XRef Material

The XRef material lets you use a material applied to an object in another scene file.

• Material/Map Browser > Materials > General > XRef Material
Note: The material appears in the Material/Map Browser only if the active renderer supports it.

As with XRef objects, the material resides in a separate source file. When you change the material in the source file and then save that scene, the material's appearance can change in the main file that contains the XRef.

Typically you use this feature in conjunction with XRef Objects: When you add XRef objects, and the Merge Materials checkbox is off, then merged objects have an XRef material applied to them.

You can use the Override Material rollout to assign a local material to the XRef'd object.

Note: If an XRef object has a material applied to it in the original source file (and Merge Materials is off when you reference the source file), then that material is automatically externally referenced in the scene, and can be loaded in the Material Editor if you browse from the scene. When you explicitly use the Material Editor to create an XRef material, you don't have to have any XRef objects from that particular source file. However, the record's source file and material do appear in the XRef Objects dialog.

The Show Map In Viewport button works for an XRef material only if the same button is turned on in the source file. Otherwise, it is disabled.