Material Editor Menu Bar

The Material Editor menu bar appears at the top of the Material Editor window. It provides another way to invoke the various Material Editor tools.

• (Material Editor): Compact > Menu bar

Modes Menu

Lets you choose which Material Editor interface is active.

• Compact Material Editor Displays the Compact interface.
• Slate Material Editor Displays the Slate interface.

Material Menu

The Material menu provides the most commonly used Material Editor tools.

• Get Material Same as the Get Material button.
• Pick from Object Same as the Pick From Object (eyedropper) button.
• Select by Material Same as the Select By Material button.
• Highlight Assets in ATS Dialog If the active material uses maps that are tracked assets (typically bitmap textures), opens the Asset Tracking dialog with the assets highlighted.
• Assign to Selection Same as the Assign Material To Selection button.
• Put to Scene Same as the Put To Scene button.
• Put to Library Same as the Put To Library button.
• Change Material/Map Type Same as the Material/Map Type button.
• Make Material Copy Same as the Make Material Copy button.
• Launch Magnify Window Equivalent to double-clicking the active sample slot, or choosing Magnify on its right-click menu.
• Save as .FX File Saves the material as an FX file. See "DirectX Manager Rollout (Legacy Direct3D Viewports)."
• Make Preview Same as choosing Make Preview from the Make/Play/Save Preview flyout.
• View Preview Same as choosing Play Preview from the Make/Play/Save Preview flyout.
• Save Preview Same as choosing Save Preview from the Make/Play/Save Preview flyout.
• Show End Result Same as the Show End Result button.
• Show Materials in Viewport As Opens a sub-menu that is the same as the the Materials sub-menu on the Shading viewport label menu. See "Show Materials in Viewport As."
• Reset Sample Slot Rotation Returns the active sample slot's object to its default orientation; equivalent to choosing Reset Rotation on the sample slot right-click menu.
• Update Active Material If the Material Editor Options dialog Update Active Only setting is on, choosing this updates the active material in its sample slot.

Navigation Menu

The Navigation menu provides tools that navigate a material's hierarchy.

• Go to Parent Same as the Go To Parent button.
• Go Forward to Sibling Same as the Go Forward To Sibling button.
• Go Backward to Sibling Like Go Forward To Sibling, but navigates to the preceding sibling map in the tree instead of the succeeding one.

Options Menu

The Options menu provides some additional tools and display choices.

• Propagate Materials to Instances When on, subsequent material assignments propagate to all instances of the object in your scene, including imported AutoCAD blocks and ADT style-based objects; these object types are common in DRF files. Assignments also propagate to instances of Revit objects and other instances that you've made in the current scene. When Propagate Materials To Instances is off, subsequent material assignments do not propagate: Each object has a unique material assignment. Default=off.
• Manual Update Toggle Equivalent to the Manual Update toggle in the Material Editor Options dialog.
• Copy/Rotate Drag Mode Toggle Equivalent to choosing either Drag/Copy or Drag/Rotate on the sample slot right-click menu.
• Background Same as the Background button.
• Custom Background Toggle If you have used the Material Editor Options dialog to assign a custom background, this toggles its display.
• Backlight Same as the Backlight button.
• Cycle 3X2, 5X3, 6X4 Sample Slots Cycles through the equivalent choices on the sample slot right-click menu.
• Options Opens the Material Editor Options dialog.

Utilities Menu

The Utilities menu provides map rendering and selecting objects by material.

• Render Map Equivalent to choosing Render Map on the sample slot right-click menu.
• Select Objects by Material Same as the Select By Material button.
• Clean MultiMaterial Opens the Clean MultiMaterial utility.
• Instance Duplicate Map Opens the Instance Duplicate Maps utility.
• Reset Material Editor Slots Replaces all materials in the Material Editor with the default material type. This action is not undoable, but you can restore the previous state of the Material Editor with the Restore Material Editor Slots command (see below).
• Condense Material Editor Slots Sets all unused materials in the Material Editor to the default type, retaining only materials in the scene and moving those materials to the first slots in the editor. This action is not undoable, but you can restore the previous state of the Material Editor with the Restore Material Editor Slots command (see below).
• Restore Material Editor Slots When you use either of the two previous commands, 3ds Max saves the current state of the Material Editor in a buffer; using this command restores the state of the editor using the buffer contents.
  Tip: The buffer that holds the material definitions survives the File menu Reset command. Thus, if you use either the Reset Material Editor Slots or the Condense Material Editor Slots function, and then reset 3ds Max, you can then use Restore Material Editor Slots to bring all materials back into the Material Editor. This makes it easy to use the same materials in different projects.

  For best results, follow this procedure:

  1. Save your scene.
  2. Use the Reset Material Editor Slots or Condense Material Editor Slots function.
  3. Reset 3ds Max. When prompted to save the scene, click No. Otherwise, you might lose material definitions in the Material Editor that were saved with the scene.
  4. Open the Material Editor and choose Utilities menu Restore Material Editor Slots.

     The Material Editor status before step 2 is restored.