Material and background settings

You can change the colour used to shade the composite relief in the 3D view, the brightness of the lit areas on its surface, and the reflectivity of its surface. You can also select a background colour or image for the 3D view, and project a reflection map onto its surface.

You can use the sphere in the Material area of the panel to preview the effects that the settings you choose have on the composite relief shown in the 3D view:

To change the material settings:

1. Select Model > Lights and Material Setup or click . The Lights and Material panel is displayed.
2. If you want to load a material shading setting file (.mtl) that you have saved previously, click Load to display the Load Lights and Material Settings dialog:
   1. Navigate to the folder on your computer in which the setting file that you want to load is stored.
   2. Select the file that you want to load. The file name is displayed in the File name box.
   3. Click Open to import the settings to the Lights and Material panel.
3. To change the colour of the material shown in the 3D view, click the list in the Colour area, followed by the option you want to use:
   • Selected Colour — Select this option then click to set the colour of the composite relief using the Set Material Colour dialog.
   • 2D View — Select this option to project the artwork on a selected bitmap layer, as shown in the 2D view, onto the composite relief.

   If you want to use any of the preset materials, click the list in the Colour area, followed by the material you want to use. When using any of these preset settings:

   • To tile the material across the composite relief, select Tile and then, using the Size X and Size Y boxes, specify its size.
   • To replace areas of the composite relief under the current Primary Colour with the selected material, select the Only show image under primary colour check box.
   Note: To use your own material, copy the Tagged Image Format file (.tif) representing the material to the Materials folder of your ArtCAM installation, and then restart ArtCAM. The image is listed in the Colour list when the Lights and Material panel is next displayed.
4. To adjust the reflectivity of the material surface, click and drag the Shininess slider.
5. To adjust the brightness of the lit areas in the model, click and drag the Highlight Intensity slider.
6. To project a reflection map onto the surface of the composite relief, click the list in the Reflection Map area, followed by the name of the reflection map that you want to use.
7. You can now fill the background of the 3D view with an image or colour:
   • To fill the background with a colour, select Selected colour in the Background list, then click . The Set Background Colour dialog is displayed.
   • To fill the background with a bitmap image, select the name of the image in the Background list.
8. Click Apply to apply the settings.
9. To save the settings to a file, click Save.
10. To use your selections as the default settings when viewing the composite relief, click Set as Modelling Default.
11. To use your selections as the default settings when viewing simulated toolpaths, click Set as Simulation Default.
12. Close the panel.