A library is a collection of materials or appearances, or a collection of materials and appearances. Some libraries are installed with Autodesk products, and others are created by users. User created libraries can contain materials and appearances within the same library.
When you install Autodesk products or suites, multiple asset libraries are installed. The libraries provide a consistent presentation of materials and appearances across the products. Each asset library is self-contained, that is, all information required to define the library content resides in that library. Additionally, the libraries are sub-divided into categories containing the corresponding assets. Installed libraries have the read only property set and cannot be directly modified. In the Material and Appearance browsers, the libraries have lock icons next to them.
The Autodesk Material Library provides a wide variety of material definitions and is shared by multiple products. It is installed with every product and suite.
The Autodesk Appearance Library contains only appearances. Appearances provide a visual description of a component. The library is shared by multiple products. Appearances can be overridden in order to satisfy viewing requirements. This library is installed with multiple products and suites.
The Inventor Material Library provides basic set of manufacturing materials and appearances. Only Inventor installs this library.
Autodesk Inventor installations include the Base Resolution and Low Resolution Libraries.
The available material and appearance libraries that you want associated to a project need to be declared in the project file. At least one material library must exist in the Material and the Appearance sections. If only one exists, it cannot be deleted. You must first add a different library and then remove the one you do not want to use.
Material and Appearance libraries are separate other libraries, such as Style Libraries, referenced in a project. Libraries installed with Autodesk products are Read-Only. Custom or user created libraries can be set to Read Only or Read Write using the file attribute.
You can also create custom material libraries. Build one specific to your use and set it as the active library for your project. To make a custom library read-only, use the Windows Explorer property and set the library file attribute to Read-only.
The active library is shown in bold letters. Both Materials and Appearances have an active library. If a library has both materials and appearances, it can be added to both sections and be active at the same time. The active library populates the controls throughout Inventor where a materials list it displayed or used, including the QAT (Quick Access Toolbar). If there is only one library in the project file, it is, by default, the active library. You can remove the active library unless it is the only library listed. The library listed above the active library inherits the active status.
If the library containing the material you want to use is not the active library, you can continue to explore other libraries by simply selecting one from the list or navigating to it via the Open Existing Library command.
A material library is a collection of materials and related assets. Some libraries are provided by Autodesk, and others are created by users. You can create libraries to organize your materials. You can also share libraries with other people on your team, and use the same libraries with Autodesk Inventor and Revit to support the use of consistent materials.
The libraries supplied by Autodesk are locked, as indicated by a lock icon. Materials in a locked library cannot be overwritten or deleted. You can copy materials from a locked library to unlocked user-created libraries, where materials can be overwritten or deleted. In the figure, Favorites, My Materials, and AB Project Materials are unlocked user-created libraries.
Libraries can be sub-divided by adding categories and moving materials into the categories. An Autodesk-supplied library contains many categories of materials organized by type, such as Concrete, Metal, and Glass. User-created libraries and categories can reflect different methods of organization, such as project names or usage. In the figure, the AB Project Materials library contains a Construction category.
To work with libraries, use the Material control to open the Material Browser.
Material Browser
To add a material to the current document, first find the material in an existing library, then use one of these methods:
To copy a material to a library, use one of these methods:
If you copy a material to a library where another material of the same name exists, you are prompted either to overwrite the version in the target location or to keep both.
Legacy Color and Material Styles
An easy to access and use method is provided for migrating your legacy custom material and color style libraries. See Migrating Inventor Legacy Material and Color Styles.
Migrating Inventor Legacy Material and Color Styles
If you have not modified the Inventor Material or Color styles, there is no need to move legacy data into the next release. It is already there. If you have created custom colors and materials in previous releases and want to retain them, the following is useful information for you.
When a document is opened the materials and colors are retained in the document. The migration process is complete when the document is saved. You can add the migrated material or appearance to a custom library, such as Favorites, by doing the following:
Use the following steps to migrate legacy material and color styles libraries.
Use the following steps to migrate the Color and Material style libraries:
When migrating large numbers of projects or documents, consider using Inventor Task Scheduler.
Manage Material and Appearance Libraries
We recommend using either of these two library management methods for the Inventor 2013 Materials Library: Overwrite or Versioning.
The following information helps you to determine which method will help you manage your libraries effectively.
From within the Material or Appearance Browsers, the following error message display you open a library and its copy in the same session this error message displays:
The two methods involve editing both the project files and library copies. If material library modifications occur frequently, we recommend that you establish a project dedicated to asset management.
Modify the asset management project file
Exit and Restart Inventor. This step is removes the library from memory. After restarting Inventor, the project should resemble the following image:
Edit the project file.
Right-click the Appearance Libraries node and click Add Library.
Navigate to and select My_InventorMaterialLibrary.adsklib.
Right-click the library node and click Active Library.
Repeat steps 6 through 8 for the Material Libraries node. The project file should resemble the following:
Save the project changes.
In the Material Browser, confirm My_InventorMaterialLibrary is the active library.
Modify materials and appearances according to your requirements.
Overwrite working material and appearance libraries
Customize the following general description to work with your corporate policies and procedures.
Set an appropriate time to make the library switch and ensure that NO ONE is accessing the material library file you are replacing. These steps apply to Inventor libraries and custom libraries you create.
Important: If, when switching between project files, one of the libraries displays an error , exit and restart Inventor to resolve the library access issue.
Modify the asset management project file
Exit and Restart Inventor. This step is removes the library from memory. After restarting Inventor, the project should resemble the following image:
Edit the project file.
Right-click the Appearance Libraries node and click Add Library.
Navigate to and select InventorMaterialLibrary_v1.0.adsklib.
Right-click the library node and click Active Library.
Save the project changes.
Modify the asset library content
In the Material Browser, confirm InventorMaterialLibrary_v1.0is the active library.
Modify materials and appearances according to your requirements.
Update working material and appearance libraries
Customize the following description to work with your corporate policies and procedures.
Important: If, when switching between project files, one of the libraries displays an error , exit and restart Inventor to resolve the library access issue.
You can create custom libraries and copy materials and appearances into them to develop a library for your specialized purposes. Materials and appearances can be placed into the same library.
A locked material library is protected from having materials modified, added, or deleted from its contents. If you create a standard material library for use by several members of a project team, you can lock the library to prevent unwanted changes.
The method for locking a material library uses the Windows feature for creating a read-only file. In order to lock a material library, you must find the library file in the directory structure of your computer. The path to a library shows in a tooltip when you move the cursor over the library name in the Material Browser. All material library file names have the extension .adsklib.
If the library you locked is displayed in the Material Browser library list, prior to locking it, the lock icon may not appear beside the library name until you remove that library from the list and then open it again. You can do both operations with the browser toolbar menu.
Add a new library to a project
After creating a custom material or appearance library you can make it readily accessible by adding it to the project file definition.
The custom library appears in the available library lists throughout the application.
Remove a library from the project
If you do not want a particular material or appearance library to be displayed in the available libraries lists, you must remove it from the project definition. Use the following steps:
The library no longer appears in the available library lists throughout the application. If the removed library was also the active library, the library appearing in the list immediately above the one removed inherits the active status.
Restore System Default libraries
Depending on your circumstances you may have removed one or more of the material or appearance libraries installed with the product or suite. You can easily repopulate the project material libraries without having to navigate to or locate the installed libraries. All you need do is use Restore System Default.
Set Project Default Active Libraries
The default active libraries initially populates all library access controls and lists. You specify the project default active libraries in the Project editor.
The Material Styles Migration dialog box provides the means to migrate your custom material and color styles to the latest versions of materials and appearances.
Material Style Migration Dialog Box