Materials · Rhino

Use the D5 material templates in Rhino's material editor to control how your model's surfaces look in Lite. After installing D5 Lite, you can choose from the seven templates listed below without opening the Lite render viewport first.

Editing

1. In Rhino's material editor, select a material and change its material type to the D5 template you want to use.
2. Adjust the parameters shown in the editor, then open the Lite render viewport to check the result.
3. Save the Rhino project to keep the material data in the .3dm file.

When you switch D5 templates, Lite carries over parameters and maps it can match. Settings unique to the new template use their defaults.

Rhino's native material types, such as Glass, Metal, and Emission, remain available. Lite reads their parameters to render the materials. D5 templates give you access to more D5 material parameters.

D5 templates in Rhino do not provide separate UV controls. Texture coordinates follow Rhino's material settings.

Material templates

Template	Best for	Main parameters
General	Most non-metallic materials, such as stone, wood, paint, and ceramic	Color, maps, Normal, Specular, Roughness
Glass	Plain glass, curtain-wall glass, frosted glass	Opacity, index of refraction (IOR), roughness, Metal Coating
Sheer	Curtains, sheer fabric, and other semi-transparent textiles	Base Color, Normal, Opacity, Thickness
Metal	Metal panels, stainless steel, aluminum, copper	Color, Normal, Roughness
Emissive	Light strips, light boxes, LED and other glowing surfaces	Intensity, color temperature
Water	Pools, landscape water	Color, depth, Normal, Specular
Grass	Lawns, ground cover	Density, height

For D5 Sheer, specular is fixed at 0 and roughness at 0.5. Neither control is available in the Rhino material editor. You can adjust Base Color, Normal, Opacity, and Thickness.

Lite automatically selects a suitable template based on the material. You can also switch templates manually to adjust the result.

Material template mapping

Rhino material type	Lite render result
Glass / Gem	Glass
Metal	Metal
Emission	Emissive
Paint / Plastic / Plaster / Picture / Custom	General

Sync to D5 Render

Connect Rhino to D5 Render to sync materials with the model. Check the synced materials in D5 Render and adjust them as needed.