Positioning anisotropic material

[Somurun]

Hi,

I am trying to center the material on a shaft, problem is that the shaft is hollow. If there was an option to use the mapping tool I would have figured this one out, but now there only seems to be the "click to position" option and it's hard to do that when there is nothing there to click on. I hope the attached image will explain my problem further. I want the effect to be centered at the small red dot.

How do I achieve this?

[HaroldL]

Make sure the texture is centered on the part. You can also use the Move tool to rotate and move the texture into position.

[Somurun]

Thanks for the answer, HaroldL.
I have no problem placing the radial brushed texture. That one has the option to use the mapping tool which is really simple. What I don't get is how to place the anisotropic effect itself where there is no solid surface. The only way of placing it, at least as far as I can see, is by clicking on a surface.
Or am I missing something obvious?

[HaroldL]

Anisotropic is a material type. I don't think you can reposition it, just like you can't reposition Metal, Paint or Plastic. You only have control over the textures that you apply to the material. In this case it would be Brushed or Brushed (Radial).
I have noticed, though, that there seems to a change in how Anisotropic material behaves in v9.3 from v8 or v7. Maybe one of the KS gurus can enlighten us on any changes.

[Somurun]

Yes, maybe it is a matter of the material properties differing from version to version. I'm running 6.3 and I guess quite a lot has changed since that one was released...
In case one of the gurus stumbles on this topic, I have attached another image in which the issue is quite clear. In this case there is no texture applied, only the anisotropic material and the only positioning tool available seems to be the "Position" option.

[TGS808]

If all else fails, add a disc to your scene at the center of your part. Link the part's material to the disc. With the disc in place you'll now have a center point to click on to set a position that will spill over to your part because they are linked. Once you have it where you want it. Delete the disc. Should serve as an work around if no other solution presents itself.

[Eric Summers]

I don't remember when anisotropic changed, but in later versions you can use the move tool to reposition the radial anisotropic.

If clicking is the only option you have when you click Position, what happens if you click Reset? I would think if the origin of your part is in the center resetting it could do the trick. And TGS beat me to the helper geometry option, so I'll just say "ditto to that" .