Procedural Wood
VIZid's Wood material generates grain, anatomy and surface treatment entirely from physical parameters — no texture maps required. Every board, veneer stack or turned blank is built from a virtual log, so you can dial in a species, a sawmill pattern and a finish and immediately see oak quarter-sawn with a French polish, or pine through-and-through with resin and saw marks, without baking or UV-unwrapping the object first.
When to use it
Use the Wood material whenever you need:
- Joinery, furniture or flooring where grain direction and scale must match the part's actual dimensions.
- Plywood or veneered panels where you want to see the layered edge, matching patterns and manufacturing details alongside the finished face.
- Turned or end-grain objects such as bowls, cutting boards and architectural details, where the rings would run differently from a flat sawn face.
- Assembly matching — use the same Seed and Log across separate materials to choose different boards from one tree. Parts sharing one material also share its Board and Part settings.
Accessing the Wood material
Wood is in the Basic group of the material Type picker.
- Select the object or face you want to apply Wood to.
- Open View ▸ Material. (If the entry is greyed out, choose View ▸ Unlock Advanced UI first.)
- On the Surface tab, open Type ▸ Basic ▸ Wood. The picker shows all material types grouped by family.
- The current material becomes Wood. Every part that shares this material changes too. To change one part only, first select that part and click Single-user in the Node Graph panel (View ▸ Node Graph) toolbar (available while the material is shared).
To assign Wood to an existing material, open the Type picker again and choose Wood from the Basic group. To apply the current material to the whole selection instead of one face, click Apply to the selected parts/faces in the identity band.
To reuse a Wood material across multiple objects (so they share one log and one treatment batch), assign the same material from the library or eyedrop it from one object to another.
The tier selector
After the Species, Cut and Finish rows, the Wood block shows a Simple / Detailed / Expert tab bar. Changing the tier is saved with the material (one undoable step).
| Tab | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Simple | Seed, Wood Scale, Real-world Scale, Wear, Age, Wood Bump, Coat Bump, Mesh spacing, Fibre highlight, Real surface depth and the available depth sub-switches. Start here. |
| Detailed | Everything a furniture or flooring designer would name: species preset, cut pattern, board and layout dimensions, anatomy essentials, finish, colour, and Detail While Moving. |
| Expert | Every parameter the renderer takes, including placement overrides, full anatomy, advanced tree geometry and machining detail. |
Species, Cut and Finish stay visible on every tab. Switching tiers never resets values. You can tune a finish in Simple, switch to Detailed to adjust the knot density, and return to Simple — your finish remains.
The row below the tier bar contains two quick-action buttons, right-aligned, each with an icon and text:
- New log — picks a random new log of the same species (fresh ring history, knots and colour variation; the cut and finish settings stay). Each press is one undo step.
- Next board — advances to the next board from the same log (the ring angle and figure shift; the log itself stays). Each press is one undo step.
Presets
Three preset rows sit above the parameter sections.
Species — A grouped picker covering 22 species. Choosing a species resets the tree anatomy, colour, figure tendency and tissue physics to that species' measured values. Editing any anatomical or colour control after choosing a preset changes the picker to Custom. A hand-edited cut shows Custom (hand-placed); a species or finish-driven custom shows Custom (from <preset>), or plain Custom if chosen directly. Species tooltips carry per-species notes.
The picker displays group headers in the order they appear in the list (each header shown once as it changes, in source order):
| Picker header | Species |
|---|---|
| Hardwood, ring-porous | European / white oak, Red oak, Ash |
| Hardwood, semi-ring-porous | Black walnut |
| Hardwood, diffuse-porous | Black cherry, Hard maple, Beech, Birch, Mahogany (genuine), Sapele |
| Hardwood, ring-porous (weak) | Teak |
| Hardwood, diffuse-porous | Wenge |
| Softwood, abrupt latewood | Scots pine, Southern yellow pine, Douglas fir |
| Softwood, gradual latewood | Spruce / white pine |
| Softwood, abrupt latewood | Larch |
| Softwood, gradual latewood | Western red cedar, Yew |
| Hardwood, diffuse-porous | Ebony (Gaboon), Zebrano |
| Grass | Bamboo (Moso) |
Cut — Sets the sawmill pattern and grain geometry. Options are: Auto, Flat-sawn, Rift-sawn, Quarter-sawn, Live-sawn, End grain. Changing any Placement sawmill or override control switches the picker to Custom.
Finish — A complete finish recipe: film build, refractive index, roughness, pore fill. The available presets are: Bare, planed · Bare, rough-sawn · Boiled linseed / tung oil · Danish / hardwax oil · Paste wax · Shellac · Nitrocellulose lacquer · Water-based polyurethane · Oil-based polyurethane · Conversion varnish / 2K · French polish · Weathered grey. Editing any Finish control switches the picker to Custom (shown as "Custom (from …)").
Placement section
Placement controls where a virtual board or turned blank sits inside its log, how physical wood scale relates to scene units, and — for flooring and wall panelling — how individual board pieces are arranged.
Wood Scale — Coordinate multiplier that scales the entire wood pattern. At 1, the ring widths and pore sizes use the physical millimetre values you set. A larger value stretches the grain finer; a smaller value makes it coarser. With Real-world Scale on, this is an artistic multiplier. With it off, it is millimetres per local object unit.
Real-world Scale — When on (the default for new materials), grain features keep their physical millimetre size when the object is scaled in the scene. A 200 mm table top stays oak at 2 mm rings whether you scale the model up or down. When off, the wood stretches and compresses with the object, as in older procedural workflows. Old documents load with this off.
Seed — The master random seed for the virtual log and the board draw. Same seed, same wood. Change it to get a different piece from the same species and sawmill pattern.
Mode — How the object intersects the log:
- Solid board — a sawn board placed in the log. The ring angle reflects the sawmill pattern and the board's position in the log.
- Turned blank — the object's local Z becomes the lathe axis. Use for bowls, spindles and round parts.
- End grain — the face normal runs along the fibres. Use for cutting boards, butcher block and cross-section views.
- Plywood / veneer stack — the object shows the layered ply structure on all cut faces and the veneer face on the outer surface. See the Panel Stack section below.
Sawmill Pattern (Detailed, Solid board and End grain modes) — How the log was broken down: Through and through, Cant sawn, Quarter sawn, Rift sawn, Grade sawn, or Plain sawn around. The board's ring angle and the amount of ray fleck visible on the face emerge naturally from where the board sits in the log relative to the pith.
Board Thickness (Detailed, Solid board) — Sawn thickness of the board in millimetres. This affects where the rings run across a sawn face and how much latewood is visible on the end.
Board Width (Detailed, Solid board, no layout) — Sawn width of the board.
Grain Axis (Detailed, single-timber modes) — Which local axis the grain runs along. Auto (longest side) follows the object's longest bounding-box side at compile time.
Blank Offset and Blank Rotation (Detailed, Turned blank) — Offset of the lathe axis from the pith, and rotation of the blank around that axis.
Board / Log / Part (Expert) — Integer identifiers that step through different boards from the same log, or different parts of the same board. Useful for assemblies where you need the look of matching timber: keep the same Log number and increment Board to simulate consecutive boards from the same tree.
Expert placement controls
Part Length sets length along the grain axis; 0 reads it from the object's bounding box. For matching timber, keep Seed and Log the same across separate materials, then vary Board or Part.
With a Custom cut, Override Mask enables individual placement overrides. Its eight bits correspond to Offset from Pith, Depth, Lateral, Along, Grain Slope, Twist, Flip face and Flip end. Set a bit to use that row's value instead of the generated placement.
Board layout (Detailed) (flooring and panelling)
When Mode is Solid board or End grain, a Board Layout picker offers a tile pattern. Choosing any pattern other than None arranges the grain as independent interlocked boards, each with its own piece from the log.
The picker labels are none, straight, random, herringbone, double herringbone, chevron 45, chevron 60, basket 2, basket 3, mosaic, end square, end hex and versailles.
Layout Normal Axis — The axis perpendicular to the floor, wall or surface face the boards lie on.
Board Width (layout) — Physical width of each board across the grain, in millimetres. End-grain hex patterns use the distance across flats.
Board Length (straight, random, herringbone, chevron patterns) — Nominal board length. Herringbone rounds to whole-width units; double herringbone uses two-width units.
Row Stagger (straight pattern) — How far consecutive rows advance by a fraction of board length.
Length Variation and Minimum Stagger (random pattern) — Vary course lengths and joint positions while maintaining a minimum stagger between adjacent joints.
Layout Rotation — Rotate the complete tile pattern and the grain direction of its boards together.
Layout Offset U / V — Shift the layout origin along the surface axes in millimetres. Use to centre or reposition the pattern on an object.
Joint Gap — Width of the recessed joint between boards, in millimetres. Zero removes the gap while keeping an optional bevel.
Bevel Width and Bevel Depth — Width and relief depth of the eased shoulder on each board edge.
Board Tone Variation — Independent board brightness variation before stain and finish. Gives floors the subtle variation you see between individual boards from the same batch.
Parquet Panel Size and Frame Width (Versailles pattern) — Overall size of a complete Versailles frame and the width of its mitred border strips.
Layout Seed — New stock and random joint arrangement without changing the species, finish or Seed.
Board Width (layout) is hidden for the versailles pattern. The board override rows are not shown for turned blanks or plywood.
Panel Stack section
(Detailed and Expert, Mode = Plywood / veneer stack)
The Panel Stack section controls the manufactured layered construction visible on cut edges and the face of the panel.
Panel preset applies a stack: Birch · 18 mm · clean edge, Softwood · 18 mm · rough sawn edge, Thin birch · 3 mm, Bending birch · 6 mm or Oak faces / birch core · 18 mm. It shows Custom stack after an edit. A preset sets the stack, timber and machining, and keeps your finish, placement, band levels and surface-depth choice.
Ply thicknesses (switch): on lists Ply 1…N thickness fields, and hides Panel Thickness, Ply Thickness and Face Veneer Thickness.
Ply materials (switch): on adds Ply N species (Use main species, any species, Custom wood settings) and Ply N cut (Use stack cut, Rotary peeled, Sliced veneer, Custom cut) for each ply. The outer plies are labelled with their face, for example Ply 1 · −Z face.
A line below reads Total: … mm · N plies + N−1 glue lines.
Light Band Level and Dark Band Level on the Detailed tab adjust the brightness of side-grain and end-grain veneer bands. Their range is 0–4; 1 preserves the species colour. Cut Distance From Pith on the Expert tab sets the veneer cut's distance from the log centre (10–1000 mm).
Face configuration
Face Surface — Whether the outer face shows the wood veneer or a painted and textured coating. Set to Paint / texture to use colour and texture channels for MDF, laminate or painted plywood.
When Face Surface is Paint / texture:
- Coated Faces — Which outer faces along the Thickness Axis carry the coating: Positive face, Negative face, or Both faces. The cut edges always show the layered wood.
- Face Colour — Opaque paint or primer colour. This multiplies the Diffuse texture map if one is assigned in the Textures tab.
- Face Roughness — Surface roughness of the coating.
- Face Specular — Reflection level of the coated face.
- Wood Grain Through Paint — How much of the wood's micro-normal shows through the paint. 0 gives a smooth shading; a Bump or Normal map in the Textures tab adds independent texture on top.
Stack geometry
Ply Count — Number of wood layers, not counting glue lines. Standard plywood normally uses an odd count.
Panel Thickness — Total stack thickness including glue, in millimetres. Available when Ply Thickness is set to zero (fit-to-total mode).
Ply Thickness — Set a common veneer thickness. Zero fits the plies into Panel Thickness; a positive value determines the total from the count plus glue lines.
Face Veneer Thickness (fit-to-total mode) — Thickness of the outer veneers when dividing total thickness. Zero uses equal plies; the remainder is divided among the core.
Glue-Line Thickness — Physical adhesive thickness between plies in millimetres.
Glue Colour — Adhesive colour visible on cut edges: pale interior glue or darker exterior resin.
Alternate Grain 90° — Cross-laminates adjacent plies. Turn off for parallel-grain bending plywood.
Thickness Axis — Which local axis runs through the stack. All faces of the object share one coordinate volume, so the cut edge and the face see the same rings.
Stack Centre — Position of the stack's centre on the thickness axis in millimetres. Match this to the model's local coordinate to place the plies correctly.
Face Grain Angle — Rotation of the face grain within the panel plane.
Veneer cut and matching
Veneer Cut — Rotary peeled unwraps a lathe-cut veneer; Sliced takes a flat slice through the log.
Veneer Matching (sliced veneers) — Arrange consecutive flitch slices: Continuous, Book matched, Slip matched, Reverse slip matched, Four-way book, Diamond, Reverse diamond, Box match, Sunburst.
Leaf Width (strip matching) — Physical width of each veneer leaf. The grain, knots and their repairs follow the same leaf through cut edges.
Leaf Layout Offset — Move the strip boundary or decorative pattern centre across the grain.
Leaf Glue Seam (Expert) — Width of the subtle joint between leaves.
Match Centre Along Grain (decorative matching) — Centre of the decorative match along the original ply grain direction.
Radial Leaf Count (Sunburst matching) — Number of radial pieces, rounded to even counts from 8 to 16 so the book sequence closes at every seam.
Thickness Variation — Random per-ply thickness variation as a fraction. 0.07 gives up to ±7% variation; total panel thickness stays fixed.
Layer Waviness — Slow, independent movement of glue lines across the sheet, in millimetres.
Panel Imperfections section
(Detailed, Mode = Plywood / veneer stack)
Core Gaps — Fraction of core strip joints with an opening. Face veneers stay intact.
Gap Width — Nominal width of irregular core gaps.
Core Strip Width — Average spacing of core veneer joints. Wider strips have fewer joints and fewer defects.
Core Overlaps — Fraction of joints where veneer overlaps, producing raised ridges on the cut edge.
Glue-Line Variation — Uneven adhesive thickness along each glue interface.
Glue Bleed — Irregular adhesive spreading into the veneer beside glue lines.
Torn Edge Fibres — Residual fibrous roughness of the cut edge, strongest on end grain.
Edge Breakout — Sparse wedge-shaped damage near the outer faces. Displacement adds visible silhouette chips when Real surface depth is on.
Chip Size — Nominal size of edge breakout chips.
Chipped Face — Which outer face along the thickness axis shows breakout: Positive, Negative or Both faces. Use the saw's exit face for one-sided breakout.
Lathe Checks (rotary-peeled veneers) — Fine grain-parallel cracks on the loose side of rotary-peeled veneer.
Defect Seed — Changes manufacturing defects without altering the wood grain, pores or repairs.
Veneer repairs
Repair Placement — At veneer knots places repairs at knots; Scattered repairs places them independently across the face.
Minimum Knot Size (knot placement) — Only knots with a short exposed diameter at least this wide are eligible for repair. Raise to leave smaller knots in the face.
Knots Repaired (knot placement) — Proportion of eligible knots replaced by sound veneer patches.
Face Repairs (scattered placement) — Average number of replacement patches per square metre of face. Zero leaves the original veneer unchanged.
Repaired Faces — Which outer faces carry repairs: Positive, Negative or Both.
Repair Shape — Mixed repairs (oval, boat-shaped and round), Oval veneer patches, Boat-shaped patches or Round plugs.
Repair Length — Nominal full length along the grain. Each piece varies ±20%.
Repair Width — Nominal full width, or diameter for round plugs.
Repair Irregularity — Small variations in the cut outline, glue width and contact.
Repair Glue Line — Width of the visible adhesive around each repair.
Repair Seam Depth — Shallow groove around the inserted piece. Displacement gives it visible geometry when displacement is on.
Repair Grain Mismatch — Maximum angle between the inserted grain and the surrounding veneer.
Repair Seed — Changes repair positions and insert grain without moving knots or the surrounding veneer.
Row dependencies
- Core Gaps and Core Overlaps need Ply Count above 2. Gap Width and Core Strip Width also need one of them above 0.
- Chip Size and Chipped Face need Edge Breakout above 0.
- Repaired Faces, Repair Shape, Repair Width, Repair Irregularity, Repair Glue Line, Repair Seam Depth, Repair Grain Mismatch and Repair Seed need Knots Repaired (knot placement) or Face Repairs (scattered) above 0. Repair Length is hidden for Round plugs.
- Leaf Layout Offset and Leaf Glue Seam need a Veneer Matching other than Continuous.
Tree section
(Detailed and Expert)
Tree controls define the physical anatomy of the virtual log. These are the inputs a wood scientist would describe for a species.
Species Class — The anatomical family that sets which structures are generated:
- Conifer, abrupt latewood — dark, sharp latewood bands; resin canals; no pores.
- Conifer, gradual latewood — softer latewood transition; resin canals; no pores.
- Ring-porous hardwood — large earlywood pores gated to the early ring; wide rays possible.
- Semi-ring-porous hardwood — pores taper gradually from earlywood to latewood.
- Diffuse-porous hardwood — small pores scattered evenly; common in maples and cherries.
Density — Air-dry density in kg/m³. Sets the lumen fraction, tissue optics and subsurface scattering radius. Examples within the control's range: oak 680, maple 630, pine 510.
Ring Width — Median growth-ring width in mm. Fast-grown pine 4–8 mm, mature oak 1–3 mm, yew under 1 mm. The realism check warns if a value is outside 0.3–12 mm.
Latewood Fraction — Share of each ring that is dense latewood: 0.6 for oak, 0.3 for pine, 0.08 (a thin line) for maple.
Heartwood Radius — Heartwood radius as a fraction of the log radius.
Knots — Branches per metre of trunk. Zero skips knot generation entirely.
Knot Size — Branch radius at the pith in mm. The realism check warns outside 3–60 mm.
Dead Knots — Fraction of branches that died before being enclosed by growth rings, producing bark-ringed loose knots.
Whorl Spacing (Expert, conifers with knots) — Conifers cluster their branches into whorls spaced this far apart. Hardwoods scatter branches without whorls.
Branch Growth (Expert) — How fast a knot widens with successive rings, in mm/year.
Latewood Sharpness (Expert) — Width of the earlywood-to-latewood transition. 0.06 for abrupt pine, 0.30 for gradual species.
Ring Variance and Ring Persistence (Expert) — Statistical variation and autocorrelation of ring widths year to year.
Juvenile Rings, Age Exponent (Expert) — Rings of juvenile wood before width settles, and how ring width narrows with tree age.
Ring Wobble and Wobble Wavelength (Expert) — Three-dimensional wobble of the ring surfaces.
False Rings (Expert) — Probability of a false (drought) ring per year.
Knot Size, Dead Knots, Branch Growth and Knot Darkening need Knots above 0.
Heartwood Transition (Expert) — Width of the sapwood-to-heartwood boundary in ring widths.
Log Radius (Expert) — Median log radius; actual draw is log-normal with σ 0.3.
Pith Wander, Eccentricity, Taper, Spiral Grain, Sweep, Height Growth (Expert) — Geometric irregularities of the virtual trunk.
Anatomy section
(Detailed and Expert)
Pore Diameter (hardwoods) — Vessel diameter in mm. Oak earlywood up to 0.3 mm; maple 0.05 mm. Zero removes vessels. The realism check warns above 0.5 mm.
Pore Spacing — Mean centre-to-centre spacing of the vessels in mm.
Pore Colour and Pore Colour Amount — Tint the cavity interiors. At 0, the natural species colour is kept; at 1, the chosen colour is fully applied.
Pore Rim Colour and Pore Rim Amount — Tint the fibrous pore walls.
Wide Ray Spacing and Wide Ray Width (hardwoods) — Spacing and width of the broad medullary rays, in mm. The quarter-sawn fleck on oak comes from these. Zero removes wide rays. The realism check warns above 1.2 mm width.
Wide Ray Height (Expert) — Height of the broad rays along the grain.
Fine Ray Spacing, Fine Ray Width, Fine Ray Height (Expert) — Dimensions of the fine rays every hardwood species has.
Ray Waver (Expert) — How much rays wander around the fibres.
Resin Canals (conifers) — Density (per mm² of latewood) of resin canals visible as pale dots in pine end grain. Resin Canal Diameter (Expert, when Resin Canals is above 0) — diameter of each canal.
Fibre Stretch and Tracheid Scale (Expert) — Cell anisotropy and size of the underlying cell noise.
Pore Spacing, the pore colour rows, Pore Softness and Ray Lightness are hardwood-only. Wide Ray Width / Wide Ray Height need Wide Ray Spacing above 0.
Figure section
(Detailed and Expert)
Figure — Fibre waviness type:
- None — straight grain
- Curly — fiddleback figure, transverse waves across the grain
- Quilted — puffy waves along the grain
- Bird's eye — small rounded dimples scattered over the face
- Interlocked (ribbon) — grain reverses direction at regular intervals, as in sapele
Figure Amplitude — How far fibres are displaced in mm. The realism check warns when amplitude exceeds 0.15 × wavelength, which tilts fibres past 10° and starts to look like surface waves rather than figure.
Figure Wavelength — Wavelength of the figure across the board in mm.
Figure Drift (Expert) — Phase drift of the figure stripes across the board.
Reversal Every (interlocked grain) — Number of rings per grain reversal. Sapele reverses every 3–6 rings.
The Figure section is hidden in End grain mode. Figure Amplitude, Figure Wavelength and Figure Drift are hidden when Figure is None or Interlocked (ribbon).
Additional anatomy controls
On the Expert tab, Pore Gate Start and Pore Gate End control where large earlywood pores fade out in ring-porous species. Semi-ring-porous species instead show the hint Pores shrink through each ring (semi-ring-porous). Pore Softness sets pore-edge softness for hardwoods.
Machining section
(Detailed and Expert)
These controls describe what a milling machine, saw or sanding belt left on the surface before finishing.
Sanding Grit — FEPA P-grade of the final sanding. Zero (unsanded) shows the planer or saw surface as machined.
Planer Pitch — Pitch of planer or thicknesser scallops in mm. Zero removes planer marks.
Saw Marks — Residual saw marks under the finish: None, Circular, Band or Rough sawn.
Saw Mark Depth — Depth of the saw marks in mm.
Saw Mark Pitch — Spacing between marks in mm.
Blade Radius (Expert, circular saw) — Circular saw blade radius in mm. Sets the visible arc of the marks.
Cutter Radius (Expert, planer marks) — Planer cutter-block radius in mm. Sets the scallop depth.
Sanding Completeness (Expert) — How completely sanding removed the marks beneath it.
Sanding Angle (Expert) — Sanding direction relative to the grain. Zero sands along the grain.
Random-orbit sanding (Expert) — Random-orbit arcs instead of straight sanding lines.
Tearout (Expert) — Planer tearout where the grain rises against the cut direction.
Wire Brush (Expert) — Depth of wire-brushing in mm. Wire brushing scours out the softer earlywood, giving a texture prominent in some contemporary flooring.
Checks (Expert) — Drying checks (surface cracks). 0 = none, 1 = severe.
Saw Mark Depth / Saw Mark Pitch need Saw Marks other than None. Sanding Completeness, Sanding Angle and Random-orbit sanding need Sanding Grit above 0.
Finish section
(Simple: Wear, Age, Wood Bump, Coat Bump; Detailed and Expert: the rest)
The Finish section controls colourant, film build and surface treatment.
Wear and age
Wear — Handling wear. The finish thins and dulls where the part is commonly touched. 0 is unworn; 1 is heavily used.
Age — Oxidation and yellowing. The wood surface shifts toward the Aged Colour and the film yellows. 0 is freshly finished; 1 is fully aged.
Wear Depth (Detailed) — Maximum material removal in mm at full wear and exposure. The coating is removed first, then colourant, then timber.
Colourant Penetration (Detailed, with a colourant) — Thickness of the coloured wood below the coating, controlling how much abrasion exposes bare wood.
Wear Patchiness, Wear Patch Size, Wear Seed (Detailed) — Vary wear distribution across the part. Wear Patchiness 0 is uniform; higher values leave less-worn patches. Wear Patch Size sets the approximate physical size of those patches.
Exposure (Expert) — Drives wear, fade and yellowing. Typically left at 1 unless you want to paint a mask that controls UV exposure.
Colourant
Colourant (Detailed) — Type of surface treatment applied before the clear film:
- None — untreated timber
- Dye — even penetration; enhances figure
- Pigment stain — darker pores; blotchy on softwood
- Gel stain — dark pores; blotchy on softwood; thicker application
- Bleach — removes natural colour variation
- Lime / cerused — white pigment driven into the open pores
Colourant Colour (dye, pigment, gel, lime) — Stain colour or the white for lime.
Colourant Depth (dye, pigment, gel, bleach) — Optical dose of the colourant.
Stain Blotchiness (Detailed) — Uneven colourant uptake. Broad patches follow the grain, with smaller broken edges. Requires a colourant and nonzero depth.
Clear finish
Film Thickness (Detailed) — Total film build in micrometres. Oil 2–5 µm, shellac 20–60 µm, polyurethane 50–120 µm, conversion varnish up to 150 µm. Zero is bare timber. The realism check warns above 200 µm.
Coat Roughness (Detailed) — Roughness of the film's top surface. The realism check warns above 0.25 for gloss presets (shellac, lacquer, polyurethane, conversion varnish and French polish). Coat Roughness, Pore Fill, Coat Bump, Film IOR, Film Tint and Orange Peel appear only when Film Thickness is above 0.
Pore Fill (Detailed) — How far the film fills the open pores. Oil finishes 0.1; lacquer 0.6; French polish 0.85.
Film IOR (Expert) — Refractive index of the film. Oil 1.48, shellac 1.52.
Film Tint (Expert) — Film transmittance per 50 µm as a colour. White is a clear film. Shellac: approximately 0.92 / 0.80 / 0.55 (warm amber).
Orange Peel and Orange Peel Wavelength (Expert) — Sprayed-film orange-peel amplitude in µm and its wavelength in mm. Orange Peel Wavelength needs Orange Peel above 0.
Treatment variation
Uneven Finish (Detailed) — Varies film build, wetting and sheen. Use with oil, wax or a film finish. Try 0.25 for subtle application marks.
Patch Size (Detailed) — Approximate width of treatment patches in mm. Patches extend farther along the fibres.
Treatment Seed (Detailed) — Changes treatment distribution without changing timber, pores or knots.
Bump
Wood Bump — Procedural shading relief: grain, pores, defects and wear. 1 is natural depth; 0 is smooth. This is shading only — it does not produce geometry. Physical depth uses Real surface depth in the Engine section.
Coat Bump (with a film) — Coating shading relief after pore filling, orange peel and wear. Independent of the wood grain.
Colour section
(Detailed and Expert)
Heartwood — Linear-RGB measured reflectance of planed heartwood.
Sapwood — Linear-RGB measured reflectance of planed sapwood.
Aged Colour (Expert, with Age > 0) — Where the heartwood colour moves at full age. Cherry moves to deep red-brown; walnut moves lighter.
Latewood Contrast (Expert) — Latewood/earlywood density ratio, driving latewood darkening through the Kubelka–Munk model.
Knot Darkening (Expert) — Strength of the knot darkening and reddening.
Ray Lightness (Expert) — Strength of the parenchyma's paler, greyer tone in hardwood rays.
Cell Diameter (Expert) — Mean cell diameter in mm, setting the subsurface scattering radii.
Engine section
(Simple: Fibre highlight, Real surface depth, its depth switches and Mesh spacing; Detailed: Detail While Moving; Expert: Quality, Filter Width, Debug Output and Noise Version)
Fibre highlight — When on (the default), the material uses a specialised wood closure with a coat layer, fibre highlight that follows the grain direction, and subsurface scattering. When off, a Principled fallback is used: colour and coat are preserved but the fibre highlight is lost. Use the off state as an A/B baseline.
Real surface depth — Adds physical geometry to grain, saw marks and plywood defects, including silhouette relief. Increases render geometry and preparation time. Must be on for silhouette detail at close distances. When off, all relief is bump shading only.
When Real surface depth is on, individual categories can be disabled to save tessellation:
| Toggle | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Displace surface relief | Grain, pores, tool marks, wear and shallow defects |
| Growth rings | Broad ring ridges |
| Pores and fine grain | Pores, rays, fibre bundles, resin canals |
| Tool marks | Saw marks, planer scallops, sanding, tearout and wire brushing |
| Drying checks | Drying cracks |
| Wear depth | Worn-away timber |
| Joint relief | Board gaps, bevels and veneer leaf seams |
| Carve plywood core openings (plywood) | Actual openings through missing core strips |
| Plywood surface defects (plywood) | Chips, overlaps, torn fibres and shallow core relief |
| Repair seams (plywood) | Veneer repair boundaries |
Displace surface relief and Carve plywood core openings appear when Real surface depth is on. The remaining switches also need Displace surface relief on. Plywood surface defects and Repair seams require Plywood mode. Mesh spacing appears only while Real surface depth is on.
Mesh spacing — Triangle spacing multiplier. Increase for fewer triangles and faster preparation; decrease for finer silhouettes. 1× restores the original density; 8× is the default. Fine detail continues through bump shading when mesh spacing is large.
Quality (Expert) — Octave budget multiplier for the noise stages. Reduce to speed up heavily tiled previews; raise for a very close-up hero material.
Detail While Moving (Detailed) — This material's grain detail while the camera or a parameter is being moved:
- Auto (follow viewport) — follows the viewport's global motion level
- Keep full detail — stays at full grain, useful for a hero close-up
- Simplified — one level of detail
- Raster look — always uses the fast raster while moving; the settled image is always full
The Expert Engine controls Filter Width, Debug Output and Noise Version are diagnostic settings. Leave them at their defaults for ordinary material work. Filter Width 0 uses automatic filtering; Debug Output exposes an intermediate field; Noise Version identifies the supported deterministic noise version.
Workflow tasks
Task 1 — Apply a species and finish preset
- Select the object, open View ▸ Material, and set the type to Wood (Type ▸ Basic ▸ Wood).
- Click the Species picker and choose from the grouped list, for example Sapele.
- Click the Finish picker and choose French polish.
- Adjust Wear to 0.15 to add handling wear.
- The material updates in the viewport immediately.
Task 2 — Match timber for an assembly
- Apply the same Wood material to both parts.
- Select only the second part. In the Node Graph panel (View ▸ Node Graph) toolbar, click Single-user. The part gets its own copy of the material with the same Seed, Log and settings. (If the toolbar is narrow, the button is in its overflow menu.)
- With the second part still selected, click Next board. Only the second part changes, to the next board from the same log.
- Keep Seed and Log the same on both materials. On the Expert tab you can type Board or Part directly.
Task 3 — Lay a floor
- Select the floor surface and set its material to Wood (Type ▸ Basic ▸ Wood).
- On the Detailed tab, choose herringbone in Board Layout.
- Set Layout Normal Axis to the axis perpendicular to the floor plane (typically Z).
- Set Board Width to 90 mm and Board Length to 450 mm.
- Adjust Layout Rotation to align the herringbone to the room.
- Fine-tune Joint Gap (typically 0.3–0.8 mm) and Bevel Width (0.5 mm) for a realistic floor joint.
Task 4 — Show a plywood edge
- On the Detailed tab, set Mode to Plywood / veneer stack in the Placement section.
- Set Ply Count to 9 and Panel Thickness to 18 mm.
- Set Veneer Cut to Rotary peeled (construction grade) or Sliced (furniture grade).
- If you chose Sliced, set Veneer Matching to Book matched and Leaf Width to 180 mm.
- Enable Alternate Grain 90° and set Glue Colour to a slightly warm off-white.
Task 5 — Add displacement for a close-up
- In the Engine section (Simple tab), turn on Real surface depth.
- Leave all displacement sub-toggles on for full detail.
- If preparation time is too high, raise Mesh spacing from 8× to 16×.
- Check the result at camera distance; bump shading still contributes fine detail beyond the tessellation.
Undo and recovery
Every change to a Wood parameter is recorded as a single undoable step. Undo with Ctrl+Z. Switching tiers, changing a preset, or enabling displacement are each separate steps.
Section open/closed state is not saved to the document or to your preferences. Every time you open a document, all sections start open.
Control reference summary
All physical controls use millimetres except where noted.
| Control | Type | Units | Range (soft) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wood Scale | Float | — | 0.001–10000 (0.1–100) |
| Seed | Integer | — | 0–1 000 000 |
| Board Thickness | Float | mm | 5–200 |
| Board Width (solid board, no layout) | Float | mm | 20–1500 |
| Board Width (layout) | Float | mm | 10–1000 |
| Board Length | Float | mm | 20–6000 |
| Layout Rotation | Float | degrees | ±180 |
| Joint Gap | Float | mm | 0–10 |
| Bevel Width | Float | mm | 0–10 |
| Bevel Depth | Float | mm | 0–5 |
| Panel Thickness | Float | mm | 0.1–1000 (3–50) |
| Ply Thickness | Float | mm | 0–200 (0–5) |
| Glue-Line Thickness | Float | mm | 0–1 (0–0.2) |
| Leaf Width | Float | mm | 1–1000 (100–300) |
| Ring Width | Float | mm | 0.1–20 (0.3–12) |
| Knot Size | Float | mm | 1–100 (3–60) |
| Pore Diameter | Float | mm | 0–1 (0–0.5) |
| Wide Ray Width | Float | mm | 0.05–2 (0.05–1.2) |
| Sanding Grit | Integer | — | 0–600 |
| Planer Pitch | Float | mm | 0–3 |
| Film Thickness | Float | µm | 0–400 (0–200) |
| Coat Roughness | Float | — | 0–1 |
| Wear | Float | — | 0–1 |
| Age | Float | — | 0–1 |
| Wood Bump | Float | — | 0–4 (0–2) |
| Mesh spacing | Float | × | 0.25–64 (0.25–16) |
| Density | Float | kg/m³ | 300–1250 |
| Knots | Float | /m | 0–4 |
| Latewood Fraction | Float | — | 0.05–0.8 |
| Heartwood Radius | Float | — | 0–1 |
| Ply Count | Integer | — | 1–16 |
| Figure Amplitude | Float | mm | 0–2 (0–1) |
| Figure Wavelength | Float | mm | 1–60 (2–40) |
| Wear Depth | Float | mm | 0–2 (0–1) |
| Colourant Depth | Float | — | 0–3 |
| Coat Bump | Float | — | 0–4 (0–2) |
| Film IOR | Float | — | 1.3–1.7 |
| Quality | Float | — | 0.1–2 |
| Cut Distance From Pith | Float | mm | 10–1000 (40–250) |
| Light/Dark Band Level | Float | — | 0–4 (0–2) |
Related pages
- Materials — general material types, assignment and texture channels
- Node Graph — Single-user button for part-level private copies; wood colour nodes
- Surface Effects — add droplets, foam, fur or flakes over a Wood material
- Animation — animate any Wood parameter over time
- Settings — colour picker behaviour