Properties of Material

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In AutoCAD/BricsCAD, you can assign a material to any solid and separately to any of its surfaces. But these materials are used only for rendering and do not contain even the simplest properties, such as density and price. More advanced materials are found in verticals such as BIM or Mechanical, but this does not work with simple solid and is expensive. Plugins A>V>C> allow you to add the minimum necessary set of properties to ordinary render materials. This will not allow you to make complex strength calculations, but this is enough to calculate weight and price, check the dimensions of parts and other typical furniture tasks.To assign materials, you can use the usual AutoCAD properties panel. Of course, you know how to select individual solid surfaces (holding Ctrl) to assign them different material. The material assigned to the solid plug-ins A>V>C> will be considered the main materials from which you want to make the part. Parts from multiple materials cannot exist. And materials assigned to surfaces are considered covers. Use covers to indicate paint, film, lamination, banding, etc. To create new materials, use the _Materials command. But by regular means, you can only assign a name and description to the material. For full-fledged work, you will need the A>V>C> Properties Palette.You can assign a material to a layer, assign layer to a solid, and assign solid material to ByLayer. My plugins will understand this trick and will consider that the details are made of layer material. To assign a material to a layer in AutoCAD (unlike Brics), you must use a separate _MATERIALATTACH command. However, AVC plugins do not work with ByBlock material - do not assign it to the parts. When creating solids, they are assigned Global material. You can adjust the properties of this material, but it is better not to use this material, always replace it with your own.To see the coloring of solids and their faces by materials, it is advisable to use the Realistic visual style ( _vscurrent _r ). But the A>V>C> palette can assign a color to a solid or face when assigning a material. Color is taken from material properties. Color is displayed in any visual style, and you can always see the coloring of details. If you first assigned a material to the parts, and then decided to adjust this material, change the price or color, then you will have to call the AvcUpdate command so that the solids change color and so that a new solid metric is calculated.Please note that AutoCAD discards faces materials when assigning material to a solid. And when subtracting, cutting and other operations, AutoCAD can assign unwanted materials to surfaces. Therefore, all work with materials should be left to the very last moment, when the model is completely ready and approved.A>V>C> plugins do not contain any library of materials, do not look. Plugins only provide the opportunity to create it and use it. You can create materials based on AutoCAD libraries. But they will have to enter all the properties and save in your template. The A>V>C> Properties palette allows you to create new materials simply by entering a new name in the Material field on the Solid and Metric tab, or in the field of covers and edges. Such material will have no texture and other properties - just a name. All properties should be set on the Material tab. And the texture can be assigned in the usual AutoCAD materials settings dialog.

Properties

To edit additional properties of a material, open the AVC Properties Palette (AVCPalette command), select a solid with an already assigned material and in the palette select the Material tab (brick wall icon).

Name - The full name of the selected material. The name cannot be empty and must be unique. The following characters are not allowed in the name: ;, = \ | /: *? `" <>
Use - the purpose of the material. There are 3 types of use of solids materials and 2 types of coatings (surfaces) are available:
- Volume - the default type. Measured by volume, cubic meters / cubic inches. Try not to use.
- Sheet - a flat sheet material for cutting / milling parts.
- Rod - linear materials: bars, pipes, rods, rolled products, profiles, moldings, baguettes, cornices, baseboards, everything that is measured in linear meters / inches.
- Coating - it is impossible to make anything from this material, but it can be applied to the surface of the part - paint, film, laminate. Measured in square meters / square inches.
- Banding - nothing can be made from this material, but it can be applied to the narrow end (edge) of the part. Measured in linear meters / inches.
Index - A short designation or material number for leaders and tables. To avoid confusion, the index should not be repeated in one drawing. The program itself can come up with indexes to materials.
Article - Long alphanumeric code of the material. Use for procurement and for communication with databases. The item must be unique to all drawings. And it should match the same materials in different drawings, even if you are a little mistaken in the name of the material.
Price - Cost per unit of material. It is important to choose the right units. In a millimeter drawing, it is required to set the cost of one square meter of material. In inches, the cost of one square inch. For rods and bandings - use the cost per linear meter or inch. The program does not force you to use only the local currency, but when substituting the cost of details, the currency symbol will be taken from the Windows settings. You can replace this character using the substitution format.
Density - The density of the material for calculating the weight of products and assemblies. It is important to choose the right units. In a millimeter drawing, it is required to set the density as the weight of one cubic meter of material. In inch - weight per cubic inch. Units of weight (kilograms or tons or pounds ...) you can use any. Accordingly, it is in them that the weight of the part will be calculated. Correctly signing the units in the tables is your task, not the program.
Color - Diffuse color of the material. You can write any name for the color. The program will try to recognize it. Write an empty line to show the inherited solid color (ByObject). When changing this color, the program will also change the Ambient color of the material, if it is not inherited from the object (not ByObject). The same color can be assigned to solids and surfaces when changing materials (see Common Options) and then you will see this color in any visual style. Keep in mind that the color of the solids already assigned to this material will not change immediately. In visual styles that display material, you need to update the entire drawing. Other visual styles only display the color of the object, not the material. It is required to call a special AVCUpdate command to replace the colors of all solids in accordance with the new material settings.
Size - the size of the sheet / rod of the material. It is necessary for the implementation in the future of recounting purchases into sheets, checks for compliance of the part with the thickness and dimensions of the sheet, drawing the outline of the sheet in dxf, etc.
- Length - The length of the original piece of material, workpiece, sheet, roll, rod.
- Width.
- Thickness.

Grain|Texture - This material has a grain pattern (texture) along the long side of the sheet. You can use this property in material tables through the %grain% substitution. For parts made of this material, it is advisable to indicate the direction of the texture. If you assign a material through the A>V>C> Properties Palette, then the Texture property of the part will automatically be replaced with Along or None, depending on the Grain checkbox of the material. The AvcUpdate command and the command to replace the color of parts by material also respond to this checkbox. This way you can easily propagate material Grain changes to all parts.
Mill Tool - The name or number of the tool (cutter) as it is named in the CNC machine. This name can be used in the %milltool% substitution in all NC layer names. The program will use this name from the material properties of the part, even if a different tool name is specified in the CNC style.
Mill Mode - Processing mode (milling). This text can be used in the %millmode% substitution in all NC layer names.
Saw Tool - The name or number of the tool (disk) as it is named in the CNC machine. This name can be used in the %sawtool% substitution in all NC layer names. The program will use this name from the material properties of the part, even if a different tool name is specified in the CNC style.
Saw Mode - Processing (sawing) mode. This text can be used in the %sawmode% substitution in all NC layer names.
Description - any description of the material.

Some of these properties are available only on the Material tab, but are hidden on the Cover tab, as they are meaningless.

Computed properties

There are properties that you can only get by substituting in the Data Table or Material Table. They cannot be edited because the program calculates them based on other properties.

- piece - The size of the piece of material. Sheet area, rod length or volume. Calculated by the size of the material, taking into account the purpose ("Use" field). For millimeter drawings, it is converted to meters.
- units - Units for measuring the amount of material. Substituted depending on the purpose ("Use" field).

In the Material Table command, you can use material calculation substitutions for selected parts:

- quantity - The amount of material by area, length, or volume. Taking into account the required scrap (see "Cost Calculation" in Common Options). The unit of quantity depends on the purpose of the material.
- pieces - The number of pieces of material. If the dimensions of the material are specified, the program will calculate how many sheets, rods, and edge bandings are needed.
- weight - The weight of all parts made from this material excluding scrap. The density of the material must be specified. Not calculated for coatings and edges.
- cost - The cost of this amount of material. The unit price of the material must be specified.

Read more: https://avcprg.blogspot.com/2020/11/avc_28.html (Russin, but translator included)

Сolor replacement command

In the header of the material properties tab there is a button for calling a command to replace the color of parts with a color similar to the color of the material. The command will find all solids of the drawing with the selected materials and replace their color with the nearest indexed color similar to the color of the material. There is no color change for Global material. For ByLayer and ByBlock materials, the color is replaced with ByLayer and ByBlock (unless the layer has its own material specified). If in the A>V>C> Properties Palette options the replacement of the Texture of parts by material is configured, then this command will also change the texture to Along or None depending on the Grain property of the material.

Properties of Material

Properties

Computed properties

Сolor replacement command

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