Materials

Use

Materials are composed of composite layers that reflect the material properties. They’re designed to principally reflect those attributes associated with maps and applied textures, rather than color or scalar variables.

You can control materials in a number of ways by using the following:

Materials folder
Materials panel
Display menu on the Navigation toolbar
Object and Material Properties windows

The Materials panel displays the materials as thumbnails, the number of textures that have been applied to each material, the maps to which the textures have been applied, if the opacity had been modified, and if the UV offsets have been modified.

You can choose to display the scene’s default material, or any other materials that have been applied to the scene’s objects. Note that when the default material is used, the scene’s materials don’t display.

A context menu is available from where you can perform various material functions including creating new materials, removing unused materials, and merging duplicate materials, and keyboard shortcuts are available for the display of materials and textures; the viewport label shows whether textures are being hidden.

Activities

Creating a Material

Do one of the following:

Choose on the Materials panel toolbar.
Right-click in the Materials folder or Materials panel, and select Create Material.

Viewing Materials

Open the Materials folder or Materials panel.

Removing a Material from Objects

Drag the default material from the Materials folder or Materials panel to the object in the scene. All materials are replaced by the default material.

Removing Unused Materials

Do one of the following:

Click , then select Remove Unused Materials on the Materials panel toolbar.
Right-click in the Materials folder or Materials panel, and select Remove Unused Materials.

Merging Duplicate Materials

Do one of the following:

Click , then click Merge Duplicate Materials on the Materials panel toolbar.
Right-click in the Materials folder, and select Merge Duplicate Materials.

Duplicating a Material

Select the material you want to duplicate, right-click in the Materials folder or Materials panel and select Duplicate Material.

Deleting a Material

Select the material you want to delete, right-click in the Materials folder or Materials panel and select Delete Material.

Renaming a Material

Right-click the material you want to rename in the Materials folder or Materials panel, and select Rename Material.
Type the name you want and press ENTER.

Selecting Objects associated with a Material

Do one of the following:

Click on the Materials panel toolbar, and click the required material in the list.
Click the material in the Materials panel for which you want to select the objects.
Right-click the material in the Materials panel for which you want to select the objects, and choose Select Objects.

Separating by Material

Select the required object in the viewport.
In the menu, choose Actions 3D Actions Separate by Materials.