*New* Material Manager

Definitely on the to-do list with the 7.2 version coming out soon. I will need to revisit all the plugins.

Good!

The trouble with such a plugin is that new ideas easily come up.

… A new one: The hierarchy is displayed not from the top of the tree but shows a currently selected object in the scene. If it is not possible, the currently selected object in the scene is highlighted so that it is easy to locate it in the hierarchy window of the plugin.

This would be very helpful with a model with many objects.

Having searched the main forums and skimmed this entry, I do not see my answer, so I am going to ask it here, hoping for an answer.

I created a model in #D 7.1.2 and using the material manager I see that all objects in the model are Texdiff. I would like to change two of these objects to Tex (so that they would ‘glow’ in the night). How do I do that? Do I use the material manager in some way, or do I have to do it when the object is originally textured?

You can do it with the material manager or you can do it directly in the object properties dialogue where you have a row for each material used in the object.

[BLOCKQUOTE class=’ip-ubbcode-quote’][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-title’]quote:[/div][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-content’]Originally posted by DOM107:
Hi Paul,

I have one more request (the last one for this year, I promise): a button to automatically select the highlighted items.

Thanks again! [/div][/BLOCKQUOTE]

Paul, could you implement this, please? <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

I textured a model with the primary texture.

Now I need to add the specular map, the normal map, the RS keywords.

I thought I could do it with the material manager by selecting all objects using a specific primary texture file and then add the related map and keyword.
I cannot do it actually.

Could you please also allow such use of the material manager?
(adding the primary texture (and also the different maps) as a selection criterion).

It’s too bad material was not implemented as in some others 3D softwares where you define a material made of several properties that can then be applied to objects. Any change in the material is reflected in all the objects using the material.

Your wish is my …… <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

Will this do?

… plus for those still on version 7.1.2

Thanks Paul,

I appreciate this fast delivery and I was eager to use it… but although I get the popup saying that the dll has been successfully registered, I don’t see it in 3DC 8.1.7.

What I did (Windows 7 64 bit):
1) Right click on the cmd.exe and runas administrator
2) REGSVR32 ‘Program Files (x86)3DC 8PluginsMaterialManager.dll’

Are you sure, it’s compatible with 8.1.7+ and not only with 3DC 8.2?
8.1.7 plugins and 8.2 plugins were provided as separate zip files with different date and size inside.

I see the plugin again by registering the current official 8.1.7 version.

ahhh – sorry that was compiled with 8.2. I’ll try and find a copy of 8.1.7 to compile it tomorrow.

[BLOCKQUOTE class=’ip-ubbcode-quote’][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-title’]quote:[/div][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-content’]Originally posted by Paul Gausden:
ahhh – sorry that was compiled with 8.2. I’ll try and find a copy of 8.1.7 to compile it tomorrow. [/div][/BLOCKQUOTE]

Thanks. But don’t bother now. I’ll wait for the 8.2 build 1520 version.

Thanks for the upgrade.

I was able to get rid of the specular map, but not directly: I removed it from one object, selected the object in the material manager displaying the normal map (bump texture).
Then I checked the ‘specular map’ box with the empty field and apply it to all the highlighted / selected shapes with the same normal map.

Btw, how to empty a file name field in the checkable list?

Hello Paul,

Could you please implement the following request?

After selecting Diffuse, Diffuse Texture or Bump Texture in the Custom fields top list, when clicking on a shape in the material hierarchy, I would like to see the field value (like when selecting ‘Rail Sim’ in the Custom field top list) and I would like to see and change the value of RailSimX.

Right now, it seems that I’m unable to set RailSimX, for example, for all the shapes with a given primary texture.

Is an up-date of material manager.dll available for version 8.2.1600? The latest version I can find is for Build 8.1.7, but this does not work with 8.2.1600.

BFM