By Dennis Collin
When using Autodesk products, the installer places a shared material library which can be used for all Autodesk products including AutoCAD, Inventor, Revit and 3ds Max.
The Autodesk Material Library consists of three components:
Autodesk Material Library 2024
This library contains the material appearances used for Realistic Appearance in colour styles. It is installed by default, and it is required for full visual style and colour style functionality of 3ds Max.
Autodesk Material Library 2024 – Base Image Library
The base library contains low-resolution (approximately 512 x 512 pixel) images for use with Autodesk Materials. This library is adequate for more distant elements and general concept purposes.
Autodesk Material Library 2024 – Medium Image Library
This library contains medium-resolution (approximately 1024 x 1024) images for rendering materials in medium detail. This library is intended for close-up work and for rendering objects at a larger scale. This library is an optional installation during the install process.
Note: If a library is uninstalled, it will mean that the library will no longer be available for any products and will mean scenes with those materials applied will not display or render correctly.
When working in 3ds Max however, the standard shared libraries are not always available, even though they have been installed and reside in the correct directory on the local Max workstation.
Autodesk Materials are based on the old Arch & Design material shader. They work best when used in conjunction with photometric lights and geometry that is sized in real-world units. A benefit of the Autodesk Material is the controls are much simpler than the Arch & Design or newer Physical material interfaces, but allow users to achieve realistic, physically correct results with relatively little effort. Within the library is a collection of materials based on manufacturing-supplied data and professional images. They include building and design materials such as professional wall paint with glossy or matte finishes, solid glass and concrete. These materials provide a convenient way of creating realistic scenes for users without having to source textures from elsewhere.
However, the materials available to users when working in 3ds Max will depend on the active renderer set within Max’s interface.
Ever since the early days of 3ds Max, additional rendering plug-ins have been available to perform all kinds of rendering tasks, but not all render engines support the materials supplied in the shared Autodesk material library. Max by default will supress any unsupported materials in the editor and only show elements supported by the current specified renderer. Error messages and rendering issues will also be apparent within the render message window and the frame buffer at render time.
When installing Max, the installation process tends to set ‘arnold’ as Max’s default production render. This will mean when accessing the Material editor interface, the shared Autodesk Library will not show due to the materials and textures not being compatible with Arnold.
To access the same materials used as Revit and AutoCAD etc, set the production renderer to ART render. Once set, (and perhaps saved as a preset) the shared Autodesk Material Library can be accessed from the list, where previously it was unavailable.
Depending upon the shading method, material and geometry properties, the size, real world map size settings the element should shade correctly within the viewport. When rendered (with the correct lighting and exposure) elements should appear as expected.