[Bf-funboard] Materials

[Campbell Barton]

Mabe there could be an option for a material lib in the preferences- 
Just like there are for default file paths

Then in the materials button panel you could have - Load From Library- 
The code behind it would be the same as append but start the user in a 
preset blend file, where all the materials are.

Append->File->Material->Gold<enter>
Select_object->material->gold


Correcting

Append->File->Ferret around the filesystem to find the material blend file->Material->Gold<enter>
Select_object->material->gold

I Know its small but looking for the right blend file can take a while, 
I know it remembers where you last were but thats not always what you 
want- EG, you might have been appending mesh's from a blend file before.
- Cam

PS
Some way to have thumbnails of the materials show in the append window 
would be cool- I could code this in python but not in blender/C







Robert Wenzlaff wrote:

>On Wednesday 22 September 2004 06:59, Konrad Haenel wrote:
>  
>
>>I really wonder what's wrong with simply using any .blend-file as your
>>personal storage for materials. All you have to do than is append some
>>material from that file to your current scene. How much easier could it
>>become? You can even make little cute scenes which show off the
>>materials on some spheres for quick reference (I do that, it's very
>>helpful).
>>    
>>
>
>Workflow.
>
>Append->File->Material->Gold<enter>
>Select_object->material->gold
>
>as opposed to
>
>Select_object->material->(Lib?)->gold
>
>The (Lib?) indicates a seperate step that might be involved in selecting a 
>Library material as opposed to a local one.
>
>If they were in the B.Blend, then they would just be in the Materials list 
>(with fake users so they never purge), but then every library material 
>becomes copied to every .blend you make.
>
>Plus neither method allows a heirarchy of materials (Material->Metal->Gold),  
>If you want 200 stock materials, they all just get dumped in an alphebetical 
>list (well, you could put all the metals in one .blend though, and sorta' do 
>this).  If you have the Blender texture CD, think about how useless it would 
>be if all the materials were just dumped in the same directory.
>
>The easiest way would be to include "Add Library" next to "Add New" (maybe 
>change that to "Add Default", and the texture menu then allows you to browse 
>a library (maybe use the Blender Texture CD as an example structure).  When 
>you select one, it appends it to the file and selects it for the current 
>object...  
>
>
>  
>


-- 
Campbell J Barton

133 Hope Street
Geelong West, Victoria 3218 Australia

URL:    http://www.metavr.com
e-mail: cbarton at metavr.com
phone: AU (03) 5229 0241