Overview#
Fusion separates two ideas that beginners often merge: how a part looks and what a part is made of.
- An appearance is purely visual. It defines color, reflectivity, roughness, transparency, bump and similar properties. Appearances drive the canvas display and every render.
- A physical material defines engineering properties such as density, Young's modulus, yield strength, thermal conductivity and so on. Physical materials drive mass and center of gravity calculations (Inspect > Properties), simulation, and manufacturing estimates.
Every physical material carries a default appearance, so assigning "Aluminum 6061" also makes the part look like aluminum. The reverse is not true: applying an appearance never changes mass or strength. A part can legitimately be made of steel (physical) and look like red powder-coated paint (appearance). That separation is the key to realistic renders of real engineering models.
You can apply either at the body, component, or face level, and the level you choose determines how override priority works (see Tips).
Where to find it#
- Appearance dialog: Design > Modify > Appearance in the Design workspace, or Setup > Appearance in the Render workspace. (An A keyboard shortcut is not confirmed in Autodesk's documentation.)
- Physical Material dialog: Design > Modify > Physical Material (Design workspace).
- In This Design: the Appearance dialog lists the appearances used in the active design, and you can pick from library lists.
- Appearance types: Autodesk lists five: Opaque, Transparent, Metal, Layered and Wood (Solid). Each has its own properties.
Step by step#
Apply an appearance#
- In the Render workspace choose Setup > Appearance.
- Choose whether you are applying to Bodies/Components or to individual Faces.
- Pick an appearance from the In This Design list or from a library.
- Drag and drop it on a face, body or component (or onto the item in the Browser).
- Click Close. To remove one, right-click it and choose Unassign and Delete.
Edit an appearance#
- Open the appearance dialog.
- In In This Design, double-click the appearance, or right-click it and choose Edit.
- Change the properties, which depend on the appearance type. Click Advanced, if available, to open the Material Editor; click a texture to open the Texture Editor. Edits affect only the current document.
- Click Apply to keep editing or OK to close the Material Editor, then Done. Duplicate first if you want a variant.
Apply a physical material#
- Select the component or body in the Browser.
- Choose Design > Modify > Physical Material.
- Drag a material (for example steel or aluminum) onto the component.
- Check the Properties panel (Inspect > Properties) to confirm the mass has changed.
Make a custom appearance#
- In the appearance dialog, right-click an existing swatch in the document list and choose Duplicate.
- Edit the duplicate and rename it with a meaningful name ("Housing - Satin Black").
- Optionally right-click it and choose Add to Favorites.
Options reference#
The editable properties depend on the appearance type. Autodesk does not list property names; the rows below are general descriptions and names vary by type.
| Option | What it does | Notes/default |
|---|---|---|
| Color | Base diffuse color, or image if a texture is used | Pure white or pure black are rarely realistic |
| Image / Texture map | Replaces the flat color with a bitmap | Use Texture Map Controls to scale and rotate |
| Roughness | Blurs reflections; 0 is mirror, 1 is matte | The most influential realism control |
| Reflectance / Metalness style slider | How strongly the surface reflects the environment | Metals reflect strongly, plastic modestly |
| Transparency / Opacity | Light passing through; used for glass and plastics | Also exposes Refraction index and tint |
| Refraction index | Bending of light through transparent material | Glass about 1.5, water about 1.33 |
| Bump / Relief pattern | Fake surface detail from a grayscale image | Does not change geometry |
| Emissive | Surface emits light; the help mentions an emissivity checkbox in the Material Editor | Units not stated |
| Anisotropy | Brushed-metal stretched highlights | Not confirmed in the help; check the Metal type |
| Scale and rotation (texture controls) | Tile size, angle and offset of the texture | Set via Texture Map Controls |
Tips and pitfalls#
Tip: Name appearances. The default names (Paint - Enamel Glossy (Red)) are fine at first but a design with 40 swatches becomes unmanageable fast.
Tip: Apply the appearance at the component level when you plan to reuse the component. Applying at the face level creates overrides that must be removed individually.
Warning: Autodesk says appearances can be applied to components, bodies and faces; the more specific level usually wins (general guidance, not stated in the help). If a body inexplicably will not change color, a face-level or body-level override is hiding the component-level appearance. Reapply the intended appearance, or right-click the unwanted one and choose Unassign and Delete.
Warning: Do not assume a library appearance with a metal name is a metal for simulation. Only the physical material influences analysis.
Tip: Appearances override the color assigned by the physical material without affecting engineering properties, so assign the physical material first and override only the look.
Tip: General guidance: large image textures increase file size, so compress them first.
Note: Autodesk states cloud rendering requires tokens depending on the settings you choose (see the cloud versus local render page). Personal-use differences are not confirmed in Autodesk's documentation.
Additional behaviours worth knowing:
- Glass: set Transparency and Refraction, and give the body real thickness. A zero-thickness surface renders as a single sheet and looks wrong. Model glass with a solid body.
- Transparent bodies often make in-canvas rendering slower because rays must scatter more times.
Worked example: mass versus look#
Take the practice box (80 x 50 x 30 mm, 3 mm fillets). Its volume is slightly under 120,000 mm3, because the fillets remove material: 80 x 50 x 30 = 120,000 mm3 minus a few hundred mm3 for the twelve rounded edges, so roughly 119.7 cm3. With a density of about 2.7 g/cm3 for aluminum 6061, the mass should read close to 323 g in Inspect > Properties. Swap the physical material to a steel at about 7.85 g/cm3 and the mass jumps to roughly 940 g without any change to the picture on screen. Swap only the appearance from satin metal to red paint and the mass stays where it was. Running this check once is the quickest way to internalize the split between the two systems, and the mass figure is also a sanity check that the material you dragged on really is the one you intended.
Choosing roughness and color by number#
Roughness is the control that most changes believability. These starting values work for common products; treat them as starting points and judge in the live preview.
| Surface | Roughness | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Polished chrome or mirror | 0.0 to 0.05 | Needs a detailed environment to reflect |
| Anodized or satin aluminum | 0.25 to 0.4 | Add anisotropy only for brushed finishes |
| Injection-molded plastic (light texture) | 0.3 to 0.5 | Keep bump subtle |
| Matte powder coat | 0.6 to 0.8 | Choose a slightly lighter color than you expect, because matte surfaces scatter light |
| Rubber or silicone | 0.7 to 0.9 | Avoid pure black; use a very dark grey |
For color, avoid the extremes of the picker. A "white" plastic at 235 to 245 per channel and a "black" plastic at 20 to 35 render far more naturally than 255 and 0, because real surfaces always absorb and reflect part of the environment.
Common failure modes and fixes#
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Color changes on one face only | A face-level override exists | Select the face and reapply the intended appearance, or clear the override |
| Edited swatch changed unrelated parts | Several bodies shared one swatch | Duplicate the swatch before editing |
| Part looks right in Design but wrong in renders | You edited a swatch that is not the one in use, or a body override masks the component | Check the In this design list and reapply to the body |
| Glass renders as an opaque grey slab | Transparency not enabled, or the body is a single surface | Use a solid body with thickness and a refraction index near 1.5 |
| Mass unchanged after dragging a material | You dragged an appearance, not a physical material | Use Modify > Physical Material |
| Library appearance missing | Wrong library selected | Check the library list |
Workflow advice for assemblies#
Assign physical materials first, then appearances. Physical material assignment is part of the engineering definition and is needed for mass, simulation and manufacturing, whereas appearances are presentation and can be changed at the end without consequences. When you want a render with a different finish (a trade-show model in gloss red while engineering stays nylon), keep the physical material and override only the appearance, or save a duplicate design for rendering so the engineering model stays clean.
Standardize a small set of swatches for a product family: perhaps five appearances named by use ("Housing - Satin Black", "Trim - Brushed Steel", "Lens - Clear", "Button - Soft Grey", "Label - White"). Reusing the same five across the whole assembly makes edits global: change "Housing - Satin Black" once and every housing updates. A design with 40 near-duplicate swatches means 40 edits.
Finally, audit before rendering: open the appearance dialog, look at the In this design list, and delete swatches that nothing uses. This keeps files lean and removes the temptation to apply the wrong near-identical swatch.
Practice exercise#
- Create a box 80 x 50 x 30 mm and fillet all edges 3 mm. Convert the body to a component named "Housing".
- Assign the physical material Aluminum 6061. Record the mass from Inspect > Properties. It should be near 323 g; if it is not, check the units and fillet size.
- Apply a glossy enamel paint appearance to the whole body. Confirm the mass has not changed.
- Duplicate the appearance, name it "Housing - Matte Navy", set the color to roughly R 25, G 35, B 70 and roughness to 0.7, and apply it to the top face only.
- Change the physical material to a steel. Record the new mass (expect close to three times the aluminum value) and confirm the navy top face is unchanged.
- Add a 3 mm thick plate as a second body, apply a clear glass appearance with a refraction index of 1.5, and view it in In-Canvas Render. Then replace it with a zero-thickness surface and note what goes wrong.
- Expected result: two mass readings that differ by the density ratio, a navy top face over a glossy body, and clear evidence that a surface cannot stand in for a glass solid.
Related#
- Decals and Textures
- Scene Settings and Environment
- Tips for Photoreal Output