Previewing and Browsing Materials in Connecter

Feature availability 🛈
✔️ Personal ✔️ Suite 🧩 Supported 3ds Max Versions

Overview

Connecter provides a comprehensive interface for previewing and interacting with materials stored in .mat libraries and .max scene files. Whether organizing a library of reusable shaders or extracting materials from existing project files, Connecter helps you visualize and work with materials efficiently, down to sub-materials and individual texture maps.

This guide explains how material previews and metadata are generated, and how to interact with the materials and their components through the Material Preview and Material Browser tabs.

Material Preview Tabs

When you select a material-related asset (e.g., .mat or .max file) in Connecter, one of two dedicated preview tabs will appear:

Material Library Previews – Used for .mat assets. Shows a visual list of all materials inside the material library.
Asset Materials – Used for .max assets. Displays the materials used in the selected 3ds Max scene.

👉 NOTE: Only materials assigned to objects in the scene are shown – materials that exist only in the Material Editor but aren’t applied to any objects won’t be displayed.

👉 NOTE: These two tabs offer an identical layout and browsing experience but serve different asset types. While they may look the same, their functionalities aren’t identical. For example, you can rename, delete, copy, or paste materials in the Material Library Previews tab. Due to the nature of .max files, however, these actions are unavailable in the Asset Materials tab.

How Material Previews and Metadata Are Generated?

Connecter uses different methods to extract and display material previews and metadata depending on the asset type and environment:

For .mat Libraries

When a .mat asset is selected, Connecter first checks if a user instance of 3ds Max is currently running:

If a user session is active, Connecter uses it to load the .mat file, extract metadata, and generate previews. This method is fast and doesn’t interfere with your workflow.
If no user session is available, Connecter launches a dedicated background instance of 3ds Max to perform the same task. This may take a few extra moments as the service starts up.

In either case, Connecter retrieves:

Material names and types.
Renderer name.
Preview thumbnails.

For .max Scene Files

Connecter always uses a dedicated background instance of 3ds Max to extract material data from scene files. The selected file is opened in isolation, and the Connecter reads the embedded materials and displays them in the Asset Materials tab.

This fully automated process runs without affecting your current 3ds Max session or the original file.

For more details on how these background operations work, see: Using Dedicated Services.

Caching and Reusing Material Data

Once Connecter generates the material previews and metadata for a .mat or .max asset, this information is stored locally, allowing it to be displayed instantly the next time the asset is selected. This eliminates the need to reprocess the file unless it has changed, making browsing much faster and more responsive.

Depending on your Connecter setup, two features help optimize this behavior:

Local Precaching (Personal Workspace) – This feature automatically caches preview and metadata on your local machine, ensuring quick access to previously browsed materials – even when working offline or without relaunching 3ds Max.
Metadata Harvester (Connecter Suite only) – Designed for team workflows, the Harvester processes .mat and .max files and saves the metadata on shared storage in advance. This allows all users in your team to instantly view material previews and metadata without having to generate them locally.

These caching and harvesting features ensure that material workflows in Connecter remain fast, scalable, and consistent – whether you're working solo or in a collaborative studio environment.

Generating Custom Previews for .mat Libraries

Beyond the automatic previews of individual materials, Connecter also supports generating a high-quality custom preview image for a .mat asset itself. This preview represents the entire library, rather than its individual contents, and appears in the Asset View – helping you quickly identify and visually browse through .mat files.

The custom preview is rendered automatically using a predefined 3ds Max studio scene and is linked directly to the .mat file. It provides a cleaner, more intentional thumbnail – ideal for libraries that group materials by theme, function, or visual style.

This feature uses dedicated 3ds Max instances and supports fully customizable studio setups, making it flexible for both personal and team workflows.

For complete instructions on setting up and using this feature, see Generate Custom Previews in Connecter.

Interacting with the Preview Tabs

Each preview tab displays top-level materials as thumbnails with names and basic metadata. These previews give you a fast, visual way to understand and work with the available materials before bringing them into 3ds Max or exploring their sub-components in Connecter.

From here, you can:

Select individual or multiple materials for use in Loading materials workflows.

👉 NOTE: For a guide on loading or applying materials, see: Loading Materials.

Click a material to browse its component hierarchy in the Material Browser tab.

Exploring Materials in the Material Browser

When a single material is selected in the Material Library Previews tab (for .mat assets) or the Asset Materials tab (for .max assets), the Material Browser tab becomes available. It shows a tree view of the selected material’s sub-components, including:

Sub-materials.
Maps and textures.
Nested shader elements (e.g., falloff, blend, mix).