Scan&Solve for Grasshopper contains a variety of standard engineering materials which can be picked from the material block. Users can also input custom materials. When the material block is right clicked, the material selection list will pop up. The list will promt the user to choose the category of material, then the specfic material.

Scan&Solve Pro supports linear isotropic and orthotropic materials. Materials that are “linear” have a proportional relationship between stress and strain. That is, any increase in strain results in a proportional increase in stress, and vice versa.

Isotropic materials possess the same mechanical properties regardless of orientation. Metals, plastics, and ceramics are examples of isotropic materials.

Orthotropic materials have mechanical properties that differ along three mutually orthogonal axes. Wood is an example of an orthotropic material with mechanical properties that are different along the grain, radially through the growth rings, and tangentially to the rings.

The orientation of orthotropy is defined by a coordinate system specified by the user utilizing a variety of tools available in the material selector. When the coordinate system display is enabled (see figure below), the axes are color-coded with red, green, blue corresponding to axes 1, 2, 3 in the material science literature.