Materials · Rhino

After installing D5 Lite, six D5 material templates are added to the material type dropdown in Rhino's material editor: D5 General, D5 Glass, D5 Metal, D5 Emissive, D5 Water, and D5 Grass. After selecting a D5 template, the panel shows only that template's supported D5 material parameters — edit directly in the Rhino panel. The D5 templates are available as soon as the plugin is installed, without opening the Lite render viewport first; once Lite is open, changes are reflected in the render in real time.

Editing

In Rhino's material editor, switch the material type to a D5 template to see only that template's supported D5 parameters. When switching between D5 templates, parameters and maps with the same name or a known mapping are inherited automatically; parameters unique to the new template use default values. Changes to D5 parameters write back to Rhino's material properties, and adjusting material parameters in Rhino also syncs to Lite in real time — the two are bidirectionally linked. All D5 material data is saved with the .3dm file; reopening the file lets Lite read it directly.Rhino's native material types (such as Glass, Metal, Emission, etc.) are still available, and Lite reads their parameters and renders the corresponding result. Using D5 templates provides fuller control over D5 material parameters. D5 templates in Rhino do not provide separate UV controls; texture UV follows Rhino's material settings.

Material Templates

Template	Best for	Main parameters
General	Most non-metallic materials such as stone, wood, paint, ceramic	Color, maps, Normal, Specular, Roughness
Glass	Plain glass, curtain-wall glass, frosted glass	Opacity, refraction, roughness, Metal Coating
Metal	Metal panels, stainless steel, aluminum, copper	Color, Normal, Roughness
Emissive	Light strips, light boxes, LED and other glowing surfaces	Emission intensity, color temperature
Water	Pools, landscape water	Color, depth, Normal, Specular
Grass	Lawns, ground cover	Density, height

Lite automatically matches 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

When a material has several characteristics at once, Lite picks the most suitable result based on the type and parameters. A common priority is: glass over emissive, emissive over metal, otherwise treated as general.

Sync to D5 Render

Rhino materials can move into D5 Render via Live Sync. Parameters Lite can show are synced as the corresponding result; some more complete Rhino / D5 Render parameters can be preserved or further developed after syncing.