After objects have been created in the Autocad 3d interface, the next step is to add realistic lighting and add textures and materials. We show you how it’s done in our Autocad 3D training courses.
For example, to create and test a realistic plastic texture, first create shapes like cylinders and boxes – both flat and curved surfaces will enable us to see how the texture behaves. It’s also a good idea to bevel, chamfer or fillet some edges. A cylinder of radius 200mm and height 5000mm will give us a good real-world scale object. Put the objects onto a flat surface plane and add some lights – see previous blogs on these topics.
Now go into the Material Editor panel and create a new material. Name it Red Plastic. In the Colour tab choose a red hue, with a Shininess of 90. Change the Index of Refraction (IOR) to 1.25, and apply this texture to the cylinder. Now click the Render button on the Render tab of the Ribbon.
We follow a similar process in creating a glassy texture/material. To see the glass at its best effect create a thin box shape within your scene. Create a new material and name it Green glass, for example. Note the drop-down list of various templates which ship with Autocad – choose Glass clear, for example. Change the diffuse colour to green, and apply the texture to the Box. Render the scene as before.
In the resulting render preview panel we see the various renders listed at the bottom of the screen. We can toggle between these and output any of them as a JPEG or TIFF image. JPEGS are the best file format for uploading an image to a website, or to send to a client. Basically anyone with a computer can view a JPEG. For higher-end printing, like brochures or magazines, we should select the better file format of TIFF. This can be up to ten times the size of a JPEG but will produce a much better print result.
The 3d interface in Autocad is user-friendly and easy to learn, and we take time to teach a broad range of applications in our classes including modeling, materials, lighting and animation. See many examples of our clients’ work on our Facebook page. For more information there are lots of resources on the web, but try the Autodesk site to begin with: www.autodesk.com. Support options and user forums are also available from the home page.
Other related Autocad 3d Blog Posts:

• Autocad 3d introduction
• Autocad 3d modeling
• Autocad 3d blocks
• Autocad 3d commands
• Autocad 3d basics