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Materials

The Materials screen (Assets › Materials) stores the 3D material definitions that control how surfaces look inside the Expivi 3D viewer. A material is a set of shader properties (colour, roughness, metalness, reflections, normal maps, and more) that the rendering engine applies to the surface of a 3D model part. You create and edit materials here, and 3D visualizations reference them by 3D visualizations through (Material mapping).

How materials are used in Expivi​

Materials are assigned to 3D model parts via the (Material mapping) screen. The material mapper connects a configurable attribute value (e.g. the "Oak" option on a Wood Finish attribute) to a specific material, so when a shopper picks that option the 3D viewer applies the correct surface appearance to the relevant part.

Browse materials​

The left panel shows a folder tree. Click a folder to load its materials in the grid on the right. You can search by name with the search bar above the grid.

Create a material​

  1. Click Add material in the page header.
  2. Enter a Name and choose a Type (Default material or PBR Material).
  3. Click Confirm. The material editor opens in the right panel.

Edit a material​

Click any material card in the grid to open the editor on the right. The editor has two areas:

  • 3D preview canvas (top-left): shows a live render of the material on a test geometry. Updates as you change properties.
  • Property panels (right): grouped sections for each aspect of the material.

Material editor

For a Default material the groups are Diffuse, Transparency, Environment, Reflection, Normals, Displacement / Parallax, and a few additional groups. Click Save changes in the preview panel. The button is enabled only when you have unsaved edits (state indicator changes). A spinner appears while saving.

Additional actions in the preview panel​

  • Duplicate: create a copy of the material (enabled when the material is saved and unmodified, or after saving).
  • Entity properties: open a secondary panel with lower-level entity metadata.
  • Convert to PBR: available on Default materials; converts them to the PBR type in place. These materials can only be used in a product with the Babylon beta render engine.
  • Delete: permanently removes the material. This cannot be undone.
  • Show material: Basic / Advanced (PBR only): toggle to show or hide advanced property groups.

Manage folders​

The folder manager on the left panel lets you create, rename, and delete folders. You can drag materials from the grid onto a folder to move them. Multi-select is available with a toggle above the grid; hold Ctrl and click to build a selection.

Best practices​

Best practice
  • Organise materials by product line or surface type (e.g. Fabrics/, Wood/, Metals/) to keep large catalogues manageable.
  • Upload texture map images to (Textures) first, then assign them to the relevant material property slots (diffuse, normal, roughness map, etc.).
  • After editing, verify the preview canvas shows the expected result before saving.
  • Apply the materials to a matgroup in the 3d visualization so you can tweak the properties of your model on the model itself in the showcase.