Materialassignement by level

I recommend that you assign common materials by color, maybe use colors 128-254 for a standard library of common materials. Then create custom project specific materials as needed and attach them to the objects as needed. Use levels for visiblilty control only

In other words use assign by color with a wildcard for the level name for common materials, and use attach for project specific materials. I find this works well for me. It lets me quickly assign most materials in a project so I can see something quickly, then I can create as many custom materials as needed for each project and attach them.

So you could have a common palette which is shared by many projects and grows over time and a custom palette for each project. Then you could copy a standard mat file with all of the material assignments to your new projects and add the custom palette(s) as needed.

-Gary

This is the way I see things....

There are any number of ways of assigning materials, and I think a lot will depend on your personal circumstances and who you exchange data with.

The advantage of using colours, is that you can get an idea from the wireframe what materials you have used and you leave the levels free for other uses.

Disadvantage of using colours, if you want to render using just a colour you can't because you have allocated materials to all of them. Also unless you create a colour book with materials names instead of colours you have no meaningful descriptor. Finally you are limited to 256 materials.

The advantage of using levels, is that you can have a meaningful descriptor, and they are unlimited.

The disadvantage of using levels, is that they will probably be shared with a number of other descriptors, for example levels used to differentiate objects such as stairs, plumbing etc. So glass level, may need to be split to stair glass level or window glass level. A way around this is to use reference files. So level equates to material, and reference file equates to object, for example stairs. These files can be further referenced to indicate location, for example car park.

Personally, I think there is an argument for a material attribute.

Additionally, there is the material itself. The cad definition is only part of a material attribute. I like to include the option to include brochures and phone numbers and notes with my material definition. Up until now, I have used a stand alone VB program to do this . This links to level and colour.

Hi Gary & Roger,

Thanks for your replies.

Very instructiv to read different meanings on this subject

1/  I´m working with a fix table wich contains about 400 materials. (color table limitation problem)

Those materials are assigned by level & color, so when I have to use another material I have to surch those settings in the material table and change them.

When I assign materials by level I just have to change the level to continue.

It would give me a quicker workflow to change materials too.

2/  I only need visibility control for construction, text and dimensions

It is more important for me to have the same materials (for example woods, metalls,..) on the same color.

Thanks again

Jacques

Roger Knights:

Disadvantage of using colours, if you want to render using just a colour you can't because you have allocated materials to all of them. Also unless you create a colour book with materials names instead of colours you have no meaningful descriptor. Finally you are limited to 256 materials.

Hey Roger, I use true colors when I just need to render a solid color.And I can attach any number of custom materials which would include solid colors. My standard materials includes things like white walls, concrete, clear glass, simple wood flooring types etc., for which I am currently using about 60 colors out of the 256 colors available.

-Gary

Sorry I was just generalising. This assumes all colours were assigned to materials.

Roger.