The Material Creation group

Maxwell materials are defined in files with the suffix .mxm

Materials that are relevant to the current SolidWorks model are managed using options available in the Material Creation group. 

4 buttons are provided that allow you to 

  • Add - Use an existing Maxwell Material
  • New - Create a new material (using a wizard)
  • Edit - Edit an existing material in the list
  • Delete - Delete an existing material from the list

The "Material Location" box is used to display the pathname of the current material file.  

Using an existing Maxwell Material

Selecting the "Add Material from File" button will launch a Windows file browser that allows you to choose an existing Maxwell material.

Thumbnails of the material files are displayed by default when the dialog is opened. (The user can select an alternative list or detail view in the file browser if required).

Browse until you locate the required material(s).

Select one (  or more) and "open" the required material(s). These will be added to the list of materials in the Material Assignment group.

Create a new material

New materials can be created by selecting the "Create New Material" button.

This will launch a wizard that allows a basic material to be defined from a selection of available presets. 

 The user can decide whether the Wizard is launched by setting the "Launch Material Editor" option (in the Material Display Options group). If this option is NOT set,  a "default" material is created with the name specified by the user and added to the material list. The user can then use the "Edit current material" option to modify the parameters of this material.

 

The following material types can be created via the Wizard:

  • Diffuse - Specify Colour and Roughness
  • Emitter - Choose Colour, Power and Efficiency for an emitter.
  • Dielectric - Colour, Nd (index of refraction) and Abbe values for a dielectric material.
  • Metal - Presets available for Aluminium, Cobalt, Copper Gold and Silver and an option to set the material roughness.
  • Plastic - Set Diffuse and Specular colours and roughness for a plastic material. 

 see an additional article about Using existing SolidWorks colours and textures.

Edit an existing material

Select a material from the list and use the "Edit Material" button to modify its parameters.

This will start the "Maxwell Material Editor" 

It is possible to modify a variety of parameters with the editor. For further information consult the Maxwell Material Editor documentation.

Delete materials

The "Delete Current Material" button is used to remove a material from the list of materials available for use with the current SolidWorks model. (This does NOT remove the material file from the disk, it only removes it from the list of materials)