In Model Materials

Dave R

My model is made up almost exclusively of components from my components library. Is this showing me the material/color from each of those components? Is there a way to merge/consolidate them?

Yes. That's why they are being duplicated. I think someone wrote an extension that can consolidate them. Have a look in the SCF Extension Store.

ntxdave

Thanks Dave

I think you might have been thinking of TIG's MaterialConsolidator. I will give it a try.

When I first searched the plugin store using the word 'material' it did not find it.

ntxdave

ITG's MaterialConsolidator is not longer available in the PluginStore. I installed ThomTom's Cleanup and that will do the trick.

Now I have one last (I hope) silly question. I see things like Color_005 and [Color_005]1 which are duplicate colors. How can I merge them?

I wish there was a way to tell which objects contained the color/material so I could go change them.

sdmitch

@ntxdave said:

ITG's MaterialConsolidator is not longer available in the PluginStore. I installed ThomTom's Cleanup and that will do the trick.

Now I have one last (I hope) silly question. I see things like Color_005 and [Color_005]1 which are duplicate colors. How can I merge them?
After you have changed all "[Color_0051" to "[Color_005]" using Shift key as previously describe, Window>Model Info>Statistics>Purge Unused should remove it from the model materials]

I wish there was a way to tell which objects contained the color/material so I could go change them.
Make [Color_0051 the current material then, using my Select by Material, choose option "Hide if not"]

ntxdave

OK guys, I am missing something about using the Shift key to change a color. Look at the animated gif below and tell me what I should be doing to make all three of these colors the same.

Materials Panel with same color names

Is there a tutorial somewhere that I can go read on how to do this properly? There are others as well.

@SDMitch when I download your plugin there is no RBZ file, do I just place it in my plugins folder? I also notice there is another plugin like yours in the SketchUcation Plugin Store but by another author.

sdmitch

@ntxdave said:

OK guys, I am missing something about using the Shift key to change a color. Look at the animated gif below and tell me what I should be doing to make all three of these colors the same.
First find a face in the model that has a color that you want to get rid of. To use my plugin, first make the color to be removed the current material. Next make the color you want to change it to the current material. Press and hold the Shift key down and paint anyone of the faces having the bad color.

[attachment=0:34fa5izk]Materials Panel.gif[/attachment:34fa5izk]

Is there a tutorial somewhere that I can go read on how to do this properly? There are others as well.

@SDMitch when I download your plugin there is no RBZ file, do I just place it in my plugins folder? Yes.

I also notice there is another plugin like yours in the SketchUcation Plugin Store but by another author.
I'm not surprised.

ntxdave

@sdmitch said:

@ntxdave said:

I also notice there is another plugin like yours in the SketchUcation Plugin Store but by another author.
I'm not surprised.

It has the same name as yours and yours is not in the store.

Once I identify the face I want to change can't I just paint it with the correct color? Why do I have to through the Shift key process?

BTW: I tried changing the name of one the colors to the one I wanted it to be and I get the message that the names must be unique.

sdmitch

@ntxdave said:

@sdmitch said:

Once I identify the face I want to change can't I just paint it with the correct color? Why do I have to through the Shift key process?

BTW: I tried changing the name of one the colors to the one I wanted it to be and I get the message that the names must be unique.

You would only need or use the Shift key if you wanted all faces with that 'color' to be changed. Otherwise only the one face will be changed.

A unique Color/Material name only make sense.

ntxdave

OK - I finally found it and am using it but have a couple more really dumb questions/comments:

I finally found it under Extensions>SDM Tools>Face Tool>Current Material (obviously changed since your video)
When I used Hide if Not it did exactly what it was supposed to however, how do I get back to view my entire model. I could not see what you did in your video to get out of that mode. I have tried all kinds of keys and selections but nothing seems to work. Good thing I went off and created a test to learn how to use the tool.
What are the other entries under the SDM Tools (Edge Tool, CorG Tool, Misc Tool)?

In 2017 I had a problem when I clicked on the Hide In Not selection. It just seemed to hang but then this was a much larger model so that may have been the reason. I will try with another test model to see if there is a problem.

I think this is going to help me change/clean up a rather complex model that I want to then use in Sketchfab.

sdmitch

@ntxdave said:

OK - I finally found it and am using it but have a couple more really dumb questions/comments:

When I used Hide if Not it did exactly what it was supposed to however, how do I get back to view my entire model.
Edit>Unhide>All should do it.

What are the other entries under the SDM Tools (Edge Tool, CorG Tool, Misc Tool)?
It was my attempt to make things more logical by making the plugins that use and/or create those type of entities.

ntxdave

Yep - that sure works. Hope that is the last of my dumb questions (at least on this topic).