Modifying Material Asset Information in your Revit Models

The material appearance can bring greater depth and realism to your Revit models as well as help communicate a design concept more effectively.

By being able to modify material properties, we can tweak and define the material to provide a more accurate visual representation.

We can add and modify information associated with Revit Materials via the Material editor under the Asset tab headings, which contain specific properties related to each Asset.

Revit Material Asset Tabs

You can have up to 5 Assets for a material depending on the level of information required and its purpose. If the physical and thermal Assets are not available these can be added via the Asset Tabs Plus Button button.

The Assets available are as follows:

Identity –  contains properties to define descriptive information, product information and Annotation Information that can be extracted via tags and keynotes.

Material Asset Identity Tab

Graphics – Non rendered appearance settings for the material when shown in hidden line and shaded view. set different fill patterns and colour settings depending on the material settings for specific views types.

Revit Material Asset Graphics Tab

Decide whether the material will have the same, or a different graphical representation to its rendered appearance through the shading options.

Render Appearance Checkbox

Appearance – settings that control the Realistic, Rendered and Ray trace material appearance in views. The material appearance settings define how that material will exhibit textures, reflectance, self-illumination as well as colour.

Material Asset Appearance Tab

Physical – properties used to define material information used for structural analysis.

Thermal – properties used to define material information related to Energy analysis.

The preview of the Material can be resized by grabbing the separation bar just above the information heading. Once you see the (resize row icon).

To the right of the preview you can set the scene, environment and render settings for the material.

The preview form that is shown is can be selected using the scene settings.

Asset Scene Settings

The lighting effect on the material under different environmental settings can be adjusted in environment settings.

Material Environment Settings

Render quality preview can be set in Render settings.

Asset Render Settings

Specific material properties and visual settings are found below the preview.  These can vary depending on the material class properties that are available to define the material.

Material Asset Preview

In this example we are looking at a material under the Metal class.

We have properties such as:

Information – Add descriptive information relating to material appearance, based on Name, Description and Keywords which can be used to help find the material in the search bar.

Metal – choose the type of metal from the list which will affect the preview appearance.

Asset Metal Type Selection

Some material options have additional appearance settings to adjust.

Metal Patina Adjustment

Use the material finish to set the level of reflectance and smoothness in the material surface.

Material Asset Finish Settings

Relief Pattern – used to define a bumpy or uneven surface texture. You can adjust the scale of the relief pattern or specify an image as the bump surface using the custom image option.

Material Asset Relief Pattern Selection

Images can be chosen from the file formats listed below.

Image File Types

Cutouts –  Add perforation patterns to remove parts of the material. Make adjustments to the diameter of the perforations and the spacing in between each one.

Material Asset Cutouts Type

Select from the pre-set cutout options or use a custom image or gradient.

Material Asset Cutout Options

Tint – add additional colour to the material by choosing a colour.

Material Tint

Click Apply Button to accept new material modifications and ensure that the material properties match the description of the material. Click Cancel Button to discard any changes. Click Ok Button to accept changes and exit materials dialogue box.

Related Links

Autodesk Revit – Autodesk Platinum Partner | Man and Machine

Revit Training Courses – BIM Modelling Skills | Man and Machine

Autodesk AEC Collection – Platinum Partners | Man and Machine

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