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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zhang's picture

Very strong, I support!!!

Very strong, I support!!!

Marco Brunetta's picture

Updated to version 0.7.

Updated to version 0.7. Check the info for more details.

EDIT: heres what the new Preview Panel looks like:

You can open it by double clicking on a library name and materials can be drag and dropeed directly into the scene objects. =D

Marco Brunetta's picture

Included a small video

Included a small video showing some features. I'll put something a bit more elaborated once I have the time.

Marco Brunetta's picture

Thanks for your purchase, I

Thanks for your purchase, I trust everything went well with the authorization?

carlos's picture

buy it :)

buy it :)

Marco Brunetta's picture

I'd say sometime before the

I'd say sometime before the end of the week...

carlos's picture

so, what u think how many

so, what u think how many time to have paypal working?

tkx

Marco Brunetta's picture

I uploaded the Help File.

I uploaded the Help File. Let me know if you guys find any typos...

And you'll find the link to the temporary webpage inside too. The buy page is not up yet... but soon.

Also, I did some small changes to the license system. The script will not be hardlocked to the computer, instead it will be hardlocked to a network device of your choice. This means the license can be moved by moving the device.
Not perfect.. but it's a bit better than pure hardlock to the pc.

Marco Brunetta's picture

Sure thing. As far as coding

Sure thing.

As far as coding all of the features are currently implemented. I do however find small bugs even now and then, so the project is still in beta stage. And there are enough entries in the to do list to keep me busy for the next couple of years =).

My plan right now is to create the webpage and a help file and start selling licenses ASAP. On this side the web page design is completed, and I'm currently working on the filling the pages. The help file is about 25% done and growing rapidly.

Pricing will be 10 euros per license while the program is in beta stage, and will probably increase to something like 15-20 euros once the 1.0 version is out. This will include future patches and updates of course.

Even though I'm not too happy about it, the licenses will be hardlocked to the computers, meaning that the licenses will be non-transferable. I do however plan to have a special discount for a 2 licenses purchase, as most people seem to have at least 2 computers they work on (at least). And of course should someone be interested in purchasing several licenses at one he should contact me for a special discount.

KVMaster's picture

Marco - any update on the

Marco - any update on the ETA of the full version and pricing? I'm on board and would like to add this to our office's SOP ASAP!!

Thanx in advance

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