MatManager

47 votes
Version: 
BETA 0.7
Date Updated: 
06/04/2009
Author Name: 
Marco Brunetta

 

MatManager is a collection of tools created to help
you, the artist, control your materials and allow you to make the most of
them. It was designed to complement 3D Studio, keeping a clean and
streamlined interface where every action takes as few clicks as
possible.

Normally 3D Studio only allows one material library to be open at any time, and saving a material for later use on another project requires a very tedious procedure. So tedious that most users don’t reuse materials or keep an organized database of the ones they have created.

MatManager gives you the ability to store an unlimited amount of materials. There is no need to browse for a material library or scene file, once you have stored a material it will always be there, just one click away. Plus, the materials can be organized into different libraries so that they can easily be found, even if you have hundreds stored. And of course there is no limit to the number of libraries you can have.

This however is only the start, MatManager comes with a lot more features.

MATERIAL EDITOR AND SCENE LIBRARIES
MatManager allows you to easily browse and manipulate materials in the scene and the material editor thanks to two special libraries. Both of these libraries are updated automatically and can be used to do things like quickly identify which objects are using a certain material, or find shaders with missing bitmaps.

AUTO.STORE BITMAPS
When saving a material that uses bitmap files, MatManager will automatically copy the bitmaps to a pre-configured location. This will automatically keep your bitmaps organized and you will never have problems with missing bitmaps!

MATERIAL PREVIEWS
MatManager will display a preview of your materials and also of all the sub-materials and textures that those materials use. It’s also capable of recognizing different kinds of shaders (standard, mix, blend, etc.)and adjusting the tree accordingly.

STORE UVW MAPS
Besides the material itself, you can also store the UVW modifier that material is using. This way you won’t have to waist time re-creating the UVW coordinates for your architectural materials.

MATERIAL SHARING
All the materials are stored in .mat files in your hard drive, this makes sharing of materials and libraries really easy even with people who do not have MatManager installed.

COMPATIBILITY
MatManager is compatible with any and all materials and rendering engines. As long as your 3D Studio is able to load the material, so will MatManager. And of course the previews can be rendered with the engine of your choice.

OTHER TOOLS
Besides all of these features, MatManager comes bundled with extra tools that will give you even more control over your materials and allow you to work faster and more
efficiently.

Additional Info: 

THIS IS A COMMERCIAL SCRIPT.

If you have not authorized MatManager, it will run in Demo Mode. While in Demo Mode, only 5 custom libraries can be created, and they can only store up to 5 materials each. All other features are fully functional. MatManager licenses can be purchased trough PayPal at the website.

NOTE: MatManager is still considered BETA, so it is possible that you might encounter a bug, if so please report it either here or to me directly trough the link in the webpage.

To install the script just extract to your Max folder and look under the tools category for MatManager.

If you need any help, or you wish to learn more about the script you can download the help file below.

 

NEW IN MATMANAGER 0.7

- Fixed: bug in Random Materials Tool
- Fixed: "Unknow struct member" bug
- Fixed: bug in demo mode - MatManager would not load more than 4 materials instead of 5
- Fixed: the "Remove Map" option no longer shows up on first level map nodes
- Fixed: bug when assigning materials - MatManager assigned an instance of the stored material instead of a copy

- Tweaked: when the Material Editor is open, selecting a material from the MATERIAL EDITOR library will make the corresponding slot the one currently active
- Tweaked:Forced Vray log window off when rendering previews
- Tweaked: several small changes to accomodate for new Modifier Saving
ability (changed UVW: label to Modifiers: / created rollout for
importing several modifiers / changed right click options)
- Tweaked: better support for Mray, Vray & FinalRender when creating previews

- Added: right click menu when clicking on empty area of the treeView
- Added: Sorting of libraries alphabetically to right click menues
- Added: ALL modifiers can now be saved and retrived using XML format
- Added: treeView resizing when extending the floater
- Added: Isolate Objects option to Scene Materials right click menu
- Added: modifier options to Options Panel
- Added: material previews display floater
- Added: double clicking the Material Editor library opens the Material Editor
- Added: import multiple materials rollout updated. It now uses checkboxes and displays modifiers associated with the materials

NOTE: IF YOU HAVE A PREVIOUS VERSION OF MATMANAGER INSTALLED, MAKE SURE YOU OPEN THE OPTIONS PANEL AND CLICK OK AFTER INSTALLING THE NEW VERSION. This will update the .ini file with the new options regarding modifier storage, you might enocunter some errors otherwise.

NOTE Nº2: The new modifier storage system is not compatible with the old UVW storage, so previously stored UVW maps will not work. I'll make a small tool to update the old ones automatically in the next few days.

 

Version Requirement: 
MAX 9 sp2
Video URL: 
AttachmentSize
MatManagerDemoSample.jpg98.57 KB
MatManager 0.6 Help.rar527.38 KB
MatManager_0.7_BETA.zip696.51 KB

Comments

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Marco Brunetta's picture

Or a real installer

Or a real installer actually. I agree with you, I'll figure out a better installation scheme for future releases.

Thanks!

kino's picture

Nice script, but

Nice script, but installation could be easier, maybe .MZP-file with drag'n'drop install ?

This script proves the fact that the Max's material editor (and whole material workflow) needs a complete re-write asap !

Marco Brunetta's picture

Well the whole point of

Well the whole point of MatManager is NEVER having to load a .mat file. Materials stored in MatManager are always present whenever you launch the script.

As for the material editor, MatManager alway lists every material in the scene, and you can easily modify them or send them to the material editor.

I am however always interested in how to improve on MatManager's workflow, so thanks for the suggestions.

Work on this script has been delayed as I've been working on something very very cool, that hopefully will be ready on the next few days. I promise is worth it. =D

peprgb's picture

maybe it's not the aim of

maybe it's not the aim of MatManager, but one usefull feature on SM is to load several .mat files (containing inside some materials) and to get those in use when you want, instead of looking many times for the path in your pc, you have in SM a list with the .mat (loaded only one time) that you can chose and put in use in a moment.

Another nice is the possibility of cleaning the mt editor and load in one time all the mats in scene in the material editor (forgotten the old materials you dont need)

if need some example i can do a screencast!!

regards and keep the good job Marco!!

Marco Brunetta's picture

Thanks! Could you elaborate

Thanks!

Could you elaborate on that? I've only seen the sample videos for Super Material and it seems to me that MatManager can already do a lot more with regards to material storage and retrieval.

peprgb's picture

great tool, very usefull,

great tool, very usefull, maybe one feature i think will be great is the feature of Super Material 3.0 for manage temporaly material libraries qith the Quick materials.

waiting for new releases!!

GeorgeR's picture

Thanks Marco! It now works

Thanks Marco! It now works in a scene that it previously didn't, so I assume it fixed it :D

Marco Brunetta's picture

Sure, here's a replacement

Sure, here's a replacement for the functions file, replacing the old one with it *SHOULD* fix the issue. Let me know how it goes.

AttachmentSize
MatManager-FUNCTIONS.mse 65.23 KB
GeorgeR's picture

Marco could you just fix the

Marco could you just fix the bug with the empty multi-mat slot in this current version? Right now MatManager is a no-go as soon as I add my vegetation :(

Marco Brunetta's picture

Yeah, it's certainly doable.

Yeah, it's certainly doable. I'll have a look at the xref material. Thanks for the idea.

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