These pages contain information describing the various components which make up the plugin, and how they are used to build and render scenes.
| Page | Description |
|---|---|
| Menu & Toolbar | Discusses the plugin's menu and toolbars. |
| Scene Manager | Discusses the use of the plugin's main interface, the Scene Manager, and six tab pages it contains: |
| Material Editor | Discusses how to use the plugin's Material Editor window. |
| Database Manager | Discusses the purpose and usage of the plugin's Database Manager window |
| Maxwell Fire | Discusses how to use Maxwell Fire in the plugin. |
| Object Properties | Discusses the operation of the Maxwell page in Rhino's Object Properties window. |
Controls
The plugin provides several custom controls which are designed to provide for convenient usage.
Material Layers Tree
Materials are built from Layer, BSDF, Coating, Emitter, and Displacement components. Adding and removing of these components is accomplished by right-clicking the appropriate parent component and choosing from the options presented in the context-menu. It is possible to drag Texture and Colors between different layers by dragging them over the desired layer. When this is done, the layer currently under the mouse will be shown in the editor panel. Layers may also be renamed in the material Layers tree directly by clicking the layer name, followed by a short pause.
It is possible to re-order the structure using drag/drop; by default the component will be moved to the new location, or if CTRL is held down, a copy will be made.
Additionally, individual components may be dragged back and forth from the Layers tree to the various pages in the Database Manager. In this way, it is possible to build new materials from previously-saved components. Components stored in the Database Manager may be edited in the Material Editor by double-clicking them in the Database Manager; the current material (if any) will be unloaded and the chosen component will be loaded.
Texture Control
The Texture control consists of a Texture button and related checkbox. The checkbox enables or disables its associated Texture. Left-clicking the Texture button causes the associated Texture to become the material's 'Selected Texture'. It is this Texture that will be shown in the Texture Editor, as well as in the Viewport. Right-clicking a Texture button toggles the visibility of the Texture Editor, which is located on the right side of the Material Editor. Double-clicking (using the left mouse-button) a texture button will cause a file-browser to be shown which may be used to set the texture’s path directly.
Color Button
Clicking a Color button brings up the Color Picker. Colors may also be dragged from one button to another, and between layers using the method described under the material Layers Tree topic. Colors may also be picked from anywhere on the screen by holding RMB down on the desired Color button, and dragging elsewhere. The cursor will then become a color eyedropper, and a tooltip will be shown detailing the RGB values currently under the cursor.
Spinbox
The spinbox allows a few different ways of adjusting its value. Besides standard keyboard input, it is also possible to adjust the value by moving the mouse up or down while holding down the left mouse button. The value may also be incremented using the small +/- buttons at the right of the textbox.
Color Picker
The plugin provides a custom color-picker. Colors may be added to the presets panel by drag-drop from the 'Current Color' and 'Starting Color' panels. As a small shortcut, right-clicking any color-picking surface is equivalent to clicking OK.
The plugin allows you to choose whether to use this custom color picker, the standard Windows color picker, or the modeling application’s custom color picker, if it offers one. If you use either the plugin’s custom color picker, or the Windows color picker, the color presets will be available; if you use the application’s color picker, they will not. As technical issues have been observed in some rare cases, the plugin default is to use the Windows color picker; to use one of the others use Scene Manager > Options > User Interface > Color Picker.
Customization
All of the colors used in the interface are customizable. At Scene Manager > Options > User Interface > UI Preferences, you will find many parameters which may be customized. Changes made here will persist from session to session, and may be saved or loaded from an .xml file using the Save/Load UI Colors File buttons, located in the Options page toolbar:
The plugin installs several pre-made themes, which will be shown when the Load UI Colors File button is clicked.