Managing materials on large scale projects.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

When I am working on larger projects I tend to use a lot of Xref Scenes. For example, I have one building right now that is broken into about 12 parts. I then have these pieces Xref'd back into a master file. This way I can manage my RAM by simply unloading and loading whatever portion I am working on.

 

The problem is these scenes tend to have the same materials. If I want to change a material, I have to go to every scene, and update the material library manually. It can be a real pain in the arse because the scenes are so heavy.

 

It would be nice to have an option in either the Xref Scene dialog that allows you to use materials in the master file, or maybe a check box in the render option that tells it to use a master material file for rendering. I think it would help in the production pipeline of large scale projects.

 

But anyway, I am posting this here instead of the feature request section because I think I might get some productive feedback on how others are managing this.

 

I could use Xref Objects, but if I remember correctly, Max gets finicky when the Xref'd files are modified, items deleted, or added, etc... They don't update in the same way Xref Scenes do.

 

Anyway, does anyone have a solution that is better than what I am doing?

[Dave Buchhofer]

I've been running into the same issues here, Here's a discussion that i saw on the vray forums a while back that talked about xref materials, but i haven't really had a chance to experiment with them myself yet.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

That is perfect.

 

For those that can not access the Vray forum. The basic premise is that you create one file that has all of the materials in that file, as well as an object for each material in that file. It is probably useful to make sure the object and the material are named the same thing, this will help keep things straight.

 

Now that you have your materials file created, go to the scene you are working in. Create a new material, and select Xref Material. Now assign this material to the proper geometry in your scene just like you would any other material.

 

There you have it, a master material file. Just use the Xref materials on each Xref scene you are creating.

 

To materials in the scene you are working on can be updated through teh Xref Objects dialog. If you launch the dialog, you will now notice that you have a materials file linked to your scene. Select it, and hit update.

 

It is not perfect, you will still have to set the name of each material individual in the scene, but it is a great start. It is probably best to setup a master file with the Xref'd materials in place, and properly named. Then use that master file to start all of your Xref files off of.

Edited November 19, 2008 by Crazy Homeless Guy

[Chad Warner]

That's a great tip. I often have the same issue as you, where there are several buildings that all have the same material, but are all different max files. This should save a lot of time.

[Justin Hunt]

As much as I hated rendering in Microstation they had a nice way of dealing with this type of problem

 

Basically, you have two text files, one the Pallete where all the material definitions are stored and the other a material assignment file.

 

Because ms materials are assigned to object colour and level it is easy to keep a material assignment file for each scene file. All the materials across the project are read from the pallete file, making is simple as to update and keep consistancy throughout. As these files are text based it is easy to make changes in notepad, negating the need to open each scene file to make the changes.

 

Down side is if two people are writing to the Pallet file who ever saves last over writes any changes the other perpson made.

 

I wonder if its is possible to do something similar with maxscript. Where a matlib is created and maintained, a list if xref files added and the script goes through each file to update the materials.

 

jhv

[chow choppe]

When I am working on larger projects I tend to use a lot of Xref Scenes. For example, I have one building right now that is broken into about 12 parts. I then have these pieces Xref'd back into a master file. This way I can manage my RAM by simply unloading and loading whatever portion I am working on.

 

The problem is these scenes tend to have the same materials. If I want to change a material, I have to go to every scene, and update the material library manually. It can be a real pain in the arse because the scenes are so heavy.

 

It would be nice to have an option in either the Xref Scene dialog that allows you to use materials in the master file, or maybe a check box in the render option that tells it to use a master material file for rendering. I think it would help in the production pipeline of large scale projects.

 

But anyway, I am posting this here instead of the feature request section because I think I might get some productive feedback on how others are managing this.

 

I could use Xref Objects, but if I remember correctly, Max gets finicky when the Xref'd files are modified, items deleted, or added, etc... They don't update in the same way Xref Scenes do.

 

Anyway, does anyone have a solution that is better than what I am doing?

 

hi travis

 

Can u tell me more about how xref scene helps in managing a scene.I have read visualization article but cudnt get it completely

what u mean is u make buildings in separate files and assign materials over there and then xref that building?. does it come at the same location on the plan where its supposed to be?

can u select the building objects individually and change materials after that? or u have to go back to the xref file to change it.

 

Is it better than using vray proxies?

 

Thanks

Edited November 25, 2008 by 3dsmaxed

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

xref scene helps in managing a scene.I have read visualization article but cudnt get it completely

what u mean is u make buildings in separate files and assign materials over there and then xref that building?. does it come at the same location on the plan where its supposed to be?

can u select the building objects individually and change materials after that? or u have to go back to the xref file to change it.

 

Is it better than using vray proxies?

 

Thanks

 

File > Xref Scene

 

They are different than Proxies, and they are better for some things, and worse for others. Xref Scenes come in handy when you have several people working on a project, or if you have a large project, and you only want to work on a portion a a time.

 

You divide the project up. Maybe one file for the site, one for the entourage, one for each building on the site. Then you create a master file, and Xref them into it.

 

They are better than Proxies because they are not frozen geometry like proxies. They can continue to be edited and developed through the life of a project. Proxies are better when it comes to managing memory at render time, and for placing thousands of objects into a scene.

 

Materials on Xref Scenes can only be edited if you have that scene open. That is what this post was originally about. Trying to figure out how to make the Xref Scene materials easier to edit. Typically I was opening up each scene, and updating the materials. This took awhile. With Xref materials, you can edit the material once, and have it update all of your scene files.