Materials

[perk]

I have a large model which I have inherited from several newbies who had worked on it at various times. I am trying to clean up the mess I was left with. I have already purged unused layers, components and materials but I have found that there is still a lot of cleaning up to do. I was able to clean up the layers fairly well by deleteing the layer and chosing to send the geometry to either the default layer or to a current layer.

Is there a way to do the same with the materials? It has a large material library with mutipul duplicates of the same material. I would like to merge those materials together or delete several of them so I only have one of each different material. If I chose to delete it it only gives me the option to repalce with the default material.

Does anyone have a helpful tip

Thaks
Jeff

[todamgood4U]

Ugh...I feel your pain. My boss likes to "play" with models once in a while and sometimes I have to take his work and use it. Sometimes its easier to start over, but other times I just don't have the time and need to cry through it.

Unfortunately I have no good news for you that I know of. I have done the delete to default many times because I was working in the materials anyway and repainting/retexturing wasn't an issue.

Would be nice to be able to specify or have some control like in the layers menu. Seems like something easy to implement too. Same dialog box with a check for default or check for (selection).

[perk]

Maybe this should be posted in the wish list.

[modelhead]

I usually open a seperate instance of SU.

I just "control C, control V the components that I want to the clean version running, one piece at a time. This way the only materials you end up with are the materials in-use by the model.

EDIT: Sorry!! I was sure I had done that before but I just tried to be sure and nope...sorry. I will experiment.

[modelhead]

Here is a solution to the materials thing...I have tested it and it works fine for me. Just export your model in dfx format but click options in the export dialogue and turn everything off but the faces. Now just import the dfx. In my case the materials as well as any photo matching disappear...you will not find them as in-model anymore. All that seems to remain are named colors...if there are none in model it comes accross clean as a whistle.

Cheers!
edit:now if one of our ruby heroes can take the time to script this up. I think it would get a lot of use.....thanks guys!!!!

forgot: you will need to rescale your model to .08333333 as the conversion blows up the model x12.

[Anssi]

Modelhead,

Set your export or import unit options to Inches instead of Feet in the Options dialog (button under the preview pane in the file dialog)

Setting materials to the default can also be done in the Materials browser by right-clicking on a material swatch and selecting Delete.

Maybe some Ruby guru has written or could write a script that could merge materials.

Anssi

[modelhead]

Thanks Anssi....inches to feet works better... thanks for that.

[modelhead]

Anssi....I couldn't find that setting. The SU export options dialogue doesn't seem to have it. I am exporting out of SU and then back into SU. This replaces the material with a clean face insted of the default material.

[Anssi]

Modelhead,

You are right, SU seems to always export using the units specified in Model Info. However, import units can be set, and the default is Feet whatever your Model Info says.

Anssi

[modelhead]

Yes I see now...thanks very much!!....cheers!