Mild steel material is set to semi-polished and can't be changed

[mjc_design]

Hi

We are using inventor 2015, and our mild steel material has the appearance set to semi-polished and I can't see anyway of changing it from this to something a bit easier for the computer.

Can anyone help?

[mcgyvr]

Have you ever modified material/appearance libraries before?

Start here..

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/inventor-products/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016...

[JDMather]

>>Somewhere here << there is a good video on editing the Material Library, but now I can't find it.

Just watch them all.

[Anonymous]

I like that guy. Just his videos alone, are a college course free of charge!

[blair]

Here's a good PDF on Materials and Appearances. It's for IV2013 which had the major change which is still the same for the releases since then.

[mjc_design]

Sorry, I should have been clearer. I've opened up the material browser, and this is what I see

I'm not sure why "steel, mild" is set to stainless steel & semi-polished. It also won't let me edit this, is it locked as it's part of the default inventor material library? These are the options available to me

[mcgyvr]

Thats set by the "type" chosen for that appearance..

AFAIK.. You can't change "type" of an appearance after you have created that appearance.. 

You can duplicate that appearance as generic,etc.. but can't change it..

After you make a new one you can apply that appearance to the steel material..

[mjc_design]

Really i'd just like to apply "default" to steel, mild - how do I do that?

[mcgyvr]

• At the top of the Material Editor dialog box, click on the Appearance or Physical tab.

[mjc_design]

Under Appearance>Metal>Finish?

Can only be set to polished, semi-polished, satin & brushed.

[mjc_design]

Apologies, I see what you meant by the button.

Pressing this brings up the asset browser. There is an autodesk material library which is locked, and an inventor material library.

Neither have mild steel listed

[mcgyvr]

---

@mjc_design wrote:

Apologies, I see what you meant by the button.

Pressing this brings up the asset browser. There is an autodesk material library which is locked, and an inventor material library.

Neither have mild steel listed

---

Mild steel is a "material"..

The polished/semi-polished is coming from the "appearance" style linked to that "material"..

You want to link a different "appearance" in into that mild steel "material"..

When you hit that button you want to find an "appearance" asset that you want to use instead of the current one thats linked to the "material"..

hope that helped.. 

I was and am still confused by these things too.. Its really goofy functionality IMO that could have been made so much easier.. 

[mjc_design]

Thanks. I clicked on default in the asset manager, and was able to replace the current appearance with default. So this worked perfectly for the part I am working on. I'm wondering how I can modify our template/library so I don't have to do this every time?

[Greatwhitenorth]

Hi,

After moving from 2014 to 2017, we're seeing this problem too.  I changed our .ipt templates so that the appearance is "Default", and is now showing as mild steel used to. 

Note to Autodesk: The mild steel we buy is not reflective.

HTH

Bob

[JohnKHouston]

I don't understand how it is that someone at Autodesk doesn't know that mild steel is not reflective...

So, now I have to change my styles, update all my parts that are mild steel and update my content center library. Not an easy task considering that I have other things that really take more importance than fixing Autodesk's dumb decisions!

Is there a streamlined process that I can take that will fix these poor decisions made by Autodesk to change the appearance of parts?

[Greatwhitenorth]

*** bump ***

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Guys,

There might be a few things at play here. To help me understand the concern better, please try a few things for me.

1) Go to View and change Visual Style to Realistic. Does it look closer to what you expected?

2) Change Lighting style to Cool Light or Two Lights or Grey Room. Which one do you prefer?

Many thanks!