material search

andy.engelkemier · February 01, 2016, 06:41:55 AM

When I import something from Rhino I get a Bunch of materials I don't want. So I need to sort through my existing materials and get those assigned.
I name all of my materials, so it's not Too bad. But it can still take some time.

My current workaround is to name all my materials starting with a zero. That puts the real materials at the top of the list. That's an annoying solution though.
It would be nice to have a search filter at the top so I could just type "cloth" or something like that to show me names containing that string. That way I can more quickly select what I want. Once you get a scene with more than 20 materials in it, it starts to become a bit cumbersome.
I'm cheating quite a bit, but if I actually created a realistic material for each piece then I'd be somewhere around 60 materials for this scene. And that's not all that uncommon. For a single product, sure, maybe that would be a bit much. But I've got 4 people and 9 products in this scene. That's quite a few materials to keep track of. Any way you guys can help out is appreciated.

INNEO_MWo · February 01, 2016, 08:11:00 AM

there are search filter for part names and material names as well. Click on the tiny drop down arrow next to the magnifier icon in the search field.

andy.engelkemier · February 01, 2016, 08:17:19 AM

Can you be more specific about where that might be? I know about the part one in the scene tab. But I'm not finding one in the materials section of the scene tab. I'm looking for scene materials, not the the material library. The material library doesn't tell you anything about your scene that I know of.
I'm not finding a way to search through the materials that are actually in your scene. Let me know if I'm missing it.

INNEO_MWo · February 01, 2016, 08:27:24 AM

Sorry. I can't reply your question with a screenshot. I'm sitting in a bus and writing with a mobile device.

A few short tips to find the goal.

Left upper corner in the scene tab you'll find a drop down menu to toggle the global filters for lights, parts, ... - turn off lights.
Than type your filter criteria in the search field.
Than click on the magnifier icon to toggle off the search options for part names. And now all parts with the material that fits your search criteria will be selected.

Hope that will help.

andy.engelkemier · February 01, 2016, 08:38:42 AM

Sorry. I must not have been clear.

I'm looking for a material search, to look for materials.

After importing files from Rhino you get materials like "Cloth:255,255,255" for every layer. But I may have named the material I actually want to use "Cloth blue mesh" so I would like to find the cloth blue mesh material without having to scroll through a list of 100 materials, so I can more easily select it and apply it to my parts. It's already an existing material in my scene.
Currently, there is no search option within the scene materials. This is something that does not exist, which is why I'm posting it in the wishlist area.

INNEO_MWo · February 01, 2016, 08:48:24 AM

Ah, I see. So I would search for cloth*blue, copy material, search for 255:255:255 and paste the material (separate or linked).

If you have a pro license you should use the material templates.
Material 'cloth blue' to all 'cloth*255:255:255' and apply to the current scene. Then you can use these templates while importing the rhino files and many work (set materials) is finished.

There is an impressing video in the tutorial section.

andy.engelkemier · February 01, 2016, 09:31:01 AM

that's cool. I actually didn't know how that worked.

It's too bad you can't do that with materials from your scene. I almost never add materials to the library. It's usually a one-time render that's needed very quickly. And we're often doing material exploration, so that wouldn't even make sense. One part might be chrome in one version, white in another, and blue in one.

I'd still like a way to search/filter the applied materials quickly. Basically it should be exactly the same as the search bar over parts.

INNEO_MWo · February 01, 2016, 11:05:05 AM

With material templates you can do exactly what you need. Here is the link to the tutorial:
https://youtu.be/ViVxWFRQV34?hd=1&fs=1&autoplay=1&rel=0

I left my Notebook in the office, so I can't create any examples.

So, hope that helps.

Head up (German phrase)

But. You can prepare your files in Rhino with a color code for different materials. Then you can use or create material templates sensitive to RGB codes like *:255:255:255 and apply the right material from the library. After that you can use the material template to the current scene - et voila - most work done and materials applied.