Material areas are used to color certain parts of the surface model with certain materials. There are two different ways to color the surface with a material area. You can define a layer with 3D faces or define a layer with closed polylines as a material area layer. If you select a layer with 3D faces, all 3D faces on the selected layer will be colored with the selected material. If you select a layer with closed polylines, the area that the polylines cover will be colored with the selected material.
The material areas object reads AutoCAD polylines, arcs, circles, splines, ellipses, 3D faces, solid, polymesh, and polyface objects. Material area elements are modeled in the order of the list. This is the only way you can model material areas inside other material areas. If polylines have a Z-value or elevation, the area is modeled flat in that elevation. Otherwise, the material area is modeled on the surface model.
Parameters
• layer
Layer where elements that define the material areas are.
• materials
Name of the material(s).
• description
A descriptive text for the entry. If defined, it will be shown instead of the long description.
• info text
Information text attached to items.
• info URL
URL link attached to items. MAGNET Explorer can launch a web browser with the URL.
• object data tables
These are Autodesk Map object data tables that will be used for the source of object information for the elements in the virtual model. The table list also matches wildcards, e.g., “LTR*”.
• origin
Coordinates for the upper left corner of the texture.
• scale
Scale of the texture.
• rotation
Rotation of the texture.
• automatic_texcoords
- Yes = The lower left corner of the texture is put to the first vertex of the polygon. (The rotation is taken from first vertex > second vertex angle.)
- Fit = Scales the texture so that it will be rotated along the first segment of a material area polyline and scaled so that it will fit/cover the whole material area.
• cut
- yes = Cuts the existing surface along the border line into the surface model.
- no = Creates a copy of the underlying surface on top of it.
- patch = Creates an optimized patch surface on top of the underlying surface. An optimized surface has much less triangles and is very suitable for road markings.
• up_extrude
Extrudes the material area up (positive distance) or down (negative distance).
• in_extrude
Extrudes the material area inwards, generating an inner area.
• edge_material
Material for the extruded edge.
• flatten
Flattens the surface inside the inner area (yes/no).
• buffer
Expands the material area outward (positive value) or shrinks it inward (negative value).
• target_layers
These material area settings affect only the surface on layers defined here. The default value (*) means that all surfaces are affected.
• group
The name of the group of these items.
• generation_priority
If multiple layers are at the same height, the generation priority defines which one has a higher priority and shows it on top of the other object. (In practice, it is recommended to give a small additional height value to the object to ensure the correct order of components.)
• auto_segmentation_distance
Divides the original polyline with this distance and adds new points. This parameter is useful for better control of following surface and long arc segments.
• auto_segmentation_angle
Divides polylines using an angle threshold so that the resulting polyline will fall within this angle value. This only affects curved polyline segments like splines and arcs.
• solid_tessellation_angle
Degree angle where multiple shapes come together to refer to a solid degree angle.
• solid_tessellation_distance
Solid distance value to combine materials in different areas.