When Revit cannot locate the path to the textures, materials may appear in dark gray in realistic view mode. In this article, you’ll find detailed guidance to help you resolve this type of issue.
1. Administrator permissions
To ensure that Revit can access and load all textures correctly, it is recommended to run it as an administrator. To do this, follow these steps:
1.1. Close Revit if it is open;
1.2. Go to the Revit shortcut on your Windows desktop (or search for “Revit” in the Start menu);
1.3. Right-click on the Revit icon;
1.4. Select “Run as administrator”;
1.5. If a confirmation window appears, click “Yes”.
2. Outdated Blocks plugin
Textures may not appear correctly if the Blocks plugin is outdated. To confirm whether this is the case, check the version number of the latest plugin on the App Store download page and compare it with the version currently installed on your computer. You can click here to access the instructions on how to check the installed version.
If your version is outdated, completely close Revit and uninstall the plugin from your computer. Then, download the updated version of the Blocks plugin from the App Store and run the newly downloaded file. Open Revit only after the installation process has been completed to check whether the texture issue has been resolved.
3. Texture paths in Revit
Material textures are not stored inside .rvt or .rfa files. They are external files saved in different locations on your computer. For Revit to be able to locate these textures, follow the steps below:
3.1. Go to the “File” tab in Revit and click “Options”:
3.2. In the “Rendering” tab, check whether the following paths are configured in your Revit:
C:\ProgramData\Blocks BIM\Textures\
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Materials\Textures\1\Mats\
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Materials\Textures\2\Mats\
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Materials\Textures\3\Mats\
If any of the paths listed above are not configured, click the green “+” button, indicated in the image below, to add it to Revit. Then, click “OK”:
There is no issue with having other paths configured in Revit, but it is recommended that the four paths listed above are added. One of them corresponds to Blocks textures, and the others refer to Autodesk’s default textures.
To verify whether the Blocks textures folder is installed correctly, open Windows File Explorer and enter the following path:
C:\ProgramData\Blocks BIM\Textures
Important: Windows File Explorer must be configured to show hidden items for the ProgramData folder to appear. To do this, open File Explorer using the Windows key + E, click “View”, then “Show”, and enable the “Hidden items” option.
Depending on the version of Windows you are using, these steps may vary:
If, even after Revit displays the ProgramData folder, you are unable to continue navigating the path to locate the Blocks textures folder, there may have been an issue during the plugin installation process on your computer. In this case, it is recommended to completely close Revit and, with it closed, reinstall the Blocks plugin.
4. Textures that were previously configured no longer appear
When downloading families into a project, textures are saved to a local folder on your computer (C:\ProgramData\Blocks BIM\Textures), and not inside the project file itself. Therefore, if you start a project on one computer and later continue it on another, you will need to download the textures again, as they will not yet be available on the second device.
4.1. Access the Blocks plugin through the Revit Add-Ins tab and log in to your account. Then, click the gear icon to enter the plugin’s settings section.
4.2. Click the “Download” option and wait until all missing textures in the Blocks textures folder have been downloaded.
4.3. After the download is complete, close Revit and open it again — preferably as an administrator — to ensure that the textures are loaded correctly in your project:
5. I followed all the instructions, but the issue persists. What could be happening?
Even if the recommended paths are correctly configured in Revit’s “Rendering” tab, it may be necessary to manually adjust the texture path for a specific family that is experiencing the issue.
To do this, access the family’s “Edit Type” section and define the correct texture path if Revit did not adjust it automatically. Follow the steps below:
5.1. Select the family with texture issues and click “Edit Type” in Revit:
5.2. The “Type Properties” panel will open. Locate the section showing the family’s materials and finishes, and click the area in the “Value” column corresponding to the item that is presenting the issue:
5.3. Next, click the ellipsis (the three dots) that will appear to the right of the same area you just clicked:
5.4. The “Material Browser” will open. Go to the “Appearance” tab, highlighted in the image below. Then, in the column on the left side of the window, locate the material that is causing the issue and click on it.
In the “Image” field, to the right, a red-filled box with an exclamation icon will appear, indicating that there is a problem with the selected material. This element is highlighted in the image below. Click the name that appears just below this box:
5.5. Another window will open, allowing you to locate the missing texture. Navigate to the path C:\ProgramData\Blocks BIM\Textures and click “Open” directly. The file name will already be correctly filled in, corresponding to the correct texture in the folder; therefore, no changes will be necessary:
5.6. Back in the “Material Browser”, check if the image has been loaded correctly. If everything is correct, click “Apply” and then “OK”.
Next, in the “Type Properties” panel, click “Apply” and “OK” again to confirm the changes you made:
If you have any questions, you can contact our support team by email at [email protected], or via the chat on our website: blocksrvt.com.