Could Bentley please set the Local Materials functionality back to the way XM handles them.
With V8i it assumes you want to make all materials local materials, and tries it's hardest to make you use them this way.
Every time I change anything in the Material Editor, it converts the material to a Local Material.
To change it back to a Library Material, I have to first "Copy to Library" then "Remove Local Copy". But when I try to "Remove Local Copy", it gives me the following message "Are you sure you would like to delete the selected local material[s]? Deleting a local material will also delete all assignments and attachments for the material." If I say yes, it deleted the assignment, which is not what I want. I have to close V8i and open the file in XM and then "Remove Local Copy" Most of the time this works, but if I use any of the Luxology features not compatible with XM, I lose them.
I have the variable MS_DEFAULT_TO_EXTERNAL_MATERIALS = 1 set in my ucf file, but it doesn't make any difference.
I'm getting a bit frustrated with this and my wintab troubles, making the whole Luxology rendering experience a bit of a letdown.
Don't get me wrong, Luxology is a great new feature. But my experience so far has been a bit of a struggle.
Regards
Michael Komnacki
Hi Daniel,
I work the other way round, the materials come first, but, probably I would go for dedicated named vis files and reference the base in. I think this should work ok for what you describe.
You can create your two materials setups beforehand.
Whether you use internal materials or mat files is up to you. I still use mat files because I find it useful to be able to read them if there is a problem. As mentioned earlier on this thread, if you use .mat files it is very easy to create multiple setups just using the notepad find and replace tool to change paths. You could always make them local afterwards if you want to keep things tidy.
Once you have your setups you ought to be able to use them over and over again with each new project.
Hi Roger, I also seen various results with references. Havn't tested the Beta that much yet, currently to much work. But if it handles references better that's promising.
What's the best way to set up the material in my viz file then? Seperate seed file or external material table? I should mention that I basically have two material setups, one with some part grey and another with the same parts brown.
I'm trying to create a guidline and a standard for users to be able to create quick simple renderings to use in PowerPoints for project presentations. So the process must be simple and the best way is top use the referenced data directly from the project.
MicroStation 08.11.09.829MicroStation Connect Update 11ProjectWise 08.11.11.590LumenRT Update 11
I am not sure about this.
In earlier Luxo releases, I found there was a problem with referenced files which did not have material assignments, if the ref had no material assignments it would appear in the master with no material assignments, but all seems to be working as expected with the current beta.
I think now if you reference your base file into your empty vis file, the vis file material assignments will be adopted.
So provided you have set the materials up in your vis file you should be ok.
Could I get some hints on the "best" workflow in my scenario?
I don't want to have materials attached in normal workflow, I want to attach the material in a separate viz file.
I have a "base" file that have a lot of reference files and this base file I want to attach to my viz file. Our level structure is strict and I basically only have a few deviations on the materials.
So my viz file is empty (could contain some additional nice to see things, like people and cars) and all the files are references.
I don't want to have materials as we have selected the colors on the levels for highest visibility.
I agree with the material as an attribute, it could do away with the assignment table altogether... these setups start to stray onto the element templates functionality (or BA parts), and can be set up and linked to toolbars.