[jvanmetre]

JD-

I closed a file I was working on in Rhino after succesfully exporting...when I reopened in Rhino the materials were gone...a frightening prospect for such a material instensive render. I've got the mxs...is there any way to export materials from Studio since they seem to be in the mxs. I'd rather reapply than totally loose the them.

When I reopen in Rhino...I see all the materials applied (rendered viewport) but the mxm's are not there.

Thanks

jim

Using Rhino 4, (most recent build) + 1.5.1 on win xp.

[JDHill]

Hi Jim,

Unfortunately, there is no way to pull materials in from an mxs and match them up again in Rhino. When you say 'closed', I assume you mean 'saved, then closed'? If so, did Rhino seem to shut down properly? It is always possible that Rhino has trouble writing a file, and when it does, it is also possible that the plugin will get no opportunity to save its data. Look on your desktop for 'mw4r4_log.txt', if there was an error, it is possible that there may be some clues there.

Let me know if you have any more information, or if you want to send me this .3dm.

Thanks,

JD

[also, 1.5.1 was not built for Rhino SR2 - it may run fine, but there may also be possible incompatibilities - I would not be able to say what those would be, if there are any]

[jvanmetre]

JD-

Thanks for feedback...I will look to see if there is log.

Separately, I installed 1.6 for XP with update to Rhino as well and had some issues I hadn't seen in 1.5.1...I wasn't pleased with results and I'd swear there was a change as to how Rhino or MW interpreted normals for some materials causing at least glass material to render black which had not been happening prior to 1.6.

Anyway...how about a way to pull mxm's from Studio as last ditch! I'm hopeful exporting mxms from Rhino before closing file will at least save some time in the event I lose materials again.

Jim

[JDHill]

There shouldn't be anything different about the materials written with the new vs. old plugin, so I'm not sure what would be happening there. A concrete example would be good.

About losing materials, as I say, if there is no malfunction during Rhino's save routine, there's very little possibility of losing materials with the plugin (I can't think of any logical reason). That said, there's still the ever-present "if there's a malfunction" case...as with any software, the remedy for this is always the pre-emptive 'save often'.

It should be possible to get all the materials out of an mxs, but I don't know if there's any reliable way to try to match them back up with any objects they may have been assigned to. I'll think about it though.