Plugin: tSxColourPicker

[Rhino169]

Emmanuel, I'm not sure if this explanation is the same as you give previously...but I do not see a Material List anywhere. Maybe you could direct me a little better on that?

Spacekdet, I tried right clicking the eyedropper, but noting seems to happen.


The image below shows the "Material Preview IIR - Scene" button in the Material Editor Panel (Far left green arrow). You get to it by holding a left click on the "Material Preview Sphere" icon which will show 4 choices.

In the material editor preview window, the whole scene shows and can be enlarged in the lower right corner (other green arrow). You can even rotate around or zoom in the main scene window and this preview window will update to match.

Basically, you pick an object that is a color you want to change with the eyedropper in the main scene window. The material editor will now show that color. Then adjust the material editor to what ever replacement color/material you need and every object or face (I haven't verified yet) will change to the new color/material regardless of how it is grouped.

I have been using this program since '98 and didn't know this existed! It would have saved me many hours moving around in the hierarchy of an object trying to get to all the objects. I even used to group things by color because of not being able to change things quickly.

Maybe we need a "How things work area"?...to help us un-seasoned veterans figure out how to use this program properly! lol

[Emmanuel]

Emmanuel, I'm not sure if this explanation is the same as you give previously...but I do not see a Material List anywhere. Maybe you could direct me a little better on that?

This tool is present in tS7.6 and 7.61 ; not in previous versions.

See a screenshot below : in the circle the icon that opens the Material List panel. On the right you will find 2 icons that let you select the objects or the faces that share the same selected material.
Note that your icons may differ from mine because I've redesigned almost all of the tS icons at my taste

[Rhino169]

Hey wow!...that is very cool Emmanuel! I wish it were in the older versions!...but that is ok. I can just open the model I am working on now in TS7.61.

I assume this is on both Model and Work spaces?

[Emmanuel]

Hey wow!...that is very cool Emmanuel! I wish it were in the older versions!...but that is ok. I can just open the model I am working on now in TS7.61.

I assume this is on both Model and Work spaces?

No. It is a Modeler tool. Worspace has its own Material Editor.

In tS6 days I was using FaceMaster, a cool plugin by Chikara Kojima. FaceMaster allows to select the faces that share the same materials, even on multiple objects (you have to select them all first though), but it offers more options such as add/intersect/substract other selections. It also has a filter that helps to select faces that share the same color but not the same reflectance settings for example.

Here is a typical workflow to add faces to a selection :
1. Select the objects you want to work on.
2. Use the Inspect tool to pick up a material.
3. In FaceMaster, clic the ADD button to add the objects, then clic the MATERIAL button to select the faces painted with the material you selected.
4. Use the inspect tool to pick up an other material from your objects.
5. In FaceMaster, you can add this new material to the selection by checking the ADD checkbox.
Next, to paint all your faces at once, simply clic the Paint Faces icon...

Here is FaceMaster. It is complementary to tS7.6's Material List tool.
You may like it a lot

[Emmanuel]

This reminds me a plugin I've always dreamed of.

I am dreaming of a selective paint tool.

See :
You may want to apply the same reflectance settings on objects that share different textures. In tS there is no tool yet for this. You have to inspect the objects, change the reflectance and paint over the existing.
A selective paint plugin would take the material settings from the Material Editor but through a filter (a sort of menu just like in FaceMaster). In SDK words, it would generate a 'pMatrl' with missing informations, then paint objects or face, leaving some settings unchanged and applying the rest from the Material Editor settings.

I doubt this will work though. Perhaps Modeler's SDK don't allow for this.

DD, Clinton, Stan, Fenerit, what do you think ?

[Fenerit]

I wonder about the workflow for that. On other hand, one can apply the same reflectance soon, before textures, by selecting the objects within the SceneEditor (ctrl+LC) and applying a default material with that reflectance; thereafter, one by one, their textures. In this case the plugin cannot know in advance what textures are applied. On the other, something could tell the plugin which textures are applied (their names?) so that could be re-applied once the reflectance has been changed. In the first way the textures' names could say nothing; one need to see it before apply and therefore remaining in "manual" mode.

[Fenerit]

tSx Colour Picker v.1.2

changes:
- CTRL key now send color to the material editor;
- removed the "refresh" button; no longer required for typing the values within the ME;

tSxColourPicker_1.2.zip

(11.21 KiB) Downloaded 238 times

[Fenerit]

tSx Colour Picker v.1.3

- regression: removed the picker pointer icon. This was a cause of flickering with customized mouse pointers. The picker icon is now just yor mouse pointer. Unelegant, but by far the best way to handle the operation without noises.

tSxColourPicker_1.3.zip

(11.27 KiB) Downloaded 331 times

[Cellulo]

Thanks again Fenerit.