Menu Bar (Material Explorer Scene Panel)

The Scene panel menu bar contains various options for managing materials and the display of the window in the upper Scene panel.

Select Menu

Some of these choices correspond to buttons on the Selection toolbar.

Select All

Selects all entries in the scene.

Select All Materials

Selects all materials in the scene.

Select All Maps

Selects all maps in the scene.

Note: For most scenes, the effect of this choice isn’t apparent unless you also turn on Display Sub-Materials/Maps.
Select None

Deselects all entries.

Select Invert

Inverts the current selection: all selected entries become deselected, and all entries not selected become selected.

Select Children

This choice is a toggle. When on, selecting a material or object also selects the children of that entry. Default=off.

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These choices are toggles that affect the behavior of the Find field on the Find toolbar.

Find Case Sensitive

When on, the search string is case sensitive: “house” is not the same as “House”. Default=off.

Find Using Wildcards

When on, the search string can use wildcard characters such as * and ?. Default=on.

Find Using Regular Expressions

When on, the search string can use regular expressions; for example, “gr(a|e)y”. Default=off.

Display Menu

These choices correspond to the Display buttons.

Note: The Display menu also appears as a pop-up menu when you right-click a cell in the upper window.
Display Thumbnails

When on, the hierarchy displays a thumbnail for each material and map. When off, it displays a generic icon materials and maps. Default=on.

Display Materials

When on, the hierarchy includes materials. When off, it does not show materials at all. Default=on.

Display Maps

When on, the hierarchy of each material includes includes the maps used by that material. Default=on.

Note: For most scenes, the effect of this isn’t apparent unless you also turn on Display Sub-Materials/Maps.
Display Objects

When on, the hierarchy of each material includes the objects to which that material is applied. Default=on.

Display Sub-Materials/Maps

When on, the hierarchy includes sub-materials and maps applied to material channels. Default=off.

Display Unused Map Channels

When on, the hierarchy display includes unused map channels. Default=off.

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These two sorting options are mutually exclusive. They correspond to a pair of Display buttons.

Sort By Material

(The default.) While active, the hierarchy is sorted by material name.

Sort By Object

While active, the hierarchy is sorted by object.

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These choices control the hierarchy display.

Expand All

Expands the hierarchy to display all entries.

Expand Selected

Expands the hierarchy of selected entries.

Expand Objects

Expands the hierarchy of all objects.

Collapse All

Collapses the entire hierarchy.

Collapse Selected

Collapses the hierarchy of selected entries.

Collapse Materials

Collapses the hierarchy of all materials.

Collapse Objects

Collapses the hierarchy of all objects.

Tools Menu

Save Material As Material Library

Opens a file dialog that lets you save the materials in the scene as a material library ( .mat) file.

Select Object By Material

Opens a Select Objects dialog. The names of objects with the active material applied are highlighted. Click to select the objects that have had this material applied.

This choice is unavailable if no materials are selected in the Explorer, or if multiple materials are selected.

Bitmap/Photometric Paths

Opens the Bitmap / Photometric Path Editor dialog, which lets you manage the paths of bitmaps in the scene.

Proxies Setup

Opens the Global Settings And Defaults For Bitmap Proxies dialog, which lets you manage how 3ds Max creates and uses proxy versions of bitmaps incorporated in materials. This dialog is a feature of Asset Tracking.

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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.

Lock Cell Editing

When on, prevents you from editing cells in the Explorer: clicking a cell has no effect, other than to highlight and select the row it is in. Default=off.

Customize Menu

Configure Columns

Opens the Configure Columns dialog so you can add columns to the Scene (upper) window.

Toolbars

Displays a submenu that lets you choose which of the Material Explorer toolbars appear.

  • Find Toggles display of the Find toolbar.
  • Selection Toggles display of the Selection toolbar.
  • Tools Toggles display of the Tools toolbar.
Save Current Layout as Default

Saves the current Material Explorer layout so that it appears this way in your next session with 3ds Max.

The layout file for the Material Explorer is called defaultmmaterialexplorer.ini. It is saved in C:\documents and settings\<user name>\local settings\application data\autodesk\3ds max\<version>\enu\plugcfg\explorerconfig\material explorer\. You can revert to the default layout by deleting this file and restarting 3ds Max.