Ok so this is revit architecture, I use it too :)
On a current project I need to render a few images to give the client some glazing options. I contacted a supplier and they were just in the early stages of creating revit families of their glass colours. (Nice to see new families being created by suppliers!) They were having a problem getting the colour to come through on their renders. I started working with them to create custom glazing and I made an error in assumption at the start: I thought to use the generic material as my base point as it should give me access to all the material settings however there proved to be too much control and I found it difficult to get a handle on what all the variables controlled. I would suggest only going this route if you have a fairly good level of experience with 3D graphics and render options.
The faster way to go, and this is the trick, is to pick a render material that is close to the material you want to create. From the supplier I got an RGB colour value of 139/152/136, a reflectivity of 30% & a transparency of 53%. As you can see the bas material starting point is very important.
Curtain Wall Glazing
Etched Glass Settings
I didn't spend any time on the orientation or tiling of the flower image and as a result it was rotated 90deg. & tiled a few times both horizontally & vertically.
A quick note on the differences between transparency & translucency. A transparent physical material shows objects behind it as unobscured and doesn't reflect light off its surface. Clear glass is a nearly transparent material. Although glass allows most light to pass through unobscured, in reality it also reflects some light. A perfectly transparent material is completely invisible.
A translucent physical material shows objects behind it, but those objects are obscured by the translucent material. In addition, a translucent material reflects some of the light that hits it, making the material visible. Physical examples of translucent materials include sheer cloth, thin plastic, and smoked glass.
Transparent and translucent are often used synonymously. Materials that are neither transparent nor translucent are opaque.
