Adding new materials to material library

[baliasM74U3]

Hi Experts

INV 2020

I was trying to create 4 new materials in my inventor material libray.

I used "Create new material" in document option and assigned names as shown in the snip. But the issue is, when I try to give different appearence/color for one material, athe appaerance of the other three changes to that as well.

Am I follwing a wrong approach, Can anyone give  me some directions on this ?

[SBix26 · Accepted solution]

You're editing the appearance (named Generic) that all the other materials use.  Materials do not carry appearance definitions within themselves, they simply link to an appearance.  For each material, simply choose the appearance you want it to have (by default).  If you need to create some new appearances for this purpose, you can do that, too.

The key thing to understand is that appearances are defined separately from materials, despite what the user interface seems to imply.  One way to understand this is to compare it to an Inventor assembly, in which the components are defined in their respective part files.  In the same way, an Inventor material is an "assembly" of two components: a Physical asset and an Appearance asset.  As with an assembly, both can be edited within the the Material, but both exist separately from the Material.

Look in the Help for your version of Inventor, and see if this helps: How to select an appearance for a material in Inventor | Inventor 2019 | Autodesk Knowledge Network.

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Sam B
Inventor Pro 2022.0.1 | Windows 10 Home 20H2
LinkedIn

[baliasM74U3]

Thanks for the insights about physical and apperance assets. 

In this case, How can I bring different appearnecs to different materials ?

I understand that all end up with same color since evrything comes under the "apperance asset" generic.

I changed the identity type and assigned different appearence for these items ? Is this a right approach ?

Or how can I add custom catogeries to the type ?

[SBix26]

To select a different appearance for a material, click on the double arrow glyph on the Appearance tab, which opens the Asset Browser.  Find the appearance you want, and click on the same double arrow glyph that appears when you hover over it (see below).

By the way, the library shown is courtesy of @TobiasZetterberg2067 , who generously shared his work with this forum here.

Off-topic question: why would you want to change the category of 304 stainless steel to "Plastic"?

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Sam B
Inventor Pro 2022.0.1 | Windows 10 Home 20H2
LinkedIn

[baliasM74U3]

@SBix26 

Would you be able to do a screencast for me ? I have alreadt tried the way you syggested. But It doesnt help.

Another issues is, I am loosing the material I defined when I create a new part (it doesnt appear in the drop down)

[baliasM74U3]

@SBix26 

I think i did something wrong in terms of the order which I should follow.

Isnt it something like, I have to create  a new apperance as a new catagory under a new library and then create a new material as a new catagory under a new library.

Then assign the appearnce to the material ?

[BDCollett]

You need to select your custom library to see it in the drop down.

[SBix26]

Easiest method is to copy an appearance that is close to what you want, then alter it as needed and save it to your existing library.

Creating a new appearance or a new material does not require creating a new category or a new library!  That would make dozens of libraries with one material and/or appearance in each one!

1. Create a new appearance, either by copying an existing one or by creating one from scratch; choose an appropriate (existing) category
2. Add it to a library, preferably one that you have created for your personal materials and appearances
3. Create a new material similar to creating a new appearance (see above)
4. Choose an appearance asset for it, such as the one that you just created and added to a library
5. Add the new material to a library, preferably one that you have created for your personal materials and appearances

There is plenty of material in the Help files and on the Autodesk Knowledge Base, so please look through those.  Just remember that creating materials and appearances happens in one particular file, and that is where they remain until they are added to a M & A library, making them available to all projects that reference that library.

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Sam B
Inventor Pro 2022.0.1 | Windows 10 Home 20H2
LinkedIn