3ds Max - Material Instances
Tags: 3ds Max, 3ds Max 2010, Instance Material, Rendering
Software: 3DS Max 2010
Description: Solution to an issue with Instancing Materials in MAX 2010.
[Some of you may have run into this, many of you have likely already resolved it. This post is for the latter group. Enjoy.]
Issue: You create an instance of an object, apply a material, and by default, MAX 2010 instances the material to all objects rather than just the particular element you have selected.
Solution: Material Editor > Options > Propagate Materials to Instances (Uncheck, unless you are intending to have all instances have the same material)
This one has been bugging me for some time but I just got around to looking it up. Enjoy!
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Thanks, I have been Puzzled for long time!
I’m looking to do a similar function in Revit. Do you know if this is possible there too? I often lose the materials mapped in my template to components, etc. Thanks.
applies to references also (not only instances)
Great tip!
Thank you so much! This was driving me nuts! Except the opposite was true, I couldn’t make it apply the material to every instance.
Thanks!
My bigger question is, is there a way to consolidate identical materials in order to remove redundancy in a scene? In example, think of Material 1, Material 2, and Material 3, all standard materials, all with brick 1 in the diffuse channel, all identical. Now, imagine each one of these materials being part of a sub-object material. Since all three materials are identical, would there be an efficient way to make all Multi Sub-Object materials use ONLY Material 1? Is there a script or a function that compares materials for identity and consolidates them?
Has anyone found a solution to Kenneth Massey’s problem? I have the same issue where importing into Max from Rhino the .obj file produces hundreds of the same material, where there should only be one. Thanks
I am glad I am not alone with this issue!
Have you looked at Instance Duplicate Map under Utilities in the Material Editor?
Thank you KSCChicken, in fact I have looked into Instance Duplicate Map and it is a very helpful feature. It would be even more helpful if you could instance duplicate materials (including materials that don’t have maps). I often run into files that have a material called Color00, Color01, Color02, etc.. and they all are standard materials with all the same settings and the exact same shade of pink. That can get really annoying, especially if these materials are embeded as sub-objects of multi sub-object materials. SketchUp allows you to export meshes by material which is really convenient. In other words, you can break up multi sub-object meshes into their components by material when you export to *.3ds. This is extremely practical. Nothing like it in Max that I know of.