Default Revit Ground Material

[Grumple]

Hi all,

Just wondering how I can change the default Grey material that is rendered as the 'ground' ?

Without inserting a topography or floor, how can I get the ground to render as a different material?

Thanks :)

[patricks]

Not possible as far as I know. Sorry.

[wmullett]

Click on your topography and change its properties to whatever you want. You should find grass as a standard material in your library. If you split your topography, you can chage the split area to something else - like asphalt.

[patricks]

OP is asking about the default Gray used below the horizon in a rendered 3D view if no objects representing the "ground" are present.

[DaveP]

I'm sure this will quickly devolve into an "I hate the Ribbon" thread like everything else on AUGI these days but....

If you are in 2010, you can go to View Properties, then Graphic Display Options. On that screen, there is a check-box for Gradient Background, and you can individually set colors for Sky, Horizon, and Ground.

[patricks]

Again, the OP asked about changing the default rendered "ground" to a different material, which is not possible. You can make it a different color, but that's it.

[wmullett]

patricks ... better look again...I assign grass ... dark rye for my grass areas.

[patricks]

patricks ... better look again...I assign grass ... dark rye for my grass areas.

You're still referring to topography I believe.

Create a 3D camera view with only your building floating in space, nothing else around it, and render it. The lower half of the background is most likely a gray color. You can change this color in the view settings, but you cannot assign a material to it.

[Gadget Man]

Again, the OP asked about changing the default rendered "ground" to a different material, which is not possible. You can make it a different color, but that's it.

Patrick, I understand very well what you mean - only today I had this very problem.

In my 3D perspective view (ready for render) I set up the background colours (NOT the rendering background - just shaded with edges view background) to white/white/blue. It gave me exactly the effect I wanted, however, when I rendered this view the background's "ground" rendered grey again (grey/transition/blue).

I looked for a setting of the background in a rendering but apart from a sky (with different clouds settings) or a solid colour, I couldn't see the opportunity to set it up similarly to the shaded with edges view.

Can you kick me in the right direction?

[Grumple]

Patricks has understood my problem (again!)

This seems yet another forgotten issue the facotry have just not bothered to sort out...

It always seems like the most obvious problems and requests are just totally ignored. Why?

[patricks]

Patrick, I understand very well what you mean - only today I had this very problem.

In my 3D perspective view (ready for render) I set up the background colours (NOT the rendering background - just shaded with edges view background) to white/white/blue. It gave me exactly the effect I wanted, however, when I rendered this view the background's "ground" rendered grey again (grey/transition/blue).

I looked for a setting of the background in a rendering but apart from a sky (with different clouds settings) or a solid colour, I couldn't see the opportunity to set it up similarly to the shaded with edges view.

Can you kick me in the right direction?

oops... yeah those settings DaveP referred to are for shaded views only, it seems. It doesn't affect rendered views. So jayc it appears that you can't even change the color of the "ground" in rendered views. It is what it is with no options.

Honestly, I so often place a rendered image into a photo of a real site, or at least export as PNG with alpha channel so that I can use my own image as the background, that I really don't worry about what the sky/ground/clouds/etc. looks like.

[Grumple]

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[Grumple]

Shame...

Being able to change this would be really quite handy... Would save you having to add a topography big enough to fill your rendered view depth.

Oh well :|

What's this alpha channel malarki???

[patricks]

Shame...

Being able to change this would be really quite handy... Would save you having to add a topography big enough to fill your rendered view depth.

Oh well :|

What's this alpha channel malarki???

After you render an image, export it as a PNG file. This makes the entire area behind the rendering transparent. Then in Photoshop (or other editor programs probably) you can open the PNG file, copy it, and paste it on top of another image file. I often do this with photographs of the actual site. Makes for quite nice renderings.

[Gadget Man]

...Honestly, I so often place a rendered image into a photo of a real site, or at least export as PNG with alpha channel so that I can use my own image as the background, that I really don't worry about what the sky/ground/clouds/etc. looks like.

Patric,
For a real rendering I never bother with it anyway. I always use a different background placed in a third party software.

But I just wanted to whip-up a quick render for my title page for the set of drawings without any particular background. I ended up using white and it worked alright but a "wash" from white to blue would be much nicer. That's all...

Thanks for the answer :) :beer:

[Grumple]

So if you choose 'Background > Color', does Revit automatically make this chosen colour transparent if you save as PNG?

Is there a chance of turning some parts of your model transparent if their colour matches that of the background?!

[patricks]

So if you choose 'Background > Color', does Revit automatically make this chosen colour transparent if you save as PNG?

Is there a chance of turning some parts of your model transparent if their colour matches that of the background?!

Yes a PNG automatically takes out the background, no matter what color it is.

From my experience, only the background is affected. Model elements in the rendered view should not be affected no matter what color they are.