Being a true dielectric material, this type should only be used on objects which have a closed volume. It provides an Nd parameter, which is set to the refractive index of water (1.33) by default. This type simply produces a liquid material. It provides a Finish type, of which there are five: Rubbed, Satin, Semigloss, Gloss, and Polished. This type is designed to create a material which resembles a lacquered surface, and is generally intended to be used in conjunction with a woodgrain texture. The Nd value controls the reflective response of the material lower Nd values result in weaker frontal reflectivity. As Roughness is decreased, the plastic will become smoother. For more information on their parameters, please see here. These are based on the Maxwell Material Assistants. It provides a Roughness parameter as Roughness is decreased, the material will shift from a pure diffuse to a smooth plasticine material. In total, there are fifteen character types: Character is primarily concerned with the nature of the material on a conceptual level, and not with anything specifically having to do with the material's color or texture those things are independent from its character.

The factor primarily responsible for determining the appearance of a Maxwell material created with the plugin is known as its Character.Ĭharacter determines whether the material is glass, metal, etc. This value is also stored on a per-material basis, since some materials require lower SLs than others. When the material preview is rendered, it will render until the Target SL set here has been reached. This parameter, which is stored on a per-material basis, simply sets the size for the preview image. This setting is stored per-material, enabling each material to use the preview scene most appropriate to its nature. The chosen MXS preview scene will be used to render previews for this material. In this drop-down, you will find a list of MXS files which have been found in the preview sub-directory of your Maxwell installation directory. This is a text field that is stored with the material. Smaller previews will, of course, take less time to render.Īlso note that it is possible to set the number of processing threads which are used for rendering previews using the Preview Threads plugin option. Note that the size of the preview image is adjustable to change it, just pass your mouse over the lower right corner of the image to show the resizing grip. In either case, the rendering may be started or stopped by clicking the Render Preview button. This behavior is controlled by the Refresh Previews plugin option. Material previews can be rendered manually this way, or they may be generated in real-time via Maxwell Fire, updating automatically whenever a material parameter is changed. While a preview is rendering, its current sampling level will be shown in the lower left corner of the image. To render or re-render the preview for the current material, click the Render Preview (small arrows) button, located near the lower right corner of the preview image if the preview is already rendering, clicking this button will cause it to stop.

The plugin uses Maxwell Fire to provide real-time material editing. PreviewĪt the top of the material editor, you will find a material preview image, a place to store notes about the material, a drop-down to select the preview scene used by this material, and a slider used to set the target SL (Sampling Level) used whenever this material's preview is rendered. This (toggle) button switches the selected material between its Embedded and MXM modes. Materials may be selected here, or by selecting them in SketchUp. This drop-down provides a list of the materials contained in the SketchUp document.

Sketchup materials