Dragging and Dropping Maps and Materials

You can move materials from the Material Editor to objects using a drag-and-drop operation. You can also drag to and from map and material buttons.

When dragging materials, you can use the Undo command to cancel material assignments.

See the following lists to determine where in the interface you can drag from and drag to.

Tip: In the Slate Material Editor, you also can drag one color swatch to another.

Where You Can Drag From

• Sample Slots (Compact interface)

  The content you drag from a sample slot is always at the top level of the sample slot, regardless of which level is currently displayed. If the sample slot contains a material, you can’t drag from the sample slot to a map button, even if you’re at a map level of the material.

• The Material Editor Type button (Compact interface)
• Material nodes (Slate interface)

  Drag from a material or map node’s output socket to an object or selection in the scene.

  You can also drag from a map node's output socket and drop it on a map button (for example, Environment Map); see the following section.

• Material and map preview windows
• Material/Map Browser lists

  You can't drag from the modal version of the Browser (when OK and Cancel buttons are present).

• Material map buttons (see the following section)

Material and Map Buttons

The material and map buttons you can drag from include:

• The buttons on the Maps rollout
• The small shortcut map buttons on the Basic Parameters rollouts
• Any map buttons at any level
• Sub-material buttons, such as those found in the Multi/Sub-Object material.
• A projector light map button (see "Advanced Effects Rollout")
• The Environment Background map button
• Fog Color and Opacity map buttons
• Displace modifier map buttons

Where You Can Drag To

• All of the items in the previous list, except that you can drag to the Material/Map Browser only when it displays a material library
• Objects in viewports

  Drag from a material button or Browser listing into the viewport and over an object. When you release the mouse, the material is applied.

• Slate interface: To drag from a material node in the active View, drag from the node’s output socket.

  If you drag a material over two or more selected objects, an alert message asks if you want to apply the material to the object or to the selection. Choose the option you want, and click OK.

• Compact interface: The Material Editor Type button

  You can drag to the Type button only from the Browser. If the Type button shows a standalone map, you can drag only a map to it. If it shows a material type, you can drag only a material to it.

• A Face, Polygon, Patch, or Element sub-object selection of an editable surface object (mesh, patch, or poly)
• A Face, Polygon, Patch, or Element sub-object selection created by the Edit Mesh modifier or Edit Patch; or by one of these selection modifiers: Mesh Select, Patch Select, or Poly Select