Deleting library materials

[Alaskan_Son]

I've never fully understood where a plan stores all of its materials/textures.  I typically make a lot of custom materials for plans (slight color modifications, rotating the grain, etc.).  Because of this, my user catalog has gotten a little messy and bloated (especially considering I haven't taken the time to create various files and organize it all).  From time to time I'll go through and clean it up, deleting things I don't feel the need to keep.

 

My question...When I delete one of those custom materials, will any plans using that material "forget" what material to use?  Or is that information saved elsewhere as well?  It hadn't occurred to me before just now that I could be messing up other plans by deleting those materials.  

[Dennis_Gavin]

Michael - If the plan references a texture that no longer exists it cannot use it.  You could export you plan with materials

to a subfolder as a way of saving everything and then you may be OK.  OR if not at least you can point to the location

very easily.

[Alaskan_Son]

Michael - If the plan references a texture that no longer exists it cannot use it.  You could export you plan with materials

to a subfolder as a way of saving everything and then you may be OK.  OR if not at least you can point to the location

very easily.

 

So, you are telling me that the user catalog is the only place that custom materials/textures can exist?

 

I might add to your suggestion that you can also 3D>Materials>Create Plan Materials Library instead of creating the separate sub folder but this still puts the materials in the user folder.

[Alaskan_Son]

I think part of my confusion lies with the fact that I can adjust a material definition (change the color, rotate the texture, etc.) and it will save with the plan even though a new material has NOT been added to my user library.  Is this not true with all materials that exist in any given plan? 

[Dennis_Gavin]

Changing the specifics of the material does not have anything to do with where it is located.  Chief looks to the path that is associated with the texture

used in creating the material.  I now keep all my textures in a folder called Chief(in a sub folder) so I know where to look if needed.

[Alaskan_Son]

Changing the specifics of the material does not have anything to do with where it is located. Chief looks to the path that is associated with the texture

used in creating the material. I now keep all my textures in a folder called Chief(in a sub folder) so I know where to look if needed.

I don't think its quite that simple. Here's an example...

I can open a new plan and draw 3 exterior walls. They all have the default "Gray 3 siding".

I can use the Adjust Material Definition tool, navigate to the texture tab, rotate the texture to 90 degrees, change the color to yellow, and that new material definition will stay with that wall even though no new material was created (you can search the library and there won't be a yellow version of "Gray 3 siding" anywhere). At this point I have 3 walls with vertical yellow siding.

I can search "Gray 3 siding" in the library and then paint one of the walls and it will now revert to the original horizontal gray siding. Now I have 2 walls with vertical yellow siding and one wall with horizontal gray siding. I can close and reopen the plan and they remain the same even though there is still not a second version of "Gray 3 siding" in the library.

I can then search "Gray 3 siding " in the library, right click>Show In Browser> and then copy and paste the material into my user catalog. I can then rename that material "Gray 3 siding 2" and use it to paint my 3rd wall. After doing that I can use the Adjust Material Definition tool, navigate to the texture tab, rotate the texture to 45 degrees and change the color to blue. Now I have 1 wall with vertical yellow siding named "Gray 3 siding", 1 wall with horizontal gray siding named "Gray 3 siding" and 1 wall with diagonal blue siding named "Gray 3 siding 2".

I can go into my user catalog, delete "Gray 3 siding 2", and empty my trash folder. If I close and reopen the plan, I still have all 3 walls, they still retain the modified material definitions as well as the names even though I only have the original horizontal gray version of "Gray 3 siding" in my library.

This tells me the material definitions as well as the materials themselves are being stored somewhere besides my user catalog.

[glennw]

Michael,

 

That tells me that the Material itself (.jpg image) is stored in the library whilst the material properties (size, color, rotation, etc,) are stored with the object.

ie, you can have 2 different objects with the same material, but make them look completely different by changing the material properties differently on each object.

[Alaskan_Son]

Michael,

 

That tells me that the Material itself (.jpg image) is stored in the library whilst the material properties (size, color, rotation, etc,) are stored with the object.

ie, you can have 2 different objects with the same material, but make them look completely different by changing the material properties differently on each object.

 

Thanks Glenn,  that helped lead me to a little better understanding.  I think I've got it now...

 

Material definitions (including material name and all other properties) are stored with the object.  The Texture File (found in the texture tab) is a file that can be located anywhere on the computer.  The file path just needs to be assigned to the Material.  So...I can safely delete any "custom" Materials from my user catalog so long as any and all associated Texture Files remain.  

 

Furthermore, none of the Texture Files are actually located in the user catalog.  They are simply referenced THROUGH the Material that is located in the user library. 

 

In other words (and to answer my original question)...It should be totally safe to delete items from my user catalog.

 

 

P.S. I see now that you were saying the same thing Dennis.  Thank you.  I've added emphasis though just to clarify (both for myself and for anyone else who might have the same question).  Until today I had never thought through the seemingly subtle difference between textures and materials.