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

That's strange but I can't

That's strange but I can't seem to be able to replicate the crash. And also I don't see why it should happen as changing something in the material editor should have no effect on MatManager (that's why you have to update the material trough the right click menu after you are done editing).

In your sequence, when is MatManager opened, right from the start? Or at some point after you create the multi/sub in the material editor?

What happens if you do the same steps but apply the material from the material editor instead of from MatManager? Does is still crash?

Francisco Hermida's picture

I will explain the second

I will explain the second bug step by step:
- open material editor
- create a new multi/sub material in slot 1
- apply the multi/sub material in a object in the scene with the double click in matmanager
- change the number of multi/sub slots in the material editor
- error and crash.

Marco Brunetta's picture

Fixed the Library Path bug

Fixed the Library Path bug (hopefully). Re-download and let me know how it goes...

trick's picture

Looking forward to the final

Looking forward to the final version then :)

Marco Brunetta's picture

Humm, turning off the bitmap

Humm, turning off the bitmap in the viewport from the Material Editor seems to work for me. As long as you assigned the material to the scene from MatManager and then edit it in the Material Editor with the right click option you should be able to turn off the map.
It does not work however if the material was assigned on a different session of 3d Studio, as there's no way to recognize the material in MatManager as an instance of the applied material.
I'll see about adding an option to do this from the right-click menu, seems like a good idea.

I haven't yet worked out exactly how the license is gonna work. I'll poke around to see what's the best way to go about it. For now I'm thinking that the licenses sold while the script is in beta stage will not be transferable.

There should be no problems with Max2010.

Marco Brunetta's picture

Fixing the Library Storage

Fixing the Library Storage Path now. I'll upload the fixed version ASAP. Also about to shoot one beta tester.

Not really sure what you meant by the second bug. There's no way to change the number of materials of multimaterials from within MatManager. Could you give me a step by step example?

trick's picture

Ha, you're back...that's

Ha, you're back...that's good.
Looking forward to a fully functional script. I'm still missing a fast way to show/hide a bitmap on an object. Even the longer way by rightclicking a bitmap which pops up the material editor with the corresponding bitmap, you can not toggle the bitmap in the viewport !! I also hope registration is granted for both work and home PC (I'm specially under subscription for that) and that the license is transferable when you get a new PC !! Since some things are changed in the scripting area in Max2010 I also hope this has been checked !!

Francisco Hermida's picture

BUGS: -When i trying to

BUGS:
-When i trying to change the Library Storage Path i get this fallowing error: -- No ""get""function for undefined

-change the number of materials of the multimaterial (ex:50) causes a error: Maxscript dotNet Event handler Exception -- Runtime error: dotNet runtime exception: Not specified argument values out of range, name of paramter: index -- Crash at the end.

Marco Brunetta's picture

New Version is up... getting

New Version is up... getting close to a final release now.

I'm considering starting to sell licenses trough paypal (or some such system) to whomever would be interested, as the script is now almost completely functional. What do you guys think?

joescarr's picture

Hi Marco, we're looking

Hi Marco, we're looking forward to it! Plow forward! ;) Thanks!

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