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Materials from materials library


Alan Cooper

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I used to have a lot of materials in my template file but am trying to keep starting file down to a minimum size. I have all my materials available in various material library files and of course am able to copy their parameters to any new material but I also want the names in the library to jump across to the new material because it is tedious to type in the material name when the average project might have up to a dozen materials. If this is not possible I suppose I will need to include a small core of my library materials inside the template file after all, or use another model file which contains my most common materials to copy, from, paste into my model file, delete the object immediately, which brings the material in, but again this is an overly cumbersome method to perform regularly so hope I have missed a simpler solution.

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Alan

I often have projects from the same architects that use very similar materials.  Once I import all the plans and elevations I open the similar model and in the dialogue box at the bottom left there is a little tiny box called "add to project".  Click on that and a new dialogue opens asking what you want to add.  I deselect everything but the materials and lights.  One point to note here is that Maxwell materials if you have them often get corrupted here. 

Is this what you are looking for or something else?

Andrew

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Thanks Andrew, that is interesting, but I think it is something else.

What I would ideally like is to have a template file with very few materials, and during the build of a model which started from the template, to be able to drag materials into the model's material palette from one of my materials libraries. We are currently only able to do the opposite afaik. For example, if I open my materials library and drag a material from it onto an object, nothing happens. If I create a new material in the materials palette it might say 'material 17' I can find a material in my library and drag it onto the 'material 17' but it will still be called 'material 17' instead of adopting the name of the material in my library. That is the problem.

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Okay, i use Modo as my scene building and rendering software, so its a bit different for me. But in my template file i have a default layer structure i always use and default material names (like exterior wall stucco 1, exterior wall brick 1 ...) with only material colors.

In Modo i have for example exterior wall stucco 1 and there i add one of the stucco materials i need, but the name exterior wall stucco 1 stays, like it is in FormZ too. I think its good that way because then you know always what objects material you change, even if i have to change the stucco to brick later, its easier to remember then using the new materials name.

 

Just my 2 cents of course.

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+1 It bothers me to no end that if I want to use a material form the preset libraries it seems like the process would be to select an unused material (Material 4) go to the library, double click on the desired material (say Brick 07).  Material 4 gets all the properties of Brick 07 but keeps the name Material 4.

 

I have found that if I drag and drop a material form the predefined library to an EMPTY SPOT on the material palatte it will add it to the palatte with the correct name.

 

You should be able to drag a material from the predefined library on to an object and have it add the material to the object AND the material palatte. 

 

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Hi Bartjuan,

Thanks for your discovery: 'I have found that if I drag and drop a material form the predefined library to an EMPTY SPOT on the material palatte it will add it to the palatte with the correct name.'

That's really great. I agree what you additionally suggest would be useful, but at least the former can be done, thanks so much for posting.

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