Project materials such as soil and interfaces, discontinuities, plates, geogrids, embedded beams, cables and anchors are sometimes used in more than one PLAXIS project file, for instance, when analysing alternatives or for models located close to each other. When using PLAXIS, the global material database can be used as a repository of material data sets, which can be re-used for new projects.

The procedure described below covers the following topics:

• changing the global material database of a project
• creating a new global material database
• add existing material data sets to the global material database

Note that the global material database can be created and used to add material data sets, such as for soils and interfaces, plates, embedded beams, geogrids, beams (only in 3D), anchors, etc.

Alternatively, you can use the PLAXIS command line, as further explained at the end of this article.

Changing the global material database

The steps to change the global material database are explained in detail below:

1. Start a new project in PLAXIS (or load an existing project);
2. Open the material sets window and expand the global materials (the current location of the global material database can be seen below); 
   
   Figure 1a. Local and global material sets in PLAXIS 2023.1 (and later)
   
   
   Figure 1b. Local and global material sets in PLAXIS CONNECT Edition V22
   
   
3. Click on Select… to change the current global material database;
4. Browse to the location of the global material database that is intended to be used;
5. Select the global material file (*.matXdb for 2023.1 and V22), e.g. ProjectSoilMaterials.matXdb and click on Open.
   
   Figure 2. Selecting the global material database file in PLAXIS 2023.1 (and later) and PLAXIS CONNECT Edition V22
   

Create a new global material database

Sometimes there is no existing global material database or a new one is required. The steps to create a new global material database are explained in detail below:

1. Start a new project in PLAXIS;
2. Open the material sets window and expand the global materials;
3. Click on Select… to open the window of the global material database location;
4. Browse to the location in which the new global material database will be placed (this can also be a network location);
5. Create a new folder and name it accordingly, e.g. Global;
6. Specify a filename, e.g. ProjectSoilMaterials.matXdb for PLAXIS 2023.1 (and later) and PLAXIS CONNECT Edition V22.

Now the global material database e.g. Soil and interfaces is changed and the list of the global materials should be empty.

Adding existing material data sets to the global material database

The steps to add existing materials to this global material database are:

1. Open a project, which includes the material data set(s);
2. Make sure that you have selected the new global material database (checks step of the previous procedure);
3. Use one of these methods to copy all or individual datasets from the local project material database (Project materials) to the global material database (Global materials):
   
   1. Select the button to copy only the selected material data set from the project material database to the global database;
   2. Select the button to copy all material data sets from the project material database to the global material database;
   3. Use drag-and-drop to copy individual material data sets from the project material database to the global one;
4. Perform steps 1-3 for different projects from which you need the material data sets.

You can now select the new global database and copy any global material data sets in the project material database for a new project.

An example of a Global material database can be seen below:

 
Figure 3. Example of using the global material database with PLAXIS 2023.1 (and later) and PLAXIS CONNECT Edition V22

Alternative approach: using the command line 

To easily create the commands for all materials in your currently open PLAXIS model, use the command:

apply Materials "materialcommand"

The following steps are:

1. Copy these generated material commands;
2. Start a new project or open the PLAXIS project you want to add these materials to;
3. Go to the Expert menu and choose Commands Runner;
4. Paste the content of your clipboard;
5. For each line, edit the line by removing the colon and the text in front of this, such that the line starts with the material command, e.g. soilmat for soil materials;
6. Now run all commands to add these to your PLAXIS model.

See the video below for more details on this workflow.

Note that using any material database, which is included in a project folder (data.plxmat) as a global material database should be avoided: unexpected behaviour might be noticed (e.g. material assignments might be lost in the original project).
Instead, the materials used in this specific project can be copied to a global material database (*.matXdb-file for 2023.1 (and later) or V22), following the abovementioned steps.