Material Editor

To view the Material Editor:

• Click the Material Editor button on the main toolbar.

  The Material Editor dialog has sample slots for viewing previews of materials. When you first view the Material Editor, the material previews have a uniform default color.

To give a material a different name:

• Edit the name field that appears below the Material Editor toolbar.

  The name of the active material appears in the title bar of the Material Editor dialog. The name of the material is not a file name: it can contain spaces, numbers, and special characters.

  The name field displays only 16 characters, but a material name can be longer than that.

To make a copy of a preview material:

• On the Material Editor toolbar, click Make Material Copy.

To get a material from a scene:

If a material that you want to change has been saved in the scene, but not in the Material Editor, you can load the material by getting it from the scene.

1. Click a sample slot to make it active.

   Be careful not to click the sample slot of a material you want to use later.

2. On the Material Editor toolbar, click Get Material.

   A modeless Material/Map Browser is displayed.

3. In the Browse From group box at the upper left, make sure that either Selected or Scene is chosen.

   The Selected option lists only materials in the current selection. If no objects are selected, the list of materials is blank.

   The Scene option lists all the materials currently in the scene.

4. In the list of materials, double-click the name of the material you want.

   You can also drag the material name to the sample slot.

   The material you chose replaces the previous material in the active sample slot.

To apply a material to objects in a scene:

1. Select the sample slot that contains the material you want to apply.

2. Select the object you want to apply the material to.

3. Drag from the sample slot to the object. If you selected more than one object, you are asked if you want to apply to the single object only, or to the whole selection.

   You can also apply materials by clicking Assign Material To Selection on the Material Editor toolbar.

To remove a material from an object:

1. On the Material Editor toolbar, click Get Material.

   The Material/Map Browser appears.

2. Drag the entry NONE from the top of the list in the Browser to the object.

   The object now has no material applied to it.

To put a material back into a scene:

• On the Material Editor toolbar, click Put Material To Scene.

  The material in the active sample slot is now a hot material.

  The Put Material button is available only when (1) the material in the active sample slot has the same name as a material in a scene, and (2) the material in the active sample slot is not hot. In other words, this command is meant to fit into the following overall sequence of handling materials:

  • You create a hot material either by applying it to objects in the scene or by getting it from the scene.

  • You make a copy of the material.

  • You make changes to the copy of the material.

  • You update the scene by putting the changed material back into the scene.

    These steps are not as immediate as changing a material while it is hot, but they help you avoid changing the scene's materials unintentionally or in unexpected ways.

    When a material in the Material Editor is applied to objects in the scene, you can select the objects from the Material Editor.

To select objects that have the same material applied:

When a material in the Material Editor is applied to objects in the scene, you can select the objects from the Material Editor.

1. Click a sample slot that contains a material in the scene.

   White corner brackets indicate materials that are in the scene.

2. Click Select By Material.

   This button is unavailable unless the active sample slot contains a material in the scene.

   A Select Objects dialog is displayed. The names of objects with the active material applied are highlighted when the dialog appears.

3. Click Select to select objects that have the active material applied to them.

   You can also change the selection by choosing other objects. If you change the selection, you must then click Assign Material To Selection to apply the active material to newly selected objects.

To get a material from a library:

1. On the Material Editor toolbar, click Get Material.

   A modeless Material/Map Browser is displayed.

2. In the Browse From group box at the upper left, make sure that Material Library is chosen.

   If you have opened a library, the list of materials shows the contents of the library.

   If you haven't opened a library, click Open in the file area of the Browser. In the file dialog that is displayed, you can choose a material library to open. After you open the library, the list of materials updates to show the library's contents.

3. In the list of materials, double-click the name of the material you want.

   You can also drag the name of the material to the sample slot.

   The material you chose replaces the previous material in the active sample slot.

To save a material in a library:

1. Click to select the sample slot that has the material you want to save.

2. On the Material Editor toolbar, click Put To Library.

3. A Put To Library dialog appears.

4. Either change the material name or leave it as is, and then click OK.

   The material is saved in the currently open library. If no library is open, a new library is created. You can save the new library as a file using the Material/Map Browser file controls.