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The five main areas of the material editor are:
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1. Layers Tree
Maxwell Render's materials are made up of different "components" which are organized into folders (Layers). A folder can hold one Coating, one Emitter, one Displacement components, and one or more BSDF components (BSDF are the main material definition).
Each folder in the material editor represents a Layer, which are stacked vertically one on top of the other, similar to layers in a 2D image editing application. Please see the Stacking Layers section for more information about this.
2. Material Preview
This window allows you to get a quick preview of the material while you are editing it. When you are changing your material parameters, double-click in the preview sample image to refresh the preview with the new parameters, or click on the Refresh Preview button (green double-arrow icon), and Maxwell Render will compute a preview of your material. During the preview, the green icon will be replaced by a red square icon, to indicate that it is calculating your preview.
3. BSDF Properties
BSDF stands for Bidirectional Scattering Distribution Function, which is the usual abbreviation in computer graphics for the main surface definition. It contains the parameters to control the main optical properties for each material component (BSDF, coatings, etc).
4. Surface Properties
Parameters to control the surface properties of a material.The material components section also contains various buttons to control the aspect of the material and material editor.
5. Subsurface Properties
Parameters to control the subsurface scattering (SSS) properties of a translucent material.
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