Question - Request: Materials CleanUp

[JClements]

So you've got a model and for various reasons it has used a ton different colors. The models has lots of groups and embedded groups several levels deep.

Some colors were applied to depict related processes or mechanical parts; however, there are many colors whose hue are very similar and only one of them is necessary.

So how to clean up the model such that fewest necessary colors/texures are saved with the model? How to determine which objects require the same exact color or whether the wrong color was applied to them?

The purge function helps somewhat. Rick Wilson's recolor script allows all colors to be stripped out, but that can be too radical.

Here are some ideas that come to mind. If there are other ways of accomplishing the same results perhaps the best methods could be incorporated into a script.

- A dialog that lists all colors in the model, perhaps with a usasge factor as a percentage.
- User picks a color (or perhaps colors) from the dialog and clicks a button to select all occurences in the ENTIRE CONTEXT or MODEL. Ifthe selection set is easily decernable that all selected entities within it should have the same color, then user could then select a color and the selection set is updated and the script ends.

• Ifthe selection set is too big or hard to interpret thena "search and replace" function is executed. The user clicks button to zoom/zoom next, which zooms to a selected entity in the selection set which opens the group or component to the editable level and user can then replace the color or not or tag the entity for replacement later on at the end of the script and advance to the next entity in the selection set where they repeat the cycle of tagging, skipping, or replacing the color. At the end of the search the user could then execute the color replacement of all tagged entities or just cancel.
  - User executes the purge function

[thomthom]

So you want to manually review it?
not automatically merge identical/similar materials

[JClements]

Hi Thom:

It just depends upon how colors are used in a model.

I would invision the user having the choice to review or to do a one-click "auto" replace.