SimLab Composer 2.3 - To replace "multiple" object materials

[RCH_Projects]

I thought I resolved this, but not quite.

I import an Alibre assembly as a 3D PDF.

The model has sub-assembly with a rotor and 36 hinge occurencies on that rotor.

When I drop a material on individual hinges, only that hinge changes.

If I drop a material on the assembly root, the rotor and hinges all change to that material.

I can then change the rotor material and the hinges remain.

After that I can drop a new material on a hinge and they all change.

It is a rough way to apply materials as most sub-assemblies are much more complex.

Is there a better answer?

Alibre - Composer 2.3.GIF (15.79 KiB) Viewed 2505 times

[neilr]

You should be able to select the first and then shift select the last hinge then goto the material pane select the material and one of the lower buttons choose apply material to selection....

[RCH_Projects]

You should be able to select the first and then shift select the last hinge then goto the material pane select the material and one of the lower buttons choose apply material to selection....

Multi-select goes fine, "Apply to scene" does nothing.

(Using a lower level assembly)

[SimLab]

Neilr means open manage scene material (under the material libraries)
Select the objects from the tree
Select the material you want to assign for those objects in the scene material list and click the button
Apply Material to selection

[RCH_Projects]

Phew!

That does the trick - beautiful.

My deep appreciation!

[RCH_Projects]

For the benefit of any other newer user -

CTRL - Left Click, multiple parts on the image works as well.

(Digging through extensive nested trees is rough).

[RCH_Projects]

Using the method above I achieved some success.

When I missed selecting a couple of instances, I tried adding them to the group already associated. Mind you, I am trying to learn the most efficient use of features and applying material for contrast rather than final draft.

I realized too late that I was "backwashing" into my "material library". "Regenerating" or closing and restarting with new imports do not help. The material library is shot. I don't think this qualifies as a feature, so if you need to recreate this let me know.

Note for example below; Chrome and Blue Anodized.

How might I restore my library?

[RCH_Projects]

While trying on my own to find a clean solution I found that a .SAT export from Alibre opened in Composer.

When I dragged a material from the library to one object, every other object of the same color was updated.

This was great, and all I could need or ask for.

Looking closely though, the objects were only the flat, base color of the selected material.

The green wall paper is a flat green, etc..

I can't say if the problems stem from Alibre, Composer or a combination.

But if we can resolve this .SAT problem I will be way ahead of the game!

I mean, with a .SAT I can do in a few seconds what takes lengthy and quirky selecting and searching with the other option.

Many Thanks!

[SimLab]

This is because SAT format does not need texture coordinates, and in this case you will need to generate the texture coordinates from SimLab Composer.

SimLab Composer maintains material relationships.
When multiple objects are using the same material, changing the material for one of them automatically changes the appearance of the other objects using the material.

SimLab Composer is capable of maintaining this information from 3D PDF files, but it seems the file you are opining does not include this information it says objects are using different materials (which have the same appearance).

Please take a look at the material management tutorial it will help explaining.

[RCH_Projects]

Yes, I viewed that tutorial and any possibly related early on. My novice reaction was "you have to be kidding". I suppose Pro users see a point to all of that, but the occasional user with complex designs are going to gag after the sweet product composer was. I could downgrade, but I have such high hopes for future product development.

I would have hoped that once saved as a Composer file the limitations of .SAT would be moot, and the objects would behave as any Composer object. But if I might restate the issue with .SAT, the objects appear to only accept one or two attributes of the material properties, even after saving in Composer.

Another aside with .SAT is the random occurence of spikes on some objects. Excuse the lack of vocabulary - I was enthralled with Composer when it came out because it didn't require a heavy background in image processing or jumping through hoops to get terrific results. Now if I don't pay careful attention, my material library gets unintentionally mashed.

SimLab_85.jpg (49.11 KiB) Viewed 2469 times

Excuse my beefing, but I want Composer to be appealing to the novice class too.