MatManager
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.
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.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| MatManagerDemoSample.jpg | 98.57 KB |
| MatManager 0.6 Help.rar | 527.38 KB |
| MatManager_0.7_BETA.zip | 696.51 KB |
Comments
Well... I guess it's about
Well... I guess it's about time to finish this script. I've been on a bit of a vacation from 3dMAX and scripting, but there's a good chance I might have some free time this next couple of months...stay tuned....
Looks great - how do I
Looks great - how do I install the damn thing? :)
i did my own script similar
i did my own script similar to matmanage due the long time of wait :(, but when this script finally release i will buy certainly
www.boxofapps.com
Hi, -Is it possible to add
Hi, -Is it possible to add more materials in the new version? I remember liking this script awhile back but was frustated by the limits in number of materials and the fact that you could not get a version without this restriction. -Also, Could you add the possibility of docking to this script?
Very well actually... only
Very well actually... only I've decided to drastically change the way the data structure used by MatManager to a more object-oriented approach. This of course means TONS AND TONS of code re-writing and/or translation... fun!
However once it's done the benefits will be worth the effort. For instance, on the version uploaded here, you can only see the first level of texture maps in the materials. The version I'm rewriting is already capable of displaying the full tree of any material stored (including submaterials, all the texture maps levels in any material, etc.). In turn this will give the user the ability to directly edit or apply to the scene any of the nodes in the tree... pretty cool, if my head does not explode first.
Hows it coming along?
Hows it coming along?
www.boxofapps.com
Kinda of like a Material
Kinda of like a Material Replacer? Yes that is certainly doable... good idea!
I'll code an additional tool for matmanager.
Right now there is a tool called Synchronize Materials that does something similar but based on the material's name. You can use that to look for materials in the current selection that have the same name as the ones stored in matmanager and automatically replace them.
Can you make a feature that
Can you make a feature that works like that? you select a group of objects of a chair of plastic and metal, and the feature will list the selected materials and you can mark a specific material to replace to another material in the matmanager browser(ex: platic -> wood) so in this way i can replace materials of selected objects in a few clicks and on the traditional way to do this we need to import the material to material editor and select objects by material then open groups and select by material again, remove the old uvwmap and in the end apply a new material from matmanager.
we can't just replace the material in medit because the same material can be applied to other objects.
can you understand my english? hehe
www.boxofapps.com
Hi, now everything works
Hi, now everything works fine , i just want to pay for the final version hehe!
i made a script that apply the material with the uvwmap and remove the old uvwmap if it exist, the script don't work in the best way but prevent extra uvwmaps to be applied.
i'm studing maxscript inspired in this script that make our lifes more easier. thank you
www.boxofapps.com
I re-did most of the options
I re-did most of the options panel. Some of the options are not pluged-in yet, but you should be able to switch library storage path without problems. Let me know how it goes.