John Lipp

Product Support Specialist
Autodesk Product Support

[dgorsman]

I''ve attached a simple model with two 3D solids - a cylinder and a triangular prism.  Both are color BYLAYER, with the layer colors set to one of the AutoCAD ACI "numbered" colors (132 and 83, respectively).  When the file is opened in Navisworks, the objects are normally set to the Presenter material "ByLayer" which must be removed otherwise they will render black.  Even without an assigned Presenter material the objects will render using material properties based on the AutoCAD colors as shown in the screen shot (triangular prism in this case).  I find these default material properties to give a little more reflection than I desire, so I would like to "tone down" that aspect without spending too much time doing so.

What I would like, is to be able to adjust the default settings Navisworks uses for AutoCAD objects without Presenter materials assigned.  Otherwise that will require creating a material for every single ACI color being used  and using rules to automate application of those materials to objects.

[john.lipp]

Hi dgorsman,

Using your example file, I am not seeing any reflection in the objects.  Are you speaking of reflection of objects with one another?  I moved the objects closer together, applied a material, and turn the mirror factor up on it so I could see where reflection of the object when rendered should be:


I then removed the material, so it was back to its ACI color.  The following is what I see in Navisworks when I rendered that doesn’t show a reflection:


Un-rendered, there isn’t a reflection either.  Is this different from what you are seeing? If so, can you post a screenshot of the scene view?

Are you speaking of the amount of lighting that is bouncing off the items based on the direction of a light source?  If that is the case, you could turn up the intensity of the Ambient light source in the Lighting Tab of Presenter and turn down the intensity of your other light sources.  For example, I set the intensity of the Ambient light source to .7 and the "Distant Light 1" to .7.  You’ll then see a rendered image like this:



If you are using the headlight lighting style in the Render Style panel of the Viewpoint tab, you can adjust the intensity of the ambient light and headlight by clicking the File Options button in the Project panel of the Home tab and then selecting the Headlight tab.

Please let me know if this helps.

Best regards,

John Lipp

Product Support Specialist
Autodesk Product Support