The present invention relates to a system, method, and apparatus that include a novel way of automatically assigning materials to 3D CAD models. A predefined material template specifies that a particular part or material name is assigned to a particular material such that all instances of the particular part name are assigned or modified automatically by the material template. By having a consistent naming convention for the parts in the CAD file, this material assignment can be performed automatically when the CAD file is imported or viewed.