3ds Max 2012 Bible - Kelly L. Murdock [201]
Selecting objects by material
If you want to select all the objects in your scene with a specific material applied (like the shiny, gold material), then select the material in the View pane and click on the Select by Material button in the toolbar or use the Utilities⇒Select Objects by Material menu. This command opens the Select Objects dialog box with all the objects that have the selected material applied. Clicking the Select button selects these objects in the viewport.
Setting Slate Material Editor preferences
You open the Slate Material Editor Options dialog box, shown in Figure 15.4, by selecting the Options⇒Preferences menu. The top option lets you choose how the nodes are oriented. You also can select to hide the Additional Parameters and mr Connection set of parameters, use anti-aliased fonts, and set the number of default materials in a multi-subobject material and the grid spacing. The Bitmap Path Editor lets you set where to look for maps. By default, this is set to the maps directory where Max is installed, but you can change it to your current project folder.
FIGURE 15.4
The Slate Material Editor Options dialog box offers many options for controlling the Slate Material Editor window.
Removing materials and maps
If you accidentally apply an unwanted material to an object, you can replace the material with another material by applying a new material onto the object. If you want to view the object color within the viewport, then open the Display panel, and in the Display Color rollout, select the Object color option for Wireframe and Shaded. The Material Color options display the material color in the viewports.
If you apply a material or map to an object that doesn't look just right and tweaking it won't help, you can always return to square one by removing the material or any mappings that have been applied to the object. The tool to remove materials and maps is the UVW Remove utility. You can access this utility by clicking the More button in the Utility panel and selecting UVW Remove from the list of utilities.
This utility includes a single rollout that lists the number of objects selected. It also includes two buttons. The UVW button removes any mapping coordinates from the selected objects, and the Materials button removes any materials from the selected objects. This button restores the original object color to the selected objects. Alternatively, you can select the Set Gray option, which makes the selected object gray when the materials are removed.
Using utilities
Within the Utilities menu are several additional commands. The Render Map command lets you render out the selected map node. Once rendered, you can save the results to a file. The Render Map dialog box also lets you render out animated maps.
New Feature
The Utilities menu was previously only available in the Compact Material Editor, but in 3ds Max 2012, it is also in the Slate Material Editor. •
The Clean MultiMaterial utility removes any unused maps from the material tree and the Instance Duplicate Map identifies and uses instances of duplicate maps throughout the scene.
Cross-Reference
More information on using the Clean MultiMaterial utility is covered in Chapter 18, “Creating Compound Materials and Using Material Modifiers.” The Instance Duplicate Map utility is presented in Chapter 17, “Adding Material Details with Maps.” •
Using the Fix Ambient utility
Standard material types always have their Ambient and Diffuse colors locked together. If you have older files with unlocked Diffuse and Ambient colors, the Fix Ambient utility can be used to locate and fix all materials in the scene with this condition. To access this utility, open the Utilities panel, click the More button, and