Material Manager Preferences

To display: Choose File Preferences from the main menu and click Editors Material Manager or its icon, or choose Materials Material Manager Preferences in the material manager.

The settings you make in the material manager are stored in its preferences and reused the next time you open it.

For more information about the material manager, see The Material Manager [Materials and Shaders].

Image Clips

Show

Determines which clips are displayed in the Image Clips explorer on the left side of the material manager.

All Image Clips
Used Image Clips
Unused Image Clips

Thumbnail Size

Sets the size for the thumbnails used on the Image Clips tab : Small, Medium, or Large Icons. The List View displays the clips in a list with very small icons.

Material Shelf

Show	Filters the materials displayed in the shelf: All Materials Used Materials Unused Materials Highlighted Materials displays only the materials highlighted by the Highlight Materials From Selected Objects button (Materials > Get Materials From Selected Objects).
Thumbnail Size	Sets the size for the thumbnails used in the shelf: Small, Medium, or Large Icons. The List View displays the shaders in a list with very small icons.
Match Keywords	Sets the options for displaying materials in the shelf based on the keywords you select in the Keywords list: With Match Any Keywords (OR), any materials that match the selected keywords are displayed in the shelf. For example, if you select "blue" and "striped" in the keyword list, any materials that have either (any) of these keywords are displayed. With Match All Keywords (AND), only the materials that match all the selected keywords are displayed in the shelf. For example, if you select "blue" and "striped" in the keyword list, only materials that have both (all) of these keywords are displayed.
Highlight on Explorer Selection	Automatically highlights materials in the shelf and displays them in the bottom pane when you select them in the explorer in the left pane of the material manager.

Explorer

Show	Determines which materials are displayed on the Scene tab in the explorer on the left side of the material manager. Local Material shows materials applied locally on an object or cluster itself. Applied Material includes materials inherited from parents, groups, and partitions.

Bottom Tabs

Image Clips	Sets the size for the thumbnails used in the Image Clips tab in the lower pane of the material manager: Small, Medium, or Large Icons. The List View displays the clips in a list with very small icons.
Who Uses?	Sets the size for the thumbnails used on the Who Uses? tab in the lower pane of the material manager: Small, Medium, or Large Icons. The List View displays the shaders in a list with very small icons.
Multi-Column List Views	If you select List View for either the Image Clips or Who Uses? tab, it displays the thumbnails in multiple columns instead of one list that you need to scroll.

Performance

Turn Off Rendering of Shaderballs

Turns off the rendered display of the shaderballs for shaders displayed in the material shelf. This helps optimize the performance of the material manager.

If you select this option, shaderballs are shown as either just the color square of the material or else the last rendered shaderball version.

If you are working with the render tree and it has shaderballs turned on, the material's shaderball there is updated as usual, but the shaderball in the material manager shelf doesn't update until you click on it. This lets you turn off the shaderballs for all shaders except the ones that you are working with in the render tree.

Turn Off Image Clips Thumbnails

Turns off the display of thumbnails for the image clips in the Image Clip explorer on the left side of the material manager.

Save Image Clip Thumbnails in a Sub-Folder

Saves image clip thumbnails in a subfolder that's defined with the Images Generate Thumbnail option in the Rendering Preferences (see Image Proxies for more information).

It generates a thumbnail along with an image proxy, which is a scaled-down copy of the images that you use in your scenes. The thumbnails are stored in their own subdirectory alongside the proxies' directories.