The appearance's primary color as RGBA. Maps to the schema-appropriate color property — `opaque_albedo` for opaque appearances, `metal_f0` for metallic, `transparent_color` for transparent. Setting alpha less than 255 enables translucency on opaque appearances.For schema-specific properties not exposed here (emission, index of refraction, anisotropy, etc.), use `appearanceProperties`.
Path to a base-color image used as a texture for the appearance's primary color slot. Setting a non-empty path connects a fresh texture; setting an empty string disconnects the existing texture. Reading returns the connected texture's filename, or an empty string if none is connected.Whichever of `colorTexture`, `normalTexture`, and `roughnessTexture` is set first anchors the UV scale; any of the three that are set afterward copy that scale on connect so all three maps tile at the same rate. The order matters because the underlying color and roughness textures default to a different real-world tile size than the normal-map texture, so without this alignment a typical PBR set wired through these three setters in mixed order would tile at visibly different rates.
To set a specific UV scale instead, override `texture_RealWorldScaleX` and `texture_RealWorldScaleY` on each texture via `appearanceProperties` after connecting. The same path applies for overriding wrap modes or other texture properties — access the underlying texture via `appearanceProperties.itemById('opaque_albedo').value` (or `metal_f0` / `transparent_color` depending on the appearance's surface type).
The texture image is saved inside the document, so the appearance continues to render correctly when the document is opened on another machine. The string returned by the getter, however, is the path to the image on the local file system, which after a save and re-open will typically differ from the path that was originally set. Treat the returned value as a valid path for reading the image, not as a stable identifier.
Returns false when the appearance does not host a primary color slot. Appearances created via `Appearances.add` always support this property.
Path to a tangent-space normal map used as a texture for the appearance's `surface_normal` slot. Setting a non-empty path connects a fresh texture; setting an empty string disconnects the existing texture. Reading returns the connected texture's filename, or an empty string if none is connected.The supplied image is interpreted as an OpenGL-convention tangent-space normal map (the "normal_gl" variant from typical PBR sources). To use a heightmap or bump map instead, set this property to the image path and then change the texture's `bumpmap_Type` to `bumpmap_height_map` via `appearanceProperties.itemById('surface_normal').value.properties`.
The order in which `colorTexture`, `normalTexture`, and `roughnessTexture` are set matters — see the note on `colorTexture`.
As with `colorTexture`, the image is saved inside the document, but the path returned by the getter after a save and re-open is a local file-system path that may differ from the path originally set.
Returns false when the appearance does not host a `surface_normal` slot. Appearances created via `Appearances.add` always support this property.
It's often useful to use this in combination with the classType method to see if an object is a certain type. For example: if obj.objectType == adsk.core.Point3D.classType():
Surface microfacet roughness in the range [0, 1]. 0.0 is a perfect mirror, 1.0 is fully matte. Maps to the `surface_roughness` property.Path to a grayscale roughness map used as a texture for the appearance's `surface_roughness` slot. Setting a non-empty path connects a fresh texture; setting an empty string disconnects the existing texture and falls back to the scalar `roughness` value. Reading returns the connected texture's filename, or an empty string if none is connected.Setting this property resets the scalar `roughness` to 1.0 so the texture's grayscale values pass through directly (0 = mirror-smooth, 1 = fully matte). To attenuate the texture, set `roughness` afterwards:
appearance.roughnessTexture = path appearance.roughness = 0.7 # cap roughness at 70%
The order in which `colorTexture`, `normalTexture`, and `roughnessTexture` are set matters — see the note on `colorTexture`.
As with `colorTexture`, the image is saved inside the document, but the path returned by the getter after a save and re-open is a local file-system path that may differ from the path originally set.
Returns false when the appearance does not host a `surface_roughness` slot. Appearances created via `Appearances.add` always support this property.