Material libraries are containers for all of the materials in a scene. Each time you create a material, it’s added to a material library. Although all of the materials in a scene belong to a library, they are used only by the objects to which they are assigned.
Storing materials this way makes it easy to share a single material among several objects. It also allows you to access and edit all of the materials in a scene from a single place. Furthermore, because materials belong to libraries and not to individual objects, you can delete an object from the scene, but keep its material for later use. If you no longer want to use a material, you can simply delete it once, regardless of the number of objects to which it’s assigned.
• Viewing Your Material Libraries
• The Default Material Library
• Storing Libraries: Internal or External
• Creating New Material Libraries
• Importing and Exporting Material Libraries
Viewing Your Material Libraries
The material manager is designed to let you easily view and manage your material libraries (see The Material Manager). Most of the commands that you need for managing your libraries are found in the Libraries menu.
You can open the material manager by pressing Ctrl+7 or choosing Modify > Materials from the Render toolbar.
You can also manage your libraries using an explorer with its scope set to Materials (press M).
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You can also view your material libraries by setting the explorer’s scope to Sources/Clips, and expanding the Sources node. The Material node under Sources has a List node that contains all the same libraries that you see when the scope is set to Materials. |
By default, every new scene has a material library called DefaultLib. Initially, the library contains only the default scene material (see The Default Scene Material), but all new materials that you create in the scene are added to the default library until you create or import a new library and set it as the current library.
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When you open a scene created in previous versions of Softimage, all of the materials in the scene are placed in the default material library. |
Storing Libraries: Internal or External
By default, material libraries are stored internally as part of the scene. However, you can store them externally, as dotXSI binary or text files, which allows you to share them between multiple scenes.
By default, every new material library is stored internally. Storing a material library internally means that it’s part of the scene and has full access to all scene data. This allows you to do things like write expressions that reference particular materials or link a material’s parameter’s to an object’s parameters.
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Even if a material is stored internally, you can still export it if you wish to share it. Just remember that the exported version is not linked to the scene and won’t reflect changes to either the library or its materials. For more information about exporting material libraries, see Importing and Exporting Material Libraries. |
Storing material libraries externally allows you to share them between scenes within a project or between projects. By default, external libraries are stored in the MatLib folder, which is part of the project structure; however, you can store external material libraries anywhere.
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Projects created in previous versions of Softimage may not have the MatLib folder. If this is the case, one is created the first time you save a scene with a material library that’s marked for external storage. |
Whether your external material libraries are binary dotXSI files or text dotXSI files is strictly a matter of preference, though the text format has the advantage of being human-readable. This allows you to manually edit a material library in a text editor without opening Softimage.
Once a library is stored externally, you can import it into other scenes. For more information about importing material libraries, see Importing and Exporting Material Libraries.
To change a material library’s storage options
1. Open an explorer and set the scope to Materials.
2. Click the icon of the material library whose storage options you wish to change. The library’s property editor opens.
3. Set the Storage parameter to Internal, External (dotXSI binary), or External (dotXSI text).
4. If you choose either of the External storage options, then you must enter a file name and path for the library.
The library is now stored externally, but the file is not created until you save the scene.
Unless you explicitly create a new material in another library (see Creating New Materials without Assigning Them), the current library is the one to which all newly created materials are added.
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Referenced libraries cannot be set as the default library. For more information about importing libraries by reference, see Importing Material Libraries by Reference. |
To set the current library
1. Open the material manager.
2. Click a tab for a material library in the shelf.
This library becomes the current library.
To set the current library using the explorer
1. Open an explorer and set the scope to Materials.
2. Right-click the library node that you want to set as the current library and choose Set as Current Library from the menu.
Creating New Material Libraries
You can create as many material libraries as you need. This is useful for categorizing the different types of materials in your scene. For example, you might want to keep separate libraries different types of materials (wood, metal, rock, skin, scales, and so on), or create a material library for each character in your scene.
To create a new material library
1. Open the material manager.
2. Do either of the following:
- Right-click a library tab in the shelf and choose New Material Library.
or
- Choose the Libraries > New Material Library command from the command bar.
A tab for the new library appears in the shelf and it automatically becomes the current library.
To create a new material library using the explorer
1. Open an explorer and set the scope to Sources/Clips.
2. Right-click the Materials node, or the List node below it, and choose Create New Material Library from the menu.
Importing and Exporting Material Libraries
You can import material libraries, directly or by reference, and export them. These tasks are described in the following sections.
You can import any externally stored material library into a scene. By default, the imported library is stored internally as part of the scene (Storing Libraries: Internal or External).
If you would rather import the library without adding it to the scene, you can import it by reference as described in the next section, Importing Material Libraries by Reference.
To import a new material library
1. Open the material manager.
2. Do either of the following:
- Right-click a library tab and choose Import Material Library.
or
- Choose the Libraries > Import Material Library command from the command bar.
3. From the browser that opens, choose a material library to import and click OK.
The material library is imported into the scene and becomes a part of it. By default, it is stored internally. A new tab for the library appears on the shelf.
To import a material library using the explorer
1. Open an explorer and set the scope to Sources/Clips.
2. Right-click the Materials node, or the List node below it, and choose Import Material Library from the menu.
3. From the browser that opens, choose a material library to import and click OK.
Importing Material Libraries by Reference
Referenced libraries are externally stored material libraries that you import into a scene by reference rather than adding them to the scene. Referenced libraries can belong to another scene, or can be libraries that you’ve exported to a storage directory. When you make changes to a referenced library, those changes are reflected in any scene into which you’ve imported the library.
For example, you could create a master scene that an artist uses to create and test materials. The material libraries in this scene can then be stored externally and imported into several other scenes as referenced libraries. Those libraries’ materials can then be used by other artists, but there’s no danger that they’ll be accidentally altered or deleted since changes can only be made in the master scene.
When you import a material library by reference, you’ll notice that the library and all of its materials are locked such that you can apply them to scene objects, but you cannot modify them. For more information, see Locking and Tagging Scene Elements [Data Management].
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If changes have been made to a referenced library that you’ve imported into a scene, the library is not updated until you close the scene and reopen it. |
To import a material library by reference
1. Open the material manager.
2. Do either of the following:
- Right-click a library tab and choose Import Referenced Material Library.
or
- Choose the Libraries > Import Referenced Material Library command from the command bar.
3. From the browser that opens, choose a material library to import and click OK.
The material library is imported into the scene. The library and all of its materials are locked. A new tab for the library appears on the shelf.
To import a library by reference using the explorer
1. Open an explorer and set the scope to Sources/Clips.
2. Right-click the Materials node, or the List node below it, and choose Import Referenced Material Library from the menu.
3. From the browser that opens, choose a material library to import and click OK.
You can export material libraries as dotXSI text files. Exporting a library is not the same as storing it externally. Internal libraries that you export continue to be stored internally until you specify otherwise.
To export a material library
1. Open the material manager.
2. Select the library you want to export by clicking its tab in the shelf.
3. Do either of the following:
- Right-click the library tab and choose Export Material Library.
or
- Choose the Libraries > Export Material Library command from the command bar.
4. From the browser that opens, specify a name and path for the exported library and click OK.
To export a material library using the explorer
1. Open an explorer and set the scope to Materials.
2. Do one of the following:
- Right-click the icon of the material library that you want to export and choose Export Material Library from the menu.
or
- Click the icon of the material library that you want to export to open its property editor. From the property editor, click the Export Library button.
3. From the browser that opens, specify a name and path for the exported library and click OK.
You can rename material libraries as you would any other scene element.
To rename a material library
1. Open the material manager.
2. Do one of the following:
- Right-click the tab for a material library and choose Rename or press F2, then enter the new name.
or
- Click a library tab and choose the Libraries > Rename Material Library command from the command bar.
You can also rename material libraries as any other scene element using the explorer.
You can delete material libraries from the explorer as you would any other scene element. If you delete a library that’s stored externally, it is not deleted from the project, but simply removed from the scene.
To delete a material library
1. Open the material manager.
2. Click a library tab in the shelf.
3. Do either of the following:
- Right-click the library’s tab and choose Delete Material Library.
or
- Choose the Libraries > Delete Material Library command from the command bar.
To delete a material library using the explorer
1. Open an explorer and set the scope to Materials.
2. Select the library that you want to delete and do one of the following:
- Press Delete.
or
- Right-click the library and choose Delete from the menu.
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