Manage physical materials and appearances

00:02

manage physical materials and appearances.

00:06

After completing this video,

00:08

you'll be able to apply a physical material and apply an appearance.

00:13

Let's carry on with our trigger model and learn

00:15

about applying physical materials and appearances in fusion 360

00:20

first.

00:20

It's important to note that physical materials do also contain appearances.

00:25

So we're going to get started by first applying a physical material to our design.

00:29

Physical materials can be applied directly to the top

00:33

level of your design at the component level or at

00:36

the individual body level depending on your design intent will

00:40

dictate which of these you use for our example.

00:43

Since our trigger model is a component, I'm going to apply it at the component level.

00:47

I'm gonna right click on the component and select physical material.

00:52

Applying a physical material to a design can help

00:54

us validate things like the mass of your component where

00:58

the center of mass is located and what the appearance

01:01

is going to look like in that raw material.

01:03

For this example we are looking at a plastic part and this is going to be a. B. S.

01:08

Plastic depending on the type of fabrication

01:11

that you're looking at for your design.

01:12

You might choose a different material.

01:14

For example, carbon fiber reinforced plastic could be an option for a three D.

01:19

Printed part.

01:20

But again for this example we're going to use a B. S.

01:23

It is important to note that we can take this abs plastic material and drag it

01:27

over the material in this design which will

01:30

override anything that has the current metal applied.

01:33

We can drag it over the body on the canvas.

01:36

This will apply it just to the body.

01:38

Or we can drag it to the browser and apply it to

01:40

the component at the top level or at the individual component level.

01:44

Going to drag it and drop it over the trigger in the component level.

01:48

And we can see that the appearance has changed on screen.

01:51

When we take a look at the abs plastic material.

01:53

If we right click on it we can edit this, you can see that.

01:57

It gives you the density of the material and if we

01:59

select advanced it'll show you the appearance that's being used.

02:03

This is a white plastic material that's being used with the various parameters

02:08

such as translucency emissivity relief pattern.

02:11

If there's any bump or texture cut out and advanced highlight control,

02:15

we're not going to be adjusting the appearance of the physical

02:18

material but it is important to note that is an option.

02:21

If you decide to do that,

02:22

I suggest that you create a duplicate of that

02:25

and you add it to your favorites for future use

02:28

at this point let's go ahead and close this and talk about appearances.

02:31

Once again, appearances can be applied at the top level of the design.

02:35

At the component level. The individual body level or even at the face level.

02:40

If we right click on the trigger component,

02:42

we can select appearance but also note that A is the shortcut key.

02:46

Once we select appearance. Notice that in this design it shows our steel and A. B. S.

02:51

White.

02:52

These are the appearances that were used in the default physical

02:54

material for steel and the physical material that we applied A.

02:58

Bs white.

02:59

But appearances can override physical materials.

03:03

The mechanical properties will stay the same,

03:05

but the appearance of the object will change at the top.

03:08

Notice that we can apply it to bodies and components or individual faces.

03:13

What we want to do from here is we're going to scroll through find plastic.

03:16

We're gonna go down to our plastic list until we get

03:19

to translucent and we're going to find a red plastic material.

03:23

I'm going to drag and drop this at the component level and

03:26

you can see now the entire design has changed to red.

03:29

Once again note that the appearances are

03:32

inherited from the physical materials first,

03:34

but then appearances applied over top of

03:37

that will override temporarily the physical appearance.

03:41

From here, we're going to select close,

03:43

we're going to right click on trigger

03:45

and we want to navigate to its properties.

03:47

When we go to the trigger.

03:49

Component properties,

03:50

we can see at the very top there are some general properties

03:52

that we can change things like part number name and description.

03:56

But then we can see the material name used here is a. B. S. Plastic.

04:00

If we expand the physical material, we can see the total mass,

04:04

the volume of the part, the density which comes from our A. B. S. Plastic,

04:08

the area coordinate system center of mass and so on.

04:10

All of these parameters are based on

04:12

the physical material applied not the appearance.

04:16

So remember if you're trying to apply a physical material to

04:19

get critical information such as the mass of your components,

04:22

make sure that you apply the critical physical material to either the body,

04:27

the component or the entire design.

04:29

The appearances are just going to temporarily override that appearance.

04:33

Let's take one more look at applying an appearance.

04:35

But this time at the face level,

04:37

I'm going to use a on the keyboard to

04:39

open the appearances while maintaining the translucent plastic.

04:42

I want to look for a plastic material that is rough and

04:46

you can see here we've got rough white or matte red,

04:49

green, yellow, and I'm going to use one of these to a specific face.

04:54

We're gonna take this white material and we're going

04:57

to apply it just to the fileted faces here.

05:02

So you can see that we've got that white matte material underneath.

05:06

This can be hard to tell when you're looking at it in the design workspace.

05:09

But when you go to render your designs,

05:11

you will notice a difference between the different materials.

05:14

You can use the in canvas render option

05:17

to begin showing the differences the red material is

05:20

going to have reflections on it while the

05:22

matte white material will not have those reflections.

05:25

We're gonna stop the in canvas render for now,

05:27

as we will be talking about rendering at another time,

05:31

If you want to remove any appearances, we can hit a on the keyboard,

05:34

we can find the appearance that's been applied.

05:37

We can right click and we can unassigned and delete.

05:40

You can also do this to appearances that aren't used in the design.

05:43

For example A. B. S. White.

05:45

If we unassigned and delete

05:47

we can remove it from the design but because

05:49

it's linked to our physical material that's been applied,

05:52

it will remain in this design until we remove that physical material

05:56

at this point. We just want to also note that we do have a favorite section.

06:00

So for materials that you use constantly,

06:03

it's a good idea to go ahead and add them to

06:05

your favorite section so they can be easy to find.

06:07

You also have a my Appearances section that allows you to show downloaded

06:12

appearances and you can also maintain a library of your own appearances.

06:17

For now let's go ahead and close and make sure

06:19

that we do save our trigger model before moving on

Video transcript

00:02

manage physical materials and appearances.

00:06

After completing this video,

00:08

you'll be able to apply a physical material and apply an appearance.

00:13

Let's carry on with our trigger model and learn

00:15

about applying physical materials and appearances in fusion 360

00:20

first.

00:20

It's important to note that physical materials do also contain appearances.

00:25

So we're going to get started by first applying a physical material to our design.

00:29

Physical materials can be applied directly to the top

00:33

level of your design at the component level or at

00:36

the individual body level depending on your design intent will

00:40

dictate which of these you use for our example.

00:43

Since our trigger model is a component, I'm going to apply it at the component level.

00:47

I'm gonna right click on the component and select physical material.

00:52

Applying a physical material to a design can help

00:54

us validate things like the mass of your component where

00:58

the center of mass is located and what the appearance

01:01

is going to look like in that raw material.

01:03

For this example we are looking at a plastic part and this is going to be a. B. S.

01:08

Plastic depending on the type of fabrication

01:11

that you're looking at for your design.

01:12

You might choose a different material.

01:14

For example, carbon fiber reinforced plastic could be an option for a three D.

01:19

Printed part.

01:20

But again for this example we're going to use a B. S.

01:23

It is important to note that we can take this abs plastic material and drag it

01:27

over the material in this design which will

01:30

override anything that has the current metal applied.

01:33

We can drag it over the body on the canvas.

01:36

This will apply it just to the body.

01:38

Or we can drag it to the browser and apply it to

01:40

the component at the top level or at the individual component level.

01:44

Going to drag it and drop it over the trigger in the component level.

01:48

And we can see that the appearance has changed on screen.

01:51

When we take a look at the abs plastic material.

01:53

If we right click on it we can edit this, you can see that.

01:57

It gives you the density of the material and if we

01:59

select advanced it'll show you the appearance that's being used.

02:03

This is a white plastic material that's being used with the various parameters

02:08

such as translucency emissivity relief pattern.

02:11

If there's any bump or texture cut out and advanced highlight control,

02:15

we're not going to be adjusting the appearance of the physical

02:18

material but it is important to note that is an option.

02:21

If you decide to do that,

02:22

I suggest that you create a duplicate of that

02:25

and you add it to your favorites for future use

02:28

at this point let's go ahead and close this and talk about appearances.

02:31

Once again, appearances can be applied at the top level of the design.

02:35

At the component level. The individual body level or even at the face level.

02:40

If we right click on the trigger component,

02:42

we can select appearance but also note that A is the shortcut key.

02:46

Once we select appearance. Notice that in this design it shows our steel and A. B. S.

02:51

White.

02:52

These are the appearances that were used in the default physical

02:54

material for steel and the physical material that we applied A.

02:58

Bs white.

02:59

But appearances can override physical materials.

03:03

The mechanical properties will stay the same,

03:05

but the appearance of the object will change at the top.

03:08

Notice that we can apply it to bodies and components or individual faces.

03:13

What we want to do from here is we're going to scroll through find plastic.

03:16

We're gonna go down to our plastic list until we get

03:19

to translucent and we're going to find a red plastic material.

03:23

I'm going to drag and drop this at the component level and

03:26

you can see now the entire design has changed to red.

03:29

Once again note that the appearances are

03:32

inherited from the physical materials first,

03:34

but then appearances applied over top of

03:37

that will override temporarily the physical appearance.

03:41

From here, we're going to select close,

03:43

we're going to right click on trigger

03:45

and we want to navigate to its properties.

03:47

When we go to the trigger.

03:49

Component properties,

03:50

we can see at the very top there are some general properties

03:52

that we can change things like part number name and description.

03:56

But then we can see the material name used here is a. B. S. Plastic.

04:00

If we expand the physical material, we can see the total mass,

04:04

the volume of the part, the density which comes from our A. B. S. Plastic,

04:08

the area coordinate system center of mass and so on.

04:10

All of these parameters are based on

04:12

the physical material applied not the appearance.

04:16

So remember if you're trying to apply a physical material to

04:19

get critical information such as the mass of your components,

04:22

make sure that you apply the critical physical material to either the body,

04:27

the component or the entire design.

04:29

The appearances are just going to temporarily override that appearance.

04:33

Let's take one more look at applying an appearance.

04:35

But this time at the face level,

04:37

I'm going to use a on the keyboard to

04:39

open the appearances while maintaining the translucent plastic.

04:42

I want to look for a plastic material that is rough and

04:46

you can see here we've got rough white or matte red,

04:49

green, yellow, and I'm going to use one of these to a specific face.

04:54

We're gonna take this white material and we're going

04:57

to apply it just to the fileted faces here.

05:02

So you can see that we've got that white matte material underneath.

05:06

This can be hard to tell when you're looking at it in the design workspace.

05:09

But when you go to render your designs,

05:11

you will notice a difference between the different materials.

05:14

You can use the in canvas render option

05:17

to begin showing the differences the red material is

05:20

going to have reflections on it while the

05:22

matte white material will not have those reflections.

05:25

We're gonna stop the in canvas render for now,

05:27

as we will be talking about rendering at another time,

05:31

If you want to remove any appearances, we can hit a on the keyboard,

05:34

we can find the appearance that's been applied.

05:37

We can right click and we can unassigned and delete.

05:40

You can also do this to appearances that aren't used in the design.

05:43

For example A. B. S. White.

05:45

If we unassigned and delete

05:47

we can remove it from the design but because

05:49

it's linked to our physical material that's been applied,

05:52

it will remain in this design until we remove that physical material

05:56

at this point. We just want to also note that we do have a favorite section.

06:00

So for materials that you use constantly,

06:03

it's a good idea to go ahead and add them to

06:05

your favorite section so they can be easy to find.

06:07

You also have a my Appearances section that allows you to show downloaded

06:12

appearances and you can also maintain a library of your own appearances.

06:17

For now let's go ahead and close and make sure

06:19

that we do save our trigger model before moving on

Video quiz

If a Physical Material is applied to a body or component with default material, which of the following is true of its Appearance?

(Select one)
Select an answer

1/1 questions left unanswered

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