Working with Materials

Materials give objects a natural-looking surface. The properties of materials include, for example, the surface color, transparency, and gloss behavior of a surface. The material system uses a physics-based node system that automatically replicates the natural and realistic behavior of real materials such as metal, glass, or wood.


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Vectorworks Materials in Maxon Redshift

When opening the Maxon Redshift for Vectorworks viewer, all the Vectorworks materials are converted to Maxon Redshift materials and stored in the viewer as read-only. Therefore, it is not possible to edit the converted Vectorworks material directly within Maxon Redshift. In any case, it remains exactly as it was defined in Vectorworks.

However, these Vectorworks materials can be unlocked for editing by creating a copy within Maxon Redshift. In this case, the existing Vectorworks material on the corresponding objects is automatically overwritten by its copy. Further information about Material Editing can be found in this section.

A second option is to use a new Maxon Redshift material from the Library Browser and then overwrite the existing Vectorworks material with it. The following sections of this page describe how to access new materials from the Library Browser and assign them to objects.
In both cases, however, the overwriting material newly used on the object can also be deleted again. The originally assigned Vectorworks material will then reappear.

In addition, the following conditions apply:

Maxon Redshift Material Overview

Much of the work has already been done for you, as hundreds of finished materials are already available and can be accessed directly via the Add button in the Scene/Materials section (see Figure 1 below, accessible in the Stage layout).

The Material list offers to load ready to use materials from the Library or to search and view materials already used in the scene.
Figure 1A huge database of high-quality materials for all common surfaces can be accessed directly via the Add button (see marking on the left). Two different modes and a scaling option are available for listing the available materials (see markings on the right).

In order to find the right material for a project despite this large number of materials, all materials have been organized into different groups and can also be listed individually with a preview image. There is a mode in which these image tiles are given the maximum amount of space and a mode in which the material entries are displayed as a list (see Figure 1). This leaves more space for the descriptive text for each material, which is displayed next to the material preview. In both modes, which can be switched using two icons at the bottom of the browser window, an additional scaling slider is available, which can be used to individually adjust the area for each material preview (see markings in Figure 1).

Searching for the right Material

In addition to these material selection options, there is also a search field in the header of the browser. All materials have been assigned descriptive names and keywords so that you can easily search for “metal”, for example. Logical combinations are often possible, such as “blue plastic.”

Assets in the Library Browser can be filtered and found by entering a search term.
Figure 2A search field at the top allows you to filter materials according to specific terms.

Even more natural search results can be achieved by using AI-supported search (Artificial Intelligence). This automatically filters materials based on their appearance. A search for a red material, for example, can also return search results that contain surfaces with a slight purple or orange tint. This gives you a wider selection of materials similar to your search term.

You can activate this AI-supported search by clicking on the star icon to the left of the search field. An information dialog box will appear, confirming that although the AI analyzes the material data and any linked textures, no data will leave your computer (see Figure 3). Processing is therefore carried out exclusively on your local computer.

Using AI search for assets in the Library Browser, all calculation is just done on your local machine.
Figure 3AI search is activated exclusively locally on your hardware.

After this activation, the search results for otherwise identical search terms are much broader, as the following Figure 4 demonstrates. For example, colors in similar materials are also found automatically. In any case, you will always find the most relevant search results at the top of the browser. The greater the deviation of a material from the search term, the further down the list of search results it will appear.

With AI Search assets can also be searched based on their preview images.
Figure 4AI also finds materials similar to the description.

If you like to work with the AI Search by default, you can activate and configure it in the Preferences (see Figure 5). As it is capable of using the GPU, you can configure an automatic detection of your Hardware or force it to use the GPU always or never use the GPU (CPU calculations are slower most of the time).
As the search functionality is also available to filter the other assets in the Library Browser, AI Search can be beneficial not only for materials.

Activating AI Search in the Preferences allows to search assets more naturally.
Figure 5AI Search can be configured in the Preferences.

Applying a Material

In order for objects to inherit the properties of materials, the materials must be assigned. This can be done very easily by dragging and dropping them directly from the Materials list onto the corresponding object in the viewport. The following video demonstrates this process. It also shows that any existing materials on the object will be automatically overwritten.

An alternative option is to use the Material Sampler Tool. This allows you to copy materials already assigned in the scene to other objects, as shown in the following video. To do this, click on the object whose material you want to sample with the active Material Sampler and then Shift-click on the object that you want to apply the sampled material to.

Finally, Custom Materials that have already been assigned can also be replaced with new materials. To do this, right-click on the corresponding Custom Material and then select Replace Material from the context menu. The material category of the Library Browser will open. Select the desired material by double-clicking on it. This will automatically replace the original Custom material on the corresponding objects in the scene.

'Custom Material's can get replaced by materials from the 'Library Browser'.
Already applied materials can be replaced by other materials from the Library.

Editing a Material

There are two categories of materials to consider: materials imported via synchronization with Vectorworks and Custom Materials added to the scene as assets from the Library Browser. The latter can be edited directly, as explained in the following section.

Imported Materials are locked for editing in Maxon Redshift for Archviz, but we can work around this restriction. To do this, you will find an Edit button on Imported Materials when you move the mouse pointer over them in the Materials Manager. Clicking on it creates a new Custom Material that inherits the properties of the Imported Material and is automatically assigned to the same objects as an overwrite material. This new material copy can then be edited, for example, in its color properties. If the material copy is removed, for example, by right-clicking on it and selecting Delete, the original Imported Material is automatically displayed on the objects again. The video below demonstrates this workflow.

Material Parameters

Even if your desired material cannot be found directly, this is of course not a problem. Simply select a material that looks at least similar and then edit it as desired. Many materials already offer a simple dialog box that allows you to adjust colors and contrasts directly.

Start by selecting a similar material. Pay particular attention to the desired gloss behavior or transparency, as these properties remain unchanged. In most cases, the color, saturation, and brightness of a material can be customized.

Color Correction

Most materials offer settings to adjust colors and to save modified materials as a new asset.
Figure 6Customized versions of found materials can be easily created and saved.

As documented on the left side of Figure 6 you can see, that the chosen plastic material offers a Tint input in the lower Material category of the Scene Manager. Clicking on that circular color field brings up the Color Chooser (described here in detail). Alternatively, you can click on the eyedropper next to the color field to select a color value directly from any point on the screen.
Just adjust the color there to your liking and close the Color Chooser afterwards. Then double-click on the material name below the material preview sphere and enter the desired new name for the customized material (see right side of Figure 6). The customized material is now ready for use. The original material is retained and can still be accessed via the Add button or by searching for it.

Other materials even offer more settings, such as the one in Figure 7.

Library Browser showing two display modes: preview by image and list by name.
Figure 7Additional controls for individual material adjustments.

In addition to the Tint color field already discussed, which allows you to make any changes to the base color, the following settings are also available for some of the materials. Most of these values are settings that are already familiar from image editing. The effect of a setting can depend on the color value that is fed in. For example, the Gamma value changes the mid-tones of a color spectrum more than particularly light or dark colors. In the context of our materials, this is nevertheless relevant, as materials can also contain colored patterns (such as wood grain), which can then be adjusted accordingly using these settings:

Example of Gamma adjustments for the sofa material.


Example of Contrast adjustments for the sofa material.


Example of Hue adjustments for the sofa material.


Example of Saturation adjustments for the sofa material.


Example of Level Scale adjustments for the sofa material.

Displacement Settings

Some materials use a displacement component that can be used to display unevenness and larger deformations on an otherwise smooth surface. This is helpful, for example, for displaying roughly masonry stone walls or for close-ups, e.g., of pebbles or asphalt. If you have enabled Parallax Mapping in the viewport or for rendering, its intensity is also affected by Displacement Scale.

Example adjustment of the Displacement value for a material representing natural stone bricks.

The Material Projection

In this section, you can specify how the material is applied to objects.

These are the Projection settings for selected materials.
The Projection settings for materials.

The Projection Group

Here you can set the rotation, size, and repeat rate of the material. In addition, there are two different Projection methods available for applying the material to surfaces, depending on whether your object has suitable UV coordinates or not.

Projection Mode

There are two different options for projecting the material onto the surfaces:

Rotate Value

Here, you can specify an angle by which the material should be rotated. For example, the grain direction of wooden planks can be rotated to match the object.

Example of Rotate adjustments for the sofa material.

Size Value

This setting is only available for the Tri-Planar setting and determines the size of the texture projections. Smaller values will then result in more repetitions of the material on the surface by default.

The Tiling Group

Tiles U/V Values

If the material contains shaders or textures, these values can be used to indirectly adjust their size within a material tile. Values above 1 reduce the size of the textures, while values below 1 enlarge them. The letters U and V stand for the horizontal and vertical directions within the texture tile. With Tiles U = 2, the material is compressed sideways to half its size. This means that two copies of the material fit into one material tile.

Example of Tiling adjustments for the sofa material.

The example above in the video demonstrates the effect of different texture scales within the material tiles. In each case, Wrap U und Wrap V is configured to Repeat the material, which means that the material is automatically repeated endlessly to fill the surface.

Offset Values

Imagine the image elements within the material as if they were painted on a tile. Internally, such a texture tile always has an edge length of 1 in the horizontal and vertical directions (corresponding to the width and height of the textures in the material). Using these Offset values, this texture tile can now be moved horizontally (first value) and vertically (second value). With the value pair 0.5 and 0.0 for example, the image elements in the material would be moved horizontally by half their width.

Example of Offset adjustments for the sofa material.

Wrap U/V Values

Examples for the Wrap modes 'Repeat', 'Mirror' and 'Clip' for materials.
Examples of the available wrap modes. The texture used can be seen at the top left. The following renderings show the “Repeat,” “Mirror,” and “Clip” modes for the material (from left to right).

Whenever a material tile is smaller than the surface to be covered with the material, automatic repetition of the material tile can be activated. This effect is controlled by these settings:

Flip U/V Options

These options allow you to mirror the UV coordinates of the surface used for material assignment separately for the U and V directions. This can be helpful, for example, if you are using materials with text elements or logos and these appear mirrored on the surface. Please note that mirroring the UV coordinates may also require the Offset values to be readjusted.

The Material Assignments

This lists the names of all objects to which the material has been assigned. Right-clicking on individual entries opens a context menu that allows you to select the corresponding object, making it easier to find in the viewport or object list. As shown in the right-hand side of the figure below, selected objects automatically display the materials used with them in the lower Attribute Manager. Moving the mouse pointer over these entries displays icons that can be used to call up settings such as color correction or projection, or to remove the material from the surface.

In the 'Assignments' List you can see all objects that are using this material.
By right-clicking on entries in the "Assignments" list (on the left in the figure), you can select the objects to which the material has already been assigned (shown on the right).


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