Material and Map Nodes in the Active View
 
 
 

When you edit materials and maps, these appear in the active View as “nodes” that you can wire together.

Example of a material node

A node has several components:

You can collapse a node to hide its slots, or expand it to show the slots. You can also resize a node horizontally, so the slot names are easier to read.

Node display controls

1. Collapse/expand the node.

2. Resize the node.

Left: An expanded node (the expand/collapse icon is a minus sign)

Right: The same node after collapsing it (the expand/collapse icon changes to a plus sign)

Left: An expanded node

Right: The same node after resizing it by dragging the resize icon

NoteWhen you resize a node by dragging its lower-right corner, the cursor doesn’t change appearance, but the corner itself changes from beveled to rectangular.

You can enlarge the preview in a node’s title bar by double-clicking the preview. To reduce the preview, double-click the preview again.

Left: A node with the default preview size

Right: The preview has been enlarged by double-clicking it. (A second double-click returns to the small size.)

Indicators for Show Map In Viewport

If you turn on Show Shaded Map In Viewport or Show Realistic Map In Viewport for a material or a map, a red diagonal shape appears in the title bar of the material or map node, to show that this option is active. For more information about this option, see Viewport Display of Materials .

Red flag in title bar shows that Show Map In Viewport has been turned on.

When Show Map is on, the Navigator also uses a diagonal red shape to indicate this, and so does the material or map entry in the Material/Map Browser.

Navigator display of a material with Show Map In Viewport turned on

Material/Map Browser entry for a material with Show Map In Viewport turned on

Selecting, Moving, and Laying Out Nodes

When a node is selected in the View, it shows a white border and the background, including the title bar, is darker. When it is not selected, the border is gray and the background is lighter.

To select a node, make sure the Select tool is active, then click the node. To select multiple nodes, use Ctrl+click (Alt+click removes a node from the current selection), or drag a selection rectangle around the nodes. The Select menu has options for modifying the current selection.

To deselect nodes, make sure the Select tool is active, then click a blank area of the View.

Dragging a selected node moves it in the View.

Shift+dragging a node clones that node. Ctrl+Shift+dragging a node clones the node and all the node’s children. These cloning methods also work for multiple selections.

You can use these options to move nodes and lay them out:

Hot and Cool Materials

A material node is "hot" when the material in the node is assigned to one or more surfaces in the scene. When you use the Slate Material Editor to adjust a hot material node, the material in the scene changes at the same time.

In the title bar of the node, the corners of the material preview indicate whether the material is a hot material:

A material is "cool" if it is not applied to any object in the scene.

To make a hot material node cool, clone it by using Shift+drag or Ctrl+Shift+drag. This makes a copy of the material (or of the material plus its maps) that is not used in the scene.

Procedures

To place a material or map node in the active View:

To give a material or map a different name, do one of the following:

3ds Max opens a Rename dialog, which lets you enter a new name for the material.

The name of a material can contain spaces, numbers, and special characters.

To edit a material:

To edit the settings of a material or map:

To create a new material:

To make a copy of a material:

To get a material from the scene:

  1. On the Slate Material Editor toolbar, click (Pick Material From Object).
  2. In a viewport, click the object with the material you want to get.
    TipIn the Material/Map Browser , the Scene Materials group always contains all the materials used in the scene.

To apply a material to objects in a scene:

To remove a material from an object:

  1. Select the object.
  2. In the MAXScript Listener, enter $.material=undefined.

To select objects that have the same material applied:

When a material in the Slate Material Editor is applied to objects in the scene, you can use the Slate Material Editor to select the objects.

  1. In the active View, right-click the material node, then choose Select Select By Material.

    3ds Max opens a Select Objects dialog. In the list of objects, all objects with this material assigned are highlighted.

  2. Click Select to select those objects and close the Select Objects dialog.

To add a map to the active View:

  • Preview Window for Maps and Materials

    The Preview window for materials and maps helps you visualize how the material or map will appear in the scene.

  • Wiring Nodes

    To map a material component, you wire a map node to the input socket for that component’s slot. Drag from the map socket to the material socket or from the material socket to the map socket.

  • Right-Click Menu for Material and Map Nodes

    Right-clicking a material or map node displays a menu that has a variety of options for displaying and managing the material or map.

  • Right-Click Menu for Wires

    Right-clicking a wire between nodes displays a menu with options for changing the child type, or managing its instances.