1. A method of automatically transforming a computerized 3D model having portions of images utilized as textures on one or more physical objects represented in the computerized 3D model to include material property information for one or more regions of the image textures of the computerized 3D model, comprising the steps of: examining, using computer executable code operated on a computer, at least a portion of a first image texture having unknown material properties and applied to the computerized 3D model, by: comparing, using computer executable code operated on the computer, the portion of the first image texture of the computerized 3D model to the second texture images of material entries in a palette of material entries stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium to determine a best match for the first image texture, the palette of material entries comprising a set of the second texture images, the second texture images associated with material properties of physical materials, the material properties having material property information about the physical material; assigning the material entry in the palette that best matches the portion of the first image texture to the first image texture to indicate a physical material of the physical object represented by the portion of the first image texture in the computerized 3D model; and storing the material property information of a selected material entry in the computerized 3D model.