Autodesk LIGHTSCAPE, Manual

Page: 28 / 362

The Interface 4
20
Lightscape
The material preview displays the currently selected
material. For more information, see “Customizing
Material Previews” on page 20.
Right-click the Materials table to display a context
menu of functions for manipulating the materials in
the table. Double-click any material name to activate
the Material Properties dialog, which contains tools
for editing the characteristics of the selected
materials.
For more information on working with materials,
see Chapter 7, “Using Materials.”
Customizing Material Previews
The material preview displays the material currently
selected in the Materials table. You can resize the
preview and toggle it on or off.
Note: If more than one material is selected, the
preview is gray.
To toggle the preview on or off:
Right-click the Materials table and choose Preview
from the context menu.
Changing the S ample Sphere Diameter
You can change the diameter of the sample sphere to
make its size consistent with the objects in your
model to which you will apply the material. This
provides an accurate preview of materials that have
procedural textures applied or a fixed tile size. The
sphere diameter is measured in the units of your
model. For more information about setting the
model units, see “Setting Units Properties” on page
46.
To change the diameter of the sample sphere:
1.
Right-click in the preview.
2.
Choose Diameter and select the number of units
from the list.
Enabling Background and Reflection Images
You can enable the display of background and reflec-
tion images in the material preview.
To toggle t hese options on and off:
Right-click in the preview and select the appropriate
option.
Move the horizontal bar
to resize the preview
Material preview with Fixed Size set to 1m x 1m.
Diameter of sample
sphere set to 1m.
Diameter of sample
sphere set to 10m.