The main window of the Material Explorer lower Material panel can contain several columns with information about the currently selected material. Some kinds of columns contain editable cells.
Right-Click Menu for Column Labels
When you right-click the label of a column in the Material Explorer lower panel, 3ds Max opens a menu that has several options to control column display:
- Sorting choices Let you choose how the column is sorted.
Also, you can cycle through these options by clicking the column label.
- Configure Columns Displays a dialog that lets you configure which columns appear in the window.
- Best Fit options Choose Best Fit to resize the column whose label you right-clicked, or choose Best Fit (All Columns) to resize all columns. Columns are resized to fit the width of their contents.
Columns
- Name
-
Shows the names of materials, maps, and sub-materials. You can edit cells in this column: click a cell, then click or drag on it again to highlight text, and type a new name for the material or map.
Note: Even if you hide the Name column, the hierarchy always appears on the left-hand side of the lower panel window.Default column.
- Property
-
For maps, shows the name of the material channel to which the map has been assigned. For example, “Diffuse Color (Reflectance).”
For materials, cells in this column are blank.
Default column.
- Texture Size
-
For bitmaps, shows the dimensions of the map; for example, “512*512”.
For materials and procedural maps (whether 2D or 3D), the cells in this column are blank.
Default column.
- UV Coordinates
-
For 2D maps, cells in this column correspond to the Mapping List on the Coordinates rollout for 2D maps. You can edit these cells: Click the cell to open a drop-down list that lets you choose among mapping types.
For materials and 3D procedural maps, the cells in this column show “None.”
- Mapping Channel
-
For 2D and 3D maps, cells in this column show the Map Channel value. You can edit cells in this column: Click a cell, then drag across the value. While the value is highlighted, you can type a new Map Channel value, or you can click the spinner arrows that appear in the cell to change the Map Channel value. (You can also drag on the spinner’s up-arrow or down-arrow button to change the value more rapidly.)
For 3D procedural maps, the Mapping Channel value doesn’t appear unless the Coordinates
Source value is set to Explicit Mapping Channel. For materials, the cells in this column are blank.