Transparent materials not always transparent?

I’m sure that this is user error, but the glass railings here are both the exact same material (a simple blue set to 40% opacity). I modeled the railing on the right and it worked perfectly once both sides were textured. Then I took a break, came back and modeled the railing on the left. I went into the materials menu to select the glass texture I had made and while it looks to be transparent with its own geometry, I can’t see the deck or sarcophagus through it? I grabbed the bucket and tried to sample the first railing and nothing. I’ve made sure each panel is textured on all four sides and it still looks only see through with itself. I’ve done four more of the railings in this model and none of them are properly transparent either? What am I doing wrong?

Kind of looks like back faces are being displayed on the left. Share the .skp file so we can see what you are working with.

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Bill’s Library.skp (3.1 MB)

Going to go research “back faces being displayed” :smiley:

As it turned out, on the transparent panels you’ve applied the material to both the front and back faces. On the others you’ve only applied it to the front faces so you aren’t seeing through the back face on the opposite side of the panel. Not sure how you went about doing that. If you zoom in closely you can see inside the panels.

It sure would make your model easier to work with if you were using components instead of all the loose geometry.

I fixed them for you.
Bill’s Library.skp (3.0 MB)

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Thank you! I’m still getting to know components and have been having trouble multiplying them into specific places/ patterns. Watching all kinds of tutorials, learning new things every day. You have been very helpful.

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Thank you.

I don’t have an iPad so can’t give you exact instruction but you should be able to model one of the glass panels an make it a component. Then use Move/Copy to make a copy and then use the array function. So you might move the first panel copy say 10 inches over and then type x and the number of copies you want followed by Enter.

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