topic Re: Reflective materials appear black in realistic visual style. Can anything be done? in AutoCAD Forum

Reflective materials appear black in realistic visual style. Can anything be done?

jeremy_hill — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 23:57:26 GMT

In Autocad when I apply reflective materials (like machined stainless steel) to things I have drawn, they appear black in the "realistic visual style" mode.

This is a problem for me because I work for a stainless steel fabrication company so most of our stuff is shiny.

It would be nice to put material/texture on stuff but I don't want to render the drawings

Things I already know:

- You can see light sources reflected off the shiny object but the rest of the object is black.

- If I render the drawing, reflective materials look ok fine

- Presumably this means that realistic shows black because it does not calculate reflections/ray tracing?

Is there any way round this because black metal parts are hard to see (and look dorky).

I have tried messing with exposure but it just blows out the parts which are non reflective

Re: Reflective materials appear black in realistic visual style. Can anything be done?

pendean — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 14:38:25 GMT

You need to add lighting. Lots of lighting. Share your DWG file if you want more detailed help.

Re: Reflective materials appear black in realistic visual style. Can anything be done?

leeminardi — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 16:23:47 GMT

The Realistic visual style uses several fast-to-compute techniques to create a real-time image of a CAD model. As a result of the need for speed several compromises are made in image quality. As you have found, better image quality including reflection are provided when you render a scene but this can take time to generate. You can't have fast and good, only one or the other.

Depending on your needs and what compromises you are willing to accept I would consider changing the Material display parameter of the Realistic visual style from Materials and Textures to just Materials. I'd also consider using satin stainless steel and not the polished option.

I also suggest that you consider creating your own material starting with the Generic Default template. As @pendean pointed out, good lighting is important.

Re: Reflective materials appear black in realistic visual style. Can anything be done?

Kent1Cooper — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 16:30:36 GMT

Are those black just because there's nothing there to be reflected in them [except the light sources]? Can you just put in some kind(s) of object(s) -- wall planes, or something -- that are out of view of what you're focusing on but seen in reflection in it?

Re: Reflective materials appear black in realistic visual style. Can anything be done?

jeremy_hill — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 19:30:21 GMT

Hi Lee

Thank you for your reply.

I was wondering if it was something I am doing wrong (i.e. something fixable) as Solidworks and Inventor seem to have no problem with reflective material (our drafter uses Inventor and I can see the reflections in the stuff he has drawn).

Sound like it might be a weakness of Autocad with no workaround.

Re: Reflective materials appear black in realistic visual style. Can anything be done?

jeremy_hill — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 19:31:34 GMT

I will give this a try. (I will also try to work out how to upload my drawing).

Re: Reflective materials appear black in realistic visual style. Can anything be done?

jeremy_hill — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 19:33:00 GMT

I believe I have the skybox on so I would have expected this to reflect (I can see it in perspective view and reflected in the object if I render).

Re: Reflective materials appear black in realistic visual style. Can anything be done?

pendean — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 20:55:46 GMT

@jeremy_hill wrote:
...as Solidworks and Inventor seem to have no problem with reflective material... ..weakness of Autocad with no workaround.

Plain general use not-made-for-anyone-specific AutoCAD does not compare: it's not in the Solidworks/Inventor specialized audience/market/tools arena.

Re: Reflective materials appear black in realistic visual style. Can anything be done?

leeminardi — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 02:12:21 GMT

@jeremy_hill Have you tried changing the Material display parameter of the Realistic visual style from Materials and Textures to just Materials as I suggested? Stainless does not require texture mapping so it should not make a difference for the real time Realistic visual style or when creating a rendered image. I have fond the controlling of material maps in AutoCAD very frustrating and therefore rely on 3ds Max for good quality renderings that require texture mapping.

Re: Reflective materials appear black in realistic visual style. Can anything be done?

Jon9000 — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 18:49:47 GMT

Why can't I delete my comment?

Re: Reflective materials appear black in realistic visual style. Can anything be done?

leeminardi — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 18:56:40 GMT

@Jon9000 I don't see a comment from you in this thread. Perhaps it has already been deeted.

Re: Reflective materials appear black in realistic visual style. Can anything be done?

DGCSCAD — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 18:59:18 GMT

At the command line, type:

visualstyles

From there, select the 'Realistic' image, then select the drop down list for 'Material display', which is located under 'Face Settings'. Change that to suit your needs.

Re: Reflective materials appear black in realistic visual style. Can anything be done?

Jon9000 — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 18:59:48 GMT

Sorry, I edited my comment to say that. I was trying to do this in Revit to then figure out you were talking about AutoCAD.

Re: Reflective materials appear black in realistic visual style. Can anything be done?

DGCSCAD — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 19:30:59 GMT

Thats a horse of a different color... no worries.