Autodesk Inventor is delivered with an abundance of predefined materials. Each material definition consists of a physical asset which includes properties such as Density, Yield Strength, Tensile Strength, and so on. A material definition also includes an Appearance asset. Appearance assets come in a variety of types, each type having properties relative to the type. You can create new or duplicate existing appearances and modify these to meet your needs.
Each part that you model with Inventor inherits a material from the template you use when you begin your design.
During the design process, you can elect to assign specific appearances to a part and you can elect to override the appearance of the part within an assembly. These options can aid in the design process by highlighting areas of focus. All hydraulic components might have a blue appearance in one assembly representation while all components purchased from a specific vendor might have a green appearance in another.
The appearances used during the design process may not represent the actual appearance of the completed design. For the purposes of presentations and renderings intended for customers or marketing, alternative appearances may be explored.
The images used in this tutorial are based on an alternative appearance scheme for the Cylinder Clamp assembly.
The appearances have no impact on the results you will achieve in this tutorial.