Why have a "Default Material" setting for exterior and interior walls if it doesn't work?

[Meltdown00]

Anyone have any idea what the default material setting for exterior/interior walls do?  I'm talking about the setting under the 'Materials' section in default settings, not under the 'Walls' section.  All the other selections for materials change everything that was drawn with the default materials settings enabled. E.g. doors, trim, windows, they all change color when you change the default. But not walls. Why do they have different actions in the program? This has been like this for a while, so I assume it is not a bug, but a desired result. It has always seemed odd to me.

(And yes, I know to use different wall types to mass change wall materials through a plan.)

[glennw]

The Exterior Walls setting applies when you select the outside room and change the material.

 

 

[Meltdown00]

14 minutes ago, glennw said:

The Exterior Walls setting applies when you select the outside room and change the material.

 

 

This does not pick up the 'default material' selection. No matter what settings you change, the default exterior wall material stays the blue lap siding and the interior stays as drywall. Or at least the rendering settings do...

[Meltdown00]

In the image attached, the walls I have drawn are set for 'default' under the materials tab. But I have the default material set as a different material. No matter what I do, the "default' wall material never changes from the blue lap siding for exterior walls. (Same for drywall material for interior walls.) 

 

My question is why this doesn't work as expected. I.e. you change the default material for exterior doors and ALL ext. doors that have material set as 'default' will change color.  Personally I feel this is a bug, but it has been in CA for multiple versions.

 

So no one wastes their time, I am not trying to figure out how to change materials. I know all or most of the work arounds.  This is just an annoyance of mine that I thought was getting fixed...  :-)

[Michael_Gia]

4 hours ago, Meltdown00 said:

My question is why this doesn't work as expected.

Exterior walls usually have quite a few changes in exterior materials. 
 

So, it makes sense that the material in the default settings dbx does not affect every exterior wall. 
 

Unless you’re building a dog house, of course. 
 

I get your frustration, because the default material dbx is miss leading and isn’t clear about which ones affect which objects, or if they’re global or just affect the next item drawn after the change. 

[Alaskan_Son]

This particular issue perplexes me as well and it’s something that keeps me awake at night every couple years or so.  I feel like I’ve figured out more of the nuances on a couple different occasions but as of right now, I only know a few things:

1.  The Interior Wall material setting is used for the automatic stair enclosure walls on interior stairs.

2.  The Interior Wall material setting is used for library previews.

3.  Both Interior and Exterior Wall material defaults are assigned to the Rooms’ Materials.  I seem to recall figuring out when these kick in at one point, but I can’t remember anymore.  It may be that they no longer do what they once did, or it may be that it’s only under the rarest of unique circumstances that they do anything, maybe in those odd scenarios where Chief needs to fill in an area automatically and there’s no clear wall to use as the basis.  I don’t know.  Maybe I am simply misremembering and I’ve never figured it out, but I absolutely seem to have some memory of certain exterior walls on some covered entries taking on that Exterior Wall Material default.  
 

No matter though,  I agree It’s certainly not clear what they do or when they kick in.   And it doesn’t seem to be anywhere in the Help files either.  

[someguy]

I think wall type drives what is the default material when you select or change a wall to that type. Changing just the material only changes what is viewed and painted on. If you draw a new wall it uses the default or you can also change the material back to default. I’m really new to chief and this got me for a while but now I’m starting to understand what drives what. So many defaults and views to understand. 

[Alaskan_Son]

17 hours ago, someguy said:

I think wall type drives what is the default material when you select or change a wall to that type. Changing just the material only changes what is viewed and painted on. If you draw a new wall it uses the default or you can also change the material back to default. I’m really new to chief and this got me for a while but now I’m starting to understand what drives what. So many defaults and views to understand. 

 

I don't think the OP has any issue understanding how to control wall materials.  A wall's Materials are driven by the Wall Type Definition.  Whatever material is being used in the Wall Type Definition is the Default Material for that Wall Layer.  If a wall is painted using the Material Painter or if one of the surface's Materials is changed in the Wall's material tab, then that particular surface will no longer be using the default.  This is all pretty basic stuff.  What the OP is specifically asking about is something else entirely:

 

There are settings in the Material Defaults for "Walls (Exterior)" and for "Walls (Interior)/Soffits" that don't seem to have any affect on walls.  That's the issue being discussed.  It's really an unusual default setting because it doesn't actually seem to have an effective place in the hierarchy. 

 

[Chrisb222]

On 4/8/2023 at 12:24 PM, Meltdown00 said:

Anyone have any idea what the default material setting for exterior/interior walls do?

 

Maybe a leftover aspect of the program from an older version that got superseded, but never got deprecated? Just guessing... 

[someguy]

1 hour ago, Alaskan_Son said:

 

I don't think the OP has any issue understanding how to control wall materials.  A wall's Materials are driven by the Wall Type Definition.  Whatever material is being used in the Wall Type Definition is the Default Material for that Wall Layer.  If a wall is painted using the Material Painter or if one of the surface's Materials is changed in the Wall's material tab, then that particular surface will no longer be using the default.  This is all pretty basic stuff.  What the OP is specifically asking about is something else entirely:

 

There are settings in the Material Defaults for "Walls (Exterior)" and for "Walls (Interior)/Soffits" that don't seem to have any affect on walls.  That's the issue being discussed.  It's really an unusual default setting because it doesn't actually seem to have an effective place in the hierarchy. 

 

Sorry, thought I had a similar issue. Wasn't trying to confuse anyone

[ComputerMaster86]

I once post on a similar but related topic.  I think whenever we are presented with an option to select a material we should always get an option to select a material default category.  Secondly, I have always wanted the ability to modify the Material Default Categories list just like we are able for the room types.  Implementing this would likely fix the OP's issue an complaint.

 

  

On 5/25/2021 at 1:56 AM, ComputerMaster86 said:

Just like we can do for "Room Types", I really wish we had the ability to modify this list.  Options would need to be added to for the following...

 

• New (Add a New Material Default Category)
• Rename (Rename an Existing Material Default Category)
• Duplicate / Copy (Duplicate an Existing Material Default Category)
• Delete (Delete Material Default Category if not Currently Being Used)

 

 

Secondly the "Material Default" tab would need to be added wherever it is missing.  Often times we are not given the option to choose a "Material Default" from the "Material Default" list.  Please fix this and add some consistency.