Loading Materials

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Loading materials from material libraries

One way to add materials to your scene is by using 3ds Max material library (*.mat) assets. To add one or more materials to your scene:

  1. Start by selecting the related material assets in Connecter. You can select one or multiple material library assets or one or multiple materials contained in a selected library.
    NOTE: To make the browsing and selecting materials in a material library asset available, Connecter runs a dedicated instance of 3ds Max in the background and uses it to process *mat assets to read their content and metadata and generate preview thumbnails of the materials. Learn more about using dedicated instances and Connecter and working with material library assets.  
  2. Drag and drop the selection in your scene in 3ds Max. 
  3. The Integration will provide the workflows available for your current selection in the contextual menu that appears. Choose the desired workflow. Read in detail about each workflow below.

Loading single material workflow

When you drag and drop a material library containing only one material or a single material selected in Connecter, you can directly apply the material to a target object or selection in the scene:

load_materials_01.png

  • Assigning Material to target: When you drag material in the viewport and drop it while hovering over a scene object, the “Assign Material to target” option is available, showing in brackets the object name. Choosing the option will apply the material to the object.
  • Assigning material to a selection: When you drag and drop material in the viewport, and there is an object selection in the scene, the “Assign Material to selection” option is available, showing in brackets the number of objects in the selection. 

If the target object or the scene selection has multiple materials applied, an additional “Choose material to replace” option is available:

load_materials_02.png

Choosing the option will open the “Connecter | Select which materials to replace” dialog. There, the Integration will visualize all target objects or scene selection materials on the fly. To replace a material:

  1. Select one material from all visualized material slots.
  2. Click the Replace button.

select_material.png

Loading multiple materials workflow

When you drag and drop one material library containing multiple materials or multiple libraries from Connecter to your scene, the “Choose materials to load” option allows you to select one or multiple materials to use. The contextual menu shows relevant workflows available depending on whether you select one or multiple materials.

load_multiple_mats.png

To choose specific materials (from one material library containing multiple materials or multiple material libraries selection you’re dragging into your scene):

  1. Choose the “Choose materials to load” command from the contextual menu.
  2. Select one or multiple materials from the “Select which materials to import” dialog that appears.

select_material_2.png

NOTE: As material previews get generated in real-time, a larger number of materials or more complex materials may require considerable time to load.  

3. Click the Select button.
4. Choose the desired contextual command from the context menu to show the options relevant to your selection. 

NOTE: When you drag into the scene multiple materials you selected from a single material library in Connecter, only the “Load..” workflows are available:

load_materials_3.png

Loading materials in the Material Editor

Rather than directly applying materials to objects in the scene, you can only load materials. This workflow allows you to add append materials to the scene and later decide if and how to use them.

load_materials_3.png

The following options are available: 

  • Load All in Material Editor: Loads the materials into the Material Editor’s slots. Remember that only 24 material slots are available in the Material Editor interface. If your selection contains more than 24 materials, the excess won’t load.
    NOTE: This option will replace any existing materials loaded in the Material Editor slots so that you may lose work-in-progress materials not yet applied to objects in the scene.
  • Load All in Slate Material Editor (Current View): Loads the materials into the Slate Material Editor. This option will use the Current View to load the materials.
  • Load All in Slate Material Editor (New View): Loads the materials into the Slate Material Editor. This option will create a New View to load the materials.
  • Load as Material Library: Loads the materials to the scene’s Temporary Library.

load_mat_library.png

When you have a single material dragged from Connecter, the “Load” contextual commands are named slightly differently to match the single material selection but have the same functionality as when there’s a multiselection:

load_materials_4.png

Adding materials from 3D scene asset 

In addition to inserting materials into your scene from material libraries, you can get materials from any Max 3D asset in your Connecter library. When you drop a *.max 3D asset from Connecter into the scene, the “Use Materials” command is available in the contextual menu.

use materials.png

Click the “Use materials” command to open the available workflows. 

use materilas_options.png

Loading materials into the Material Editor

Adding materials with a drag and drop directly into the material editors in 3ds Max is impossible. Refer to the “Integration limitations" and "Known issues” sections.