Introduction
The Materials feature allows you to apply materials to BIM elements. You can modify materials on individual elements, groups of elements or entire BIMs. You can also clone materials and modify their colour and transparency.
Feature Overview
The materials feature has 4 key UI elements. This includes the:
Materials Menu
The Materials menu can be accessed by clicking the Materials toggle in the Left menu.
It shows all the materials that are in the current project along with the library of materials that comes with ToBe Builder.
| Double-sided material toggle - Sets all default materials to double-sided |
| Menu Item size slider - Slide to resize menu items |
| Material filters:
|
| Materials search bar - search by name or tag |
| Materials list order - Alphabetical ascending or descending |
| Selectable Material menu item - select to show details in Selection Inspector |
Materials Inspector
When a Material is selected, the Selection Inspector is populated with two sections:
Properties
Material Assignments
 | Create Copy - Creates an editable copy of the selected material |
 | Delete - Deletes the selected material. Only active when copied materials are selected |
 | Name - editable field that displays current name of the material |
 | Colour - Click to open Colour Picker to allow for selection of colour to apply to material |
 | Double Sided toggle - Sets the material to double sided, renders both sides of the material |
 | Triplanar toggle - sets the material to triplanar, allowing the material texture to be projected onto the model without explicit UV mapping. |
 | Triplanar World Space toggle - applies the materials triplanar mapping using world space coordinates. |
 | Tags - Dropdown with list of tags attached to material, these can be used as search terms when searching for materials |
Rendering Materials section in Selection Inspector
When a BIM/s or BIM element/s are selected, the Rendering Materials section of the Selection Inspector is populated with the materials that are currently assigned to those meshes.
If you have a single BIM element selected or the selected elements have the same material, a single material will be shown.
 | All - checks all materials in the list |
 | None - unchecks all materials in the list |
 | Apply Selected - Opens materials object selector to allow for selection of material to apply to all checked materials |
 | Material checkbox - click to check material |
 | Material menu item - click to select material |
 | BIM element count - count of BIM elements with material assigned in selected BIM. Click to select BIM elements |
| Material Menu Button - click to replace with a new material. |
If you select a BIM or BIM elements with different materials applied, a list of all the materials assigned to the selected meshes will be shown.
Materials Object Selector
Allows you to select a material to assign to BIM elements. It is opened by clicking the object selector button on a Material in the Selection Inspector. It is searchable using material names or tags.
Materials Workflows
Apply Material to a Selected Element
Step 1: Select BIM
Click a BIM to select it.
Step 2: Select an Element
Click an element in the BIM. The element will turn green, and the selection inspector will be populated with the element’s information.
Step 3: Open the Materials Object Selector
Find the Render Materials section in the Selection Inspector and click the object selector button on the material.
The Materials object selector will open in the middle of the scene.
Step 4: Search for a Material
Search for or scroll to your required material.
Step 5: Apply the Material
Select the required material. The element’s material will change to the selected material, and the selection inspector will show the newly assigned material.
Select all BIM elements with the same Material
Step 1: Select Material via Materials global menu or Selection Inspector
Step 2: Selection Inspector --> Material Assignments
Click on the number on the menu item to select all BIM elements that have that material assigned
Clone Material
Viewing a selected material in the inspector allows the material to be cloned. When clicking the "Create Copy" button, a new material copy based on that material will be created and selected.
Editing
Cloned materials are different to library or imported materials as they can be edited in various ways:
Colour of the material can be changed
Double sided can be toggled either on or off
Triplanar can be toggled either on or off
Triplanar World Space and be toggled either on or off
Activates the Delete action
Deleting
Unlike library or imported materials, clone materials can be deleted. When deleting a clone material from the project, any linked BIM elements that have that material applied will fall back to their default imported material.