U g I n f o r d e s I g n e r s

V-Ray for SketchUp
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V-Ray Two-Sided Material
The V-Ray Two-Sided Material, or Vray2SidedMtl as it appears in V-Ray for SketchUp, is a material 
that allows easy creation of very thin translucent objects such as paper, lamp shades, or curtains.
It works with the very simple controls so its much easier to control the result then using a 
translucent material, and it renders significantly faster as well. Due to the nature of this 
material it is actually best to have single surfaces rather than a solid, as you would need for any 
refractive material. 
First we will need to add a Two sided 
material. Open the material editor and right-
click on Scene materials and go to Add 
Material. This will in turn bring up another 
m e n u w i t h s e v e r a l d i f f e r e n t m a t e r i a l 
formats. Click on Vray2SidedMtl which is in 
the middle.
Now that the Two-Sided Material has been 
added, we will expand the material and 
notice that this looks much different then 
the standard V-Ray material. This is because 
the Two sided material works with predefined 
materials. There are two slots, one for the 
front material and one for the back material, 
as well as color which will determine the 
ratio between the front and the back 
material.
You cannot actually create a new material once inside the Two-Sided material as it only works 
with predefined materials. When you click on the button for the front material, a dialog box will 
open up asking you to choose which material you would like to have be the front material. You 
must also define a material a material for both sides, but you can define the same material for 
both sides. If you don’t specify a material for either the front or the back, then Vray will assume 
that there is no material. 
The color is how V-Ray determines the ratio of 
front material to back material. The color works 
with grayscale values, and produces the best 
results between 35-220. Colors on either end of 
the spectrum will tend to yield results of almost 
completely one material, which defeats the point 
of using the two-sided material.
Adding a V-Ray Two-Sided Material
Working with V-Ray Two-Sided Material
If you would like to recognize which faces are the front and which are the back, then you can 
configure backfaces to be a different color when they appear in the viewport.