[Josephus Holt]

First, I want to say how much I enjoy working with this plugin.

I am having a bit of a problem (my first time using it). I selected all the mxm materials and have them in the scene manager, then went and drop-and-dragged to the Rhino layers, but finding that a lot of the materials are not getting assigned.

[JDHill]

Hi Joe, most likely what you're running into is Rhino's normal handling of material-assignment. An object may use one of four types of assignment:

- by layer
- by parent
- by plug-in
- basic

'Basic' is just the simple native Rhino material definition. When you assign a material directly to an object using the plugin, it will use the 'by plug-in' mode. If you then assign a material to the layer it's on, it will continue to use the 'by plug-in' material, because that mode overrides by-layer material assignment. To make it use the material you dragged onto the layers window, you would need to select the object, go to Object Properties > Material, and switch it to be use 'by layer' assignment. If you're going to be working with materials in Rhino, it would be best to do some reading about material assignment in the Rhino manual, because this isn't the only gotcha...the 'by parent' mode, which relates to materials assigned by layer in the context of a block-insert, is kind of tricky to use.

Let me know if that helps to explain what you're seeing there...

[Josephus Holt]

Thx JD for replying, it's time to relax , but that got it taken care of for now, easy fix. I will read the Rhino manual regarding mat'l assignments (and texture mapping). Joe

[kami]

I work with these two possibilities to assign materials:
a) assign it to the layer
b) assign it to the object

option b) always works fine.
option a) is sometimes faster an easier, because you have a better overview of used materials. while using it, you need to know about the issues with imported objects
some .3ds I import have assign materials to themselves. these materials override the layer materials. so what you can do in your case is: select all those objects. go to the _properties plane, to materials and select "by layer". now, all materials directly assigned to the objects are removed and the object takes its material from the layer.

[Josephus Holt]

Kami, thx for the add'l info. I did notice that issue with imported objects in my current model...thx for the "heads up".

I typically prefer to assign materials by layer (I set my model layers up that way) but does not work well when dealing with wood grain, etc...so then to object mode.

Hopefully will get my first Rhino/Maxwell render out this week

[JDHill]

Regarding woodgrain, you can still use the plugin's Real Scale feature when assigning by layer. Try this:

- make two longish boxes, one aligned with the x axis and the other with the y
- drag a woodgrain material onto their layer
- open the plugin's material editor
- if the material editor's texture panel is not open, open it
- hold down CTRL+SHIFT and toggle on the Real Scale button (in the small toolbar below the texture preview, it's the one with an 'm' on it)
- if it was already on, cycle it off, then back on, while holding CTRL+SHIFT - that key combination makes texture changes apply to all textures in the material, so you are just making sure Real Scale is enabled for all textures
- you should see the textures equalize in size in the viewport
- if the size is not in the right ballpark, hold down CTRL+SHIFT again and adjust the texture's Tile X/Y values until it is
- to adjust the orientation, select the first box and go to Object Properties > Maxwell Object Properties
- in the Real Scale Texture Control group, adjust the texture's x/y/z axis orienatation so the grain is suitable this box
- do the same thing for the second box

Now, if you move/scale/rotate these boxes, the plugin will adjust the texture size to maintain the real size you have set - Real Scale means that the texture's Tile & Offset values will be specifying an actual meter-size for the tile, rather than specifying how many repeats as is done when Real Scale is off.

In case it's hard to understand what the heck I'm talking about, there's a tutorial about using Real Scale in the Maxwell for Rhino plugin here: http://think.maxwellrender.com/maxwell_ ... e-134.html

[kami]

Looking forward to seeing it!
I mostly use method a as well. But I make exceptions if I got a lot of complex objects with different materials.

[Josephus Holt]

JD...thank you again for your thorough reply...I tried that and works great. Got "sidetracked" for a bit here, but will be back