creating material definition changes other material definitions

[Anonymous]

I'm creating some wall paint colors and using the wall paint editor in the materials library. when I go into material definitions in style manager to cretae a new definition, the material i select changes the material in other definitions. For example "Paint.wall.green" I make the display properties equal to the material "green paint", but then "paint.wall.blue" and others get that same material, so now everything is green.

I'm not too well versed in ACA 3d stuff, but I think I'm creating the materials correctly.

[Victoria.Studley]

Hi @Anonymous,

That does seem like odd behavior, but it's difficult to tell what's going wrong without seeing your process.

• Could you record a short Screencast to show us what you're doing and post it in your reply?
• Could you eTransmit your file (so that it includes the material textures as well) and post the ZIP file so that we can see the drawing where this is happening?

This will make it easier for us to help you solve the problem.

If one or more of these posts helped answer your question, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

[Victoria.Studley]

Hi @Anonymous,

I'm just checking in again to see if you need more help with this. Will you be able to provide the information and files I requested yesterday, so that we can better assist you?

If one or more of these posts helped answer your question, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

[odin · Accepted solution]

1) Make sure the Render Material has a unique name, like Paint.Wall.Blue and that you didn't modify say, "Paint.Wall.Green"

2) Make sure to create a New Material Definition Style, Like Paint - Blue such that you have one Material Definition Style for each color.

3) Make sure that when you Set the Surface Render Material on the Other tab of each Material Definition Style, that it's a Display Representation Style Override.  If that little box isn't checked, you'll be changing the same thing for all other Material Definition Styles that also don't have the Display Representation set to Override.

4) When working with the Wall Objects or Wall Styles for these paint colors, you will either need to make different Wall Styles for each color (recommended) or use Object Display Overrides on specific Wall Objects.

I think what you are experiencing is a result of missing something on step #3 or #4.

Odin Cary

Principle, ARCHIdigm

[Anonymous]

 to answer answer odin's questions:

1.) Check

2.) Check (this is where the problem happens)

3.) Bingo, That's where I found my issue. I just wasn't sure if that was "normal" behavior since why would you create a material and have to make it an override? that seems odd to me.

4.) Check - made different wall style "6 inc MS with Gyp board - light green" etc.

[David_W_Koch]

Each Material Definition wants to be able to show its material, whether via the rendering material or through the linework and hatch assignments for non-rendered views, in its own unique way.  To be able to do that, they cannot all use the drawing default display settings, or they would all be the same.

Perhaps a little history will make the need for style-level overrides in Material Definitions more understandable.  In the early days of what eventually was called AutoCAD Architecture, there were no Material Definitions.  The way an object component displayed was governed by its display settings.  For multi-component object types like Walls, in order for Component 1 in a brick Wall to "look like" brick while Component 1 in a gypsum wallboard Wall looked like gypsum wallboard, style-level display overrides had to be placed on each Wall Style.  That works, but the problem is that once you apply a style-level override on a display representation, all of the settings become divorced from the drawing default settings, even those that are not overridden.  Any changes to the drawing default settings would have to be made to all of the overrides as well.  Also, you had to be rigorous in setting up the overrides, to have all brick components look the same, and all gypsum wallboard components look the same, etc.

Material Definitions allowed for once central definition of how a particular material should appear to be created, and then applied to all of the components of that material, in all of the object styles in which that material occurs, without having to add overrides to each object style.  Any drawing default changes to components that are not based on a material will be seen in all styles.  If a change to the way a particular material should appear (perhaps the hatch on brick should be spaced a little further apart to improve legibility), it only needs to be changed in the Material Definition, and it will affect all places where the Material Definition is used.  It also allowed for rendering materials to assigned to AEC object components.