Main toolbar > Material Editor > Get Material > Material/Map Browser
Rendering menu > Material/Map Browser
Material Editor > Click Material Type button or Map Type button. > Material/Map Browser
The Material/Map Browser lets you choose a material, map, or mental ray shader.
When you click Get Material, the Browser that is displayed is modeless (you can leave it displayed while you do other work). However, when you display the Browser by clicking the Type button, a map assignment button in the Environment dialog, or from a projector light (see Advanced Effects Rollout), it appears as a modal dialog with OK and Cancel buttons.
You can leave the modeless Browser displayed, and drag materials from its listings to material or map sample slots and buttons in the user interface. When the Browser displays a Material Library, you can also add materials to the library by dragging them from the Material Editor sample slots.
When you double-click a material, map, or shader in the Browser, it places that material, map, or shader in the Material Editor's active sample slot. It automatically chooses between an instance or a copy, as follows:
When you browse the Material Editor, the Scene, or Selected objects, the choice between making a copy or an instance depends on the status of the material, as follows:
When you use the mental ray renderer, you might want to use the materials and shaders that provide effects for this renderer only. (The default scanline renderer renders these materials and shaders only as black or white, or it simply ignores their effects.) The Material/Map Browser lists mental ray maps and materials only if you assign the mental ray renderer as the currently active renderer.
Once you have enabled the renderer, when you use the Browser, it shows mental ray materials and shaders. Materials are displayed with a yellow sphere, rather than blue for standard materials, and shaders are displayed with a yellow parallelogram, rather than green as for standard maps.
When you use the mental ray Connection rollout, or other shader buttons specific to mental ray materials and shaders, the shaders that appear in the Browser's list are restricted to those that the mental ray renderer allows for that particular shader component. By default, only shaders that ship with 3ds Max are listed. If you have acquired other shader libraries, you might see the names of shaders that are not mentioned in this reference.
Note: You can see the listing of materials, maps, or shaders that are incompatible with the current renderer, if you turn on the Incompatible toggle in the Show group, as described under “Interface,” below.
To navigate materials with the Browser:
Tip: Use the Browser primarily in Root Only mode, to see only the top levels of the materials. This provides a simpler view of your materials, and speeds redraws when you're using any of the icon display modes. (You can also create thumbnails to speed up redraws, as described below.)
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In the Material Editor, choose any sample slot you want that contains a complex, multilevel material.
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In the Browser > Browse From group, choose Active Slot mode to display all levels of the active sample slot.
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Click any of the items in the Browser's material/map list to move to that level of the current material.
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When you want to switch to a different material, select its sample slot in the Material Editor, and its hierarchy will appear in the Browser.
To merge material libraries:
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In the Browse From group, choose Mtl Library, and then click the Merge button.
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In the Merge Material Library dialog, select a material library other than the current library, or select a 3ds Max or VIZ Render (DRF) scene.
A Merge dialog is displayed, listing all materials in the specified library, or all materials assigned to the 3ds Max or VIZ Render file. Below the list are All and None buttons to help in the selection.
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Select the materials in the list that you want to merge, and then click OK.
The selected materials are merged into the current material library.
To save the sample spheres as thumbnail images:
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Open the Browser. In the Browse From group, choose Mtl Library.
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Display all of the icons in the library by either scrolling through all of them, or by enlarging the Browser so that all of the icons have been displayed at least once.
The action of displaying the icons automatically creates thumbnails in memory.
Important: If you want to include thumbnails of the sub-materials and maps, be sure to turn off Root Only.
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When you save the library, you save the thumbnail images of the samples as they appeared in the Browser at that time. If you change any of the materials or maps later, you must re-save the library in order to update the thumbnails. If you do not re-save the library after altering or adding a materials, the icon of the material will still appear correctly, but it will be rerendered when it first appears in the Browser, while all the other icons will appear immediately.
The Material/Map Browser contains the following controls:
Material/Map list—The main part of the Material/Map Browser dialog is a scrollable list of materials and maps. The list indicates a material with a blue sphere, and indicates a map with a green parallelogram. When you list both materials and maps, the materials are listed first.
Note: Icons of materials and maps for which Show Map in Viewport is on are red, as shown in the following example:
Text entry—As you enter a material name in this field, the first matching text item is selected in the list. Press Enter to select the next matching name, and so on.
For example, if you enter ch when the list includes the material names Cherry Red, Chrome Blue, and Chrome Zinc, Cherry Red is selected first. Press Enter, and the Chrome Blue is selected. Press Enter again, and Chrome Zinc is selected.
The search is not case-sensitive.
Sample slot—Below the text-entry field is a single sample slot. This displays a sample of the current selection. You can drag the sample to any other sample slot or material button. The sample slot display is interruptible, so you can quickly click from one list item to the next without waiting. In addition, if you complete the display of one sample, then move on to another sample, when you return to the first sample, it displays instantly.
The first part of this row of buttons controls how you view the list. The second part is for managing material libraries.
To speed up the display of the sample spheres in the Browser, the smaller of the sample spheres (those displayed when you choose View Small Icons or View List + Icons) can be saved as thumbnail images in the material library file. (See the Procedures for this topic, above.)
Keep in mind that the saved thumbnails increase the size of the material library file.
View List—Displays the materials and maps in list format. Blue spheres are materials. Green parallelograms are maps. The green parallelograms
turn red if Show Map in Viewport is on for a material.
View List + Icons—Displays the materials and maps in a list with small icons.
View Small Icons—Displays the materials and maps as small icons. As you move the mouse over the icons, tooltip labels pop up, showing you the
name of the material or map.
View Large Icons—Displays the materials and maps as large icons.
The large icons are labeled with the name of the material or map and are displayed using progressive refinement—samples are rendered quickly, with large pixels, then rendered a second time in greater detail.
Update Scene Materials from Library—Updates materials in the scene with the materials of the same name stored in the library.
When you click Update Scene Materials from Library, the Update Scene Materials dialog is displayed. This dialog lists materials in the library that have the same name as materials in the scene. In the list, select the materials you want to update in the scene, and then click OK.
If no materials exist in the scene that match the names in the library, an alert informs you of this.
This button is available only when the Browser is viewing a library.
Delete from Library—Removes the selected material or map from the library display. The library on disk is not affected until you save it. Use
Open to reload the original library from disk. This button is only active when you select a named material that exists in
the current library.
This button is available only when the Browser is viewing a library.
Clear Material Library—Removes all materials from the library display. The library on disk is not affected until you save it. Use Open to reload
the original library from disk.
This button is available only when the Browser is viewing a library.
The controls in this group choose the source of the materials displayed in the material/map list.
Material Library—Displays the contents of a material library file from disk. When you set this option, the buttons under File become active (see below).
You can also load a library from a MAX file. When browsing from the Material Library in the Material/Map Browser, choose Open, and then choose 3ds Max (*.max) from Files of type. Select and load a .max file. All materials assigned in that scene are listed in the Browser. To convert the collection of materials to a library file, click Save, and save it as a MAT (.mat) file.
Material Editor—Displays the contents of the sample slots.
Active Slot—Displays the contents of the currently active sample slot.
This option is unavailable in the modal version of the Browser.
When you choose this mode, all check boxes in the Show group box are made available. The entire material and map tree of the active material is displayed, regardless of the state of these check boxes in other Browse From modes.
You can also use Active Slot mode to navigate the hierarchy of the active material. When Active Slot is chosen, clicking an item in the material/map list moves Material Editor controls to that level of the material.
Selected—Displays the material applied to the selected objects.
Scene—Displays all materials applied to objects in the scene.
All maps assigned to the scene, including Environment Background or spotlight projector maps, are displayed in the Browser list.
New—Displays the set of material/map types for you to create a new material.
These options filter what is displayed in the list. Either Materials or Maps is always on, and both can be on at the same time. The first two options can be unavailable, depending on the active Browse From and View settings.
Materials—Turns display of materials and sub-materials on or off.
This is always unavailable in the modal version of the Browser.
Maps—Turns display of maps on or off.
This is always unavailable in the modal version of the Browser.
Incompatible—When on, displays materials or maps and shaders that are incompatible with the currently active renderer. The incompatible materials are displayed in gray. You can still assign incompatible materials, maps, or shaders to buttons where they would be legal, but if you use the current renderer, the results might not be correct. Default=off.
Root Only—When on, the material/map list displays only the root of the material hierarchy. When off, the list displays the full hierarchy.
The default state of Root Only depends on how you display the Browser. Generally, when you display the modeless Browser, you're selecting materials rather than maps (to begin with), so Root Only is on. However, when you display the modal Browser (by clicking a map button anywhere in the user interface), Root Only is off so you can see all the maps.
By Object—This is available only when you're browsing from either Scene or Selected. When on, the list displays materials by their object assignment in the scene. At the left are the names of the objects arranged alphabetically, with a yellow cube icons as in Track View. Applied materials are shown as children of the objects. When off, the list displays only material names.
This button group is displayed when you've chosen Material Library, Material Editor, Selected, or Scene in the Browse From group. All four buttons are displayed only when browsing from the Material Library; otherwise, only the Save As button appears.
Open—Opens a material library.
Merge—Merges materials from another material library or scene. When you click Merge, the Merge Material Library dialog is displayed. This file dialog lets you choose a material library or a scene. When you choose a library or scene to merge, the Merge dialog is displayed. This lets you select which materials to merge. If there are duplicate names among the materials you're merging, the Duplicate Name dialog is displayed so you can resolve the name conflicts.
This group of radio buttons is displayed only when you've chosen New under Browse From. It controls what types of maps the Browser displays in the material/map list. (The Browser displays materials regardless of this setting.)
2D Maps—Lists only 2D map types.
3D Maps—Lists only 3D (procedural) map types.
Compositors—Lists only compositor map types.
Color Mods—Lists only color modifier map types.