If on, lets you define the size, in master units, of the sample object in the material preview window.

If off, the system selects an element size that is suitable for maps associated with the material.

• Visible Edge
• Filled Visible Edge
• Shaded
• Vue
• Vue PathTrace

• Draft — Renders the preview with the specified number of samples and the quality settings in the selected rendering setup.
• Final — Renders the preview at the nearly same quality as your final image (albeit at a lower resolution).

The system looks for a saved view, first with the palette name suffix, and then without. Examples for a palette are contained in saved views with names in the form of $preview$paletteName$exampleName.

If example, if Name is omitted, it appears in the example list as "Example." For a palette named "Woods,"” all the following syntaxes are equivalent, and would appear as "Example."

• $preview$Woods
• $preview$Woods$
• $preview$Woods$Example

To use multiple examples for a palette, any example after the first requires a unique number. For example:

• $preview$Woods$Block
• $preview$Woods$1Bench
• $preview$Woods$2Door

To provide examples that would be used for all palettes, omit the palette name. For example:

• $preview$$100Torus
• $preview$$101Window

This lets you create examples specific to the palette content. For example, the Curtains palette can display the curtain material as curtains on a sample window.

Sample saved views should each point to a unique model within the DGNLib. Within this model, any geometry that you want to display with the preview material should have the material "preview" attached. When the example is displayed as a preview, the geometry with other materials will be displayed "as is" and geometry with "preview" attached will be displayed with the currently selected material.

• Example — If not defined by a palette name, the Example display option uses the solids model widget3, which is useful for creating a wide variety of materials. Uses the saved view $preview$.
• B-Widget — Material displays on a widget with the Bentley logo cut into a sphere. Uses the saved view $preview$$0B-Widget.
• Block — Material displays on a solid model of a cut block and is useful for creating a variety of materials especially stone, brick, and concrete materials. Uses the saved view $preview$$01Block.
• Car — Material displays on a car’s body and is useful for testing automotive paints. Uses the saved view $preview$$02Car.
• Chair — Material displays on a chair model and is previewed on the cushions. It is useful for creating fabric materials. Uses the saved view $preview$$03Chair.
• Cube — Material displays on a cube solid, which is useful for a variety of non specular materials. Uses the saved view $preview$$04Cube.
• Curtains — Material displays on window curtains, which is useful for a drapes, curtains and fabric materials. Uses the saved view $preview$$05Curtains.
• Cut — Material displays on a cut solid with volume clipping and is useful for creating Cut Materials. Uses the saved view $preview$$06Cut.
• Cylinder — Material displays on a cylindrical solid, which is useful for a variety of materials. Uses the saved view $preview$$07Cylinder.
• Doors — Material displays on a polygon in a scene where the polygon used represents a door. It is useful for creating door materials based on textures. Uses the saved view $preview$$08Doors.
• Floor — Material displays on a polygon in a scene where the polygon represents the floor. It is useful for defining various flooring materials like wood, tile or carpet. Uses the saved view $preview$$09Floor.
• Glass — Material displays on a model of a glass trophy and is useful for creating transparent, reflective and refractive materials. Uses the saved view $preview$$10Glass.
• Glass Window — Material displays on a polygon in a scene where the polygon represents windows in the corner of a building. It is useful for defining various building glass materials. Uses the saved view $preview$$11Glass Window.
• Glow Bulb — Material displays on a model of a light bulb and is useful for defining luminous "glowing" materials. Uses the saved view $preview$$12Glow Bulb.
• Lamp — Material displays on a model of a lamp shade and is useful for defining lamp shade materials. Uses the saved view $preview$$13Lamp.
• Modo Thing — Material displays on a model that is an imitation of modo’s material widget and is useful for defining a wide variety of materials. Uses the saved view $preview$$14Modo Thing.
• Park Terrain — Material displays on a B-spline surface with a park bench for scale and is useful for defining grass, dirt and other terrain covering materials. Uses the saved view $preview$$15Park Terrain.
• Rectangle — Material displays on a rectangular surface and is useful for creating texture based material. Uses the saved view $preview$$16Rectangle.
• Sidewalk — Material displays on a polygon in a scene where the polygon represents a small area of concrete with a fire hydrant for scale. It is useful for defining various materials like concrete, pavers and also fur-based grass. Uses the saved view $preview$$17Sidewalk.
• Sphere — Material displays on a spherical solid and is useful for creating a wide variety of materials especially reflective, refractive and specular materials. Uses the saved view $preview$$18Sphere.
• Teapot — Material displays on a model of a teapot and is useful for creating a wide variety of materials. Uses the saved view $preview$$19Teapot.
• Wall — Material displays on polygons that form walls in a scene with a chair added for scale. It is useful for creating a variety of materials such as paints, stucco, brick, stone, etc. Uses the saved view $preview$$20Wall.
• Water – Ocean — Material displays on a solid that represents the ocean with a sandy beach and is useful for creating reflective and refractive water materials. Uses the saved view $preview$$21Water-Ocean.
• Water – Pond — Material displays on a solid that represents water in a pond with a dock for scale and is useful for creating reflective and refractive water materials. Uses the saved view $preview$$22Water-Pond.
• Water – Pool — Material displays on a solid that represents water in a swimming pool and is useful for creating reflective and refractive water materials. Uses the saved view $preview$$23Water-Pool.
• Widget — Material displays on the solids model widget3 and is useful for creating a wide variety of materials (this is also the default Example when a palette name is not defined). Uses the saved view $preview$$24Widget.
• Windows — Material displays on polygons in a scene where the polygons represent windows in the corner of a building and is useful for defining texture based window materials. Uses the saved view $preview$$25Windows.

• Automatic — Preview display updates automatically after each adjustment is made to a material.
• Manual — Preview display updates only when you click the preview window. This lets you make a number of changes to a material, without having to wait for the preview to update after each individual adjustment.

When you edit a material, a new preview image showing the current material is rendered and saved. This representation is stored within the DGN file for local materials and in a .PAL_PREVIEWS file for external palettes.