Program Features
MatManager is a collection of tools created to help you, the artist, control your materials and help you make the most of them. It was designed to complement 3D Studio, keeping a clean and streamlined interface where every action takes as few clicks as possible.
Check the following list of features to find out all that MatManager can do. If you wish to find out more you can download the demo version or the help file from the Download Section
Custom Libraries
Normally 3D Studio only allows one material library to be open at any time, and saving a material for later use on another project requires a very tedious procedure. So tedious that most users don’t reuse materials or keep an organized database of the ones they have created.
MatManager gives you the ability to store an unlimited amount of materials. There is no need to browse for a material library or scene file, once you have stored a material it will always be there, just one click away. Plus, the materials can be organized into different libraries so that they can easily be found, even if you have hundreds stored.
Material Editor Library
The Material Editor library holds every material currently present in 3D Studio's Material Editor. It will display a full tree for every material and allow you to access every level of it directly.
Scene Materials Library
The Scene Materials library displays every material currently present in the scene and is updated automatically. It can be used to quickly identify and select objects based on their material, or find shaders with missing bitmaps.
Auto-Store Bitmaps
When saving a material that uses bitmap files, MatManager will automatically copy the bitmaps to a pre-configured location. This will automatically keep your bitmaps organized and you will never have problems with missing bitmaps!
Material Previews
MatManager will display a preview of your materials and also of all the sub-materials and textures that those materials use. It’s also capable of recognizing different kinds of shaders (standard, mix, blend, etc.) and adjusting the tree accordingly.
Store UVW Maps
Besides the material itself, you can also store the UVW modifier that material is using. This way you won’t have to waist time re-creating the UVW coordinates for your architectural materials.
Full Material Trees
The script displays every level of your materials and textureMaps. You can easily browse the different levels and modify the components at will.
Find Missing Bitmaps
MatManager can help you identify missing bitmap files or incorrect file paths on your materials. When browsing the Scene Materials, every entry with an error will display a warning icon.
Material Sharing
All the materials are stored in .mat files in your hard drive, this makes sharing of materials and libraries really easy even with people who do not have MatManager installed.
Edit Bitmaps & TextureMaps
Besides editing you textures directly, you can also use MatManager to modify your bitmaps directly in your favorite bitmap editing application (like Photoshop) with just two clicks.
Compatibility
MatManager is compatible with any and all materials and rendering engines. As long as your 3D Studio is able to load the material, so will MatManager. And of course the previews can be rendered with the engine of your choice.
Assign Random Materials Tool
This tool can be used to assign a random material to selected objects from a pool of preselected materials. Very useful for adding variation to your scene by assinging variations of a material to large set of objects.
Material Replacer Tool
You can use the Material Replacer to quickly replace large sets of materials based on their name. The tool will compare the materials on the selected objects with those in your chosen library and display any matches found.