[jvanmetre]

JD-

I'm getting this message when I try to export the materials from a scene in Rhino (from the toolbar icon and right clicking on my mouse). I'm trying to collect materials and textures from a scene.

This is the message from the Rhino command line:

Unknown command: _Maxwell_RunMaterialExportWizard

Jim

[JDHill]

Hi Jim,

This has been simplified in 1.7, so the wizard went away. Apparently, I just forgot to remove the command from the right-click for that toolbar button. The way to do this now is by using the context-menu of either the Scene Materials browseror the Database Manager's Volume View. Let me know if you have any questions.

JD

[jvanmetre]

JD-

In either "volume view" or "materials catalog" I don't see the current scene I'm working with. In "material catalog" I see previous scenes with their materials.

How do I get the current scene into the Materials Catalog -- I'm missing a step or two here

Thanks.

jvm

[JDHill]

Hi Jim,

How do I get the current scene into the Materials Catalog

You don't - it works the other way around - scenes use Materials which are retreived from the database. You will find the list of which ones are used by the current scene in the Materials tab in the Scene Manager. This is the same window which used to be the separate 'Scene Materials' browser...it made more sense to put this in the Scene Manager window, now that there was a way of managing a global collection of Materials (i.e., the Database Manager).

In either "volume view" or "materials catalog" I don't see the current scene I'm working with. In "material catalog" I see previous scenes with their materials.

Just to clear up this misunderstanding: what you see in the Materials Catalog is not 'previous scenes', it is just a list of Materials (or BSDFs, Emitters, etc., in the other pages). There may be Volumes there which are named for certain scenes, but this is just because:

- you open a .3dm which has Maxwell Materials
- some of them are not found in the database
- these are added to the database
- the Volume they are added to is named for the source .3dm

These Materials have no real connection to the .3dm, they just happen to reside in a Volume with its' name. You can re-organize the database however you want to.

Let me know if that helps.

JD

[jvanmetre]

Oh boy...

Navigation in the database manager just isn't obvious to me.

I think I understand the materials catalog -- the material catalog contains volumes -- which may have project names. But shouldn't I also be able to navigate up from here to a maxwell material folder?
I also see a "Volume 1" in the materials catalog, but how was that named? How do I create a Volume 2 -- it's a bit of a disconnect.

Would creating a "volume" possibly be used for giving name and organization to a series of projects for the same client?

Thanks for you help (and patience)

jvm

[JDHill]

'Volume 1' is the default volume that's created at startup, you can rename it whatever you want to. To create another volume:

1. select a Catalog or Volume (you can't create a Volume inside of a Material)
2. click the 'Create New Volume' button in the DB Manager toolbar

You could also create a Volume by:

1. open the MXM Browser
2. drag a folder from the tree

You may be assuming some things that are helping to confuse you. The Database Manager does not show your file system. It has several pages, each of which holds a Catalog; one each for Materials, Emitters, BSDFs, Coatings, SubSurfaces, Displacements, and Textures. Each Catalog may hold any number of Volumes. Each Volume contains items, and optionally, other Volumes. So it is organized very much like a file-system, and you may use the hierarchy to organize your Materials however you see fit. But it is not the file-system, and you cannot break links in any document by moving things around.

Really, you can't screw it up much at all because the Materials are still also saved in your .3dms - if you inadvertently deleted every Volume, it wouldn't result in any missing Materials in the .3dms which use the now-deleted Materials; they would be added again next time you opened the document.

[jvanmetre]

JD-

You've obviously not seen my file system to know how I deal with file systems!

RE: Database manager does not show my file system..Okay, got that. What confused me was the visual from the Rhino help page which shows the database manager and what appears to be a standard Maxwell Materials folder structure.

Thanks.

jvm

[JDHill]

Ahh...I see. I'll change that image...it was the product of dragging the whole 'materials database' folder from the MXM Browser into the DB Manager...