[hankusp]

Hi
I experience problems with mxm material names in C4D.
First problem: I change name of Maxwell material in C4D and save it on hard drive. I change this name either in Cinema Material Editor or in Materials window by rename command. When I open this file again the name remains unchanged. Why is it so? How can I change these names?

Second problem: Sometimes C4D does not save material preview to MXM file, while saving material to hard drive. When I see this mxm in Windows Explorer folder it has no preview. Why is it so?

[JDHill]

Hello hankusp, thanks for reporting. Regarding the first issue, could you please tell me which version of Maxwell for Cinema 4D you are using, and also write down the exact steps you are using so I can reproduce the behavior? I used these steps:

• 1. create a new model.
  2. create a Maxwell material.
  3. rename the new material in the Attribute Manager.
  4. save the file.
  5. close the file.
  6. re-open the file.
  7. the material still has the name I gave it in step 3.

Regarding the second question, which operating system are you using, and which version of Maxwell Render? The MXM thumbnails in Explorer are handled by a program installed with Maxwell, and it cannot read MXMs written by plugins which are more recent than the installed version of Maxwell Render.

[hankusp]

Hi
I'm using Cinema4D r14.041, Maxwell for Cinema 2.7.23 r14 and Maxwell 2.7.20 -- all on Windows 7 64 bits

[hankusp]

Regarding the first issue - It happens with old materials, now with new created materials. I have this issue with two materials that I downloaded from online Maxwell Mats Library. I could change its names with Maxwell Rhino plugin, but in Maxwell-Cinema plugin I have old names from previous user, and I can not change it. Maybe I send you these MXM-s by e-mail.

Regarding the second issue - it's not the problem of software reading previews I think, because this issue concerns only 10-20% of material savings, rest is displayed ok. Even these mxm-s with wrong preview still have Maxwell icon "no preview" in explorer. Sometimes MXM has a correct preview, I change something, save it again and preview in WE is gone with the wind In the same time preview inside Cinema is OK

[JDHill]

Yes, please send me those MXMs (jeremy at nextlimit dotcom) so I can take a look.

Regarding the thumbnails, please go to Windows Control Panel > Programs and Features, uninstall "Maxwell Shell Extension (x64)" if it is present, re-boot the machine, and then go to [Program Files]\Next Limit\Maxwell 2\shell, run maxwell.shell.x64.msi, and then reboot the machine again. If that does not help, you might try right-clicking on your C: drive in Explorer > Computer, going to Properties and clicking the Disk Cleanup button, and making sure that "Thumbnails" is selected, before then clicking OK. This will get rid of any old cached thumbnails and force Explorer to ask the Maxwell shell extension to generate them again, the next time you browse to a directory containing MXM files.

[hankusp]

Hi Jeremy
Did you find answer, why there are problems with renaming mxm files in C4D?
I have some more info about it.
Problem with material preview is created by linking to external mxm file. When I delete link preview is created always ok.

Renaming problems are not conected with linking. I found the way I can always change internal name of MXM in C4d:
I have to:
1. rename
2. save it in C4D material browser.
3. Delete from scene (If I don't do that someetimes It wont change internal name)
4. Load to the scene.
5. Delete linking created by cinema saving.
6. Export it as MXM in Plugin Material Editor

So, it is very complicated way of keeping order in material names

[JDHill]

Yes, as I already indicated when you emailed me, I am looking into this. I already know what causes the preview image not to show up in Explorer, and I am working on the naming issues related to linking when working with materials & MXMs from within Cinema.

[hankusp]

Great! Thank you.

[hankusp]

I experience one more problem with mxm-s in C4d. When I load mxm material to the scene from HD my display is always changing from constant shading (which I use the most) to gouraud shading (which is not looking good) in my case. Do you know this isue?

[JDHill]

I don't see that behavior here. Do you mean that objects look different, or do you mean that viewport > Display literally switches from Constant to Gouraud mode? I'm not aware of any code in the plugin which would be capable of doing that.

[hankusp]

Yes, Display switches from Constant to Gouraud mode, when I load mxm material file from HD

[JDHill]

There are many ways of loading an MXM, perhaps if you give me more detail (the exact steps you are using, whether the MXM has an active texture, etc), I will be able to reproduce the behavior.

[hankusp]

ok, I'll check it

[hankusp]

Some more details:
1. It changes display mode if I load existing mxm material from my HD by "load materials" command from Material Browser in C4D. It doesn't matter if mxm has any textures or not. If I put the same mxm to the scene from presets it does not change display mode.
2. I check it with standard c4d materials - no problem
3. Loading mxm changes display mode to Gouraud only from Hidden Line, Constant (lines), and Constant shading mode. If I have other display mode active it doesn't change it.

[JDHill]

Thanks, I am able to reproduce it using that method. However, this is not something that is occurring in my own code. Technically, when you use that function, you can choose any file format for which there is installed a plugin capable of reading the file. In this case, it is the plugin's MXM loader that ends up being called (by the way, you could just as well choose an MXS file). On a hunch, I found that I am able to prevent this behavior by changing an option passed to Cinema at the creation of the file loader, but it is not possible to determine whether doing so may also break the loader in unknown ways. So, I will look into that and try to see if it causes other problems.