Menu Bar (Material Explorer Material Panel)

The lower Material panel menu bar contains various options for managing materials and the display of the lower panel window.

Select Menu

The choices here are the same as for the upper Scene panel Select menu, except that the choices to control name searching aren’t present.

Display Menu

Most of the choices here are the same as for the upper Scene panel Display menu, except that the choices about object display aren’t present.

Sync to Material Level

Synchronizes selection of map and sub-material levels in the Scene (upper) and Material (lower) panels. When both this choice and Sync To Material Explorer are on, selecting a material, map, or sub-material in the upper Scene panel displays the entire material tree in the lower Material panel. When Sync To Material Explorer is on but Sync To Material Level is off, selecting a map or sub-material in the upper Scene panel displays only that map or sub-material in the lower Material panel. Default=on.

Tools Menu

Render Map

Opens a Render Map dialog so you can render the selected map.

This choice is unavailable if you’ve selected a material instead of a map.

Clean MultiMaterials

Opens the Clean MultiMaterial utility so you can remove unused sub-materials..

Instance Duplicate Maps

Opens the Instance Duplicate Maps utility, so you can improve scene and rendering performance by turning duplicate maps into instances.

Change Material/Map Type

Opens the Material/Map Browser so you can change the material or map type.

Delete Sub-Materials/Maps

When one or more sub-materials or maps applied to a material are selected, deletes the selected sub-materials or maps.

Customize Menu

Toolbars

Opens a submenu with one choice, “Display,” that toggles display buttons to the left of the lower panel main window. These buttons mostly correspond to entries on the lower panel Display menu.

Thumbnail Size

Displays a submenu with two choices for thumbnail size in the lower window: Medium (the default), or Large.

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Sync to Material Explorer

When on, synchronizes selections in the lower Material panel with the upper Scene panel. When off, changing the selection in the Scene panel doesn’t change the Material panel, which continues to show the last material you selected before turning off Sync To Material Explorer. Default=on.