[Maya] Material Manager 5.0.0 has Arrived!

Bartalon

Hey guys, just wanted to do a quick plug of the latest and final edition of my Material Manager tool for Maya.  Any feedback is welcomed, and I'll keep an eye on this thread for bug reports.  Thanks!

Material Manager 5.0.0

The Material Manager is an all-in-one interface for quickly interacting with scene materials.  Quickly sort, search, filter, create, rename, delete, search, and assign texture files with the click of a button!  This tool comes equipped with material presets that won't clutter up scene files and can be loaded in when they are needed, as well as an on-board color ID map baker.

Supported Maya Versions:  2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, all Maya LT versions

Read more and download at these locations:

1. https://www.highend3d.com/maya/script/material-manager-for-maya
2. https://gumroad.com/l/MaterialManager
3. http://cbr.sh/xw5m6f

There is now an official Discord Server for MM5 and all my other scripts:

https://discord.gg/VVB9RT8

Primary Features

1. One-click Material Interaction
2. One-click Texture Map Assignment/Removal
3. Harden UV Border Edges Tool
4. Color ID Map Baker (not available in Maya LT)
5. Automatic Color ID Tool
6. Quick Lambert/Blinn/StingrayPBS & Checker Materials
7. Handedness Indicator/Flipper
8. Namespace Removal Tool
9. Vertex Color from Material Tool
10. Customizable Material Presets
11. User-customizable Variables

Breakdown Video

https://youtu.be/s8BjqM4DEiQ

Version History

(full history now in Google Docs)

11 March 2018 -- Version 5.0.0

General

1. Material Manager 5 has arrived!  This version comes with another massive overhaul to all the code.  The information flow should be much more clear and easy to read, and much of the functionality should be more compartmentalized for easier modification, if you’re into that sort of thing.
   
   This overhaul marks the 5th time I’ve rewritten/reorganized the code which is why i’ve decided to make this release 5.0 instead of 4.4… and because it’s so much better!

New Features

1. Master config .txt file allows you to customize MM5 to initialize with your favorite settings and custom prefixes (for the Load Textures from Folder tool)

2. Master presets .txt file allows you to reorganize and add your own material presets to the Color Presets tab.  You also have control over what type of material the presets are when they are created

3. Added a Load Textures from Folder tool which assigns all texture channels at once

4. Window width control

5. StringrayPBS Support (for applicable versions of Maya)

6. Material indicators now work on selected groups (will report all materials on children)

7. More general support for all materials including mental ray, turtle, arnold

8. You can now assign/remove files to/from metallic & roughness channels on StingrayPBS materials

9. Multi-string material searching (separate each string with a space)

10. Material search results now update instantly

11. Improved Harden UV Edges tool - now solves for UV islands that wrap back around to themselves (such as cylinder bodies & spheres) and will appropriately soften those edges.  Works exactly like 3ds Max’s smoothing groups now

12. Swatches have been added to the Presets tab for quicker access to material ID colors

13. Material List indicators can now be suspended so assigned materials are not calculated when dealing with massive component selections

14. Presets can now be sorted per column or alternating left to right, top to bottom

15. Auto Assign Color IDs tool now works per object or per mesh element

16. Added an option to auto-append “M_” to materials as they are created

17. Added a cleanup tool to add “M_” to existing materials if they don’t already have it

18. ID Map Baker HP/LP/Cage fields now have an icon to list large amounts of loaded models which will be visible if something is loaded into that field

19. ID Map Baker now supports multiple low poly and cage files

UI

1. UI in general has been overhauled.  Nearly all of the UI has transitioned from a gridLayout format to a formLayout format.

2. ID Map Baker has been overhauled

3. Harden UV Edges tool now has a progress bar

4. The “Force Refresh” button has been removed to reduce button congestion.  Close and re-open MM5 if the indicators are not working as expected

5. Replaced Quick Checker material with a Quick StingrayPBS material.  Quick Checker has now been appended to the end of the preset swatches.

Bug Fixes / Performance

1. Auto Color ID tool now processes meshes MUCH faster and with more correct results

2. Selection-only material matching is now MUCH faster than before

3. Duplicate Material has been overhauled.  Hypershade is no longer required to be open and all shadingEngine and down stream nodes will automatically rename according to the new name.

4. Binding a hotkey for the Material Manager should finally work

5. Material Control buttons are now smarter: they will look at your selection even if nothing is marked and react appropriately

6. Many functions that deal with material channels are now smarter and will attempt to pick the most relevant channel if one exists.  This also means that materials not necessarily listed as being supported here may still work and/or it will be very simple to implement support.

7. Materials with namespaces should be accurately represented and interactable

8. Escape now properly cancels out of a quick material assign prompt dialog

9. Checker pattern contrast has been reduced

10. Fixed a bug where an object’s assigned materials were being queried multiple times per selection change

11. Fixed an issue where the material list updated significantly slower if “sort assigned materials to top” was enabled

12. ID Map Baker now remembers the most recent meshes you loaded as well as the file destination.

Other

1. The Smart Exporter has been removed from being part of the Material Manager.  Development will be conducted separately from now on, however it is currently backlogged.

chrisavigni

Great news! I've been using Ddo manager script and now it just got better! Tks a lot!

Sajeet

ah sweet! thx for keeping this updated

furiouslul

Just tried this for the first time, great work!

kwyjibo

Thanks for the awesome script Bartalon! everything works great.

One problem though..

I can't seem to bake the color ID map from the high to low poly following the steps in your video. I'm using the Maya 2014 on OSx.

below is the error message from the script editor:

// Error: line 0: Failed to open output file: ...sourceimages\test_bake.png // 

// Error: line 0: Failed to open IFF file for writing : ...sourceimages\test_bake.png.iff // 

No matter which file format or file size I select, I get the same error about iff file.

Bartalon

@kwyjibo Thanks for bringing this up.  That's and interesting bug, it seems to be specific to OSx.  If you can provide more information I can get a better idea of where to start looking for a solution:

• Were you using a cage with your bake?
• Were you able to pick a file location without any errors?
• Did the file path, name, and format show up properly in the text field after picking it?
• Was the bake able to start at all, or did the error happen as soon as you clicked the bake button?
• Did you try picking a new file path after the first time (before baking) to see if the bake succeeds?
• If you have any other versions of Maya (2013 or newer), does the problem persist there as well?
  

kwyjibo

I didn't use a cage. I could pick the file location without error. File name, path and format all seem fine in the text field. The bake seems to start and complete without issue (i can see the progress bar at the bottom of the screen) and then displays a message saying Success color ID map baked successfully. I've tried picking different save locations. I also tried it on my home computer (also osX) using Maya 2015, and encountered the same error. ie. file is not created. I'll try looking at it again later tonight. Maybe i'm following one of your steps incorrectly.

Bartalon

Version 4.0.3 is out, with the following updates:

1. Maya 2017 LT:  Fixed a bug that caused intermittent crashes when using the Dock menu
2. Added a link to this thread in the Help menu
3. Updated the Gumroad icon in the Help menu

If anyone else on OSx is having issues with the Color ID Map Baker, please send me a PM so I can work on getting it sorted.  Thanks

< ASH >

Hey Dennis many thanks for the great upgrade to your tool !
As many others I was still using your old dDo Material manager plugin, but this new update/upgrade looks awesome (I haven't had the change to use it yet, I just installed it and watched the Breakdown video).
EDIT: The new Smart Exporter is really great ! Recently I have been looking for a new fbx exporter (I am still using an old one not updated anymore, but it's quite basic). Your exporter has some nice features that will make the whole export process much faster and precise !

I also really like the new tool icon and because the default shelf icon is not the same one I quickly managed to make one taking it from the banner.png file: it works well on my shelf and I thought that maybe other people may like it (you can find it below).
If you like it feel free to include it in future releases as additional icon.
Btw keep up the good work and thanks again for your hard work.
Ash

Bartalon

There have been a couple updates since my last post.  Version 4.1.1 is now available which fixes numerous bugs and a couple of version- and situation-specific crashes.  (Version history in original post.)

@Ash Yes, the new version is a refreshing update to what is/was bundled with Legacy dDo!  Also, I'll go ahead and add that icon in the next update

quatic

can't find source on maya version 2016.5 ext 2

Bartalon

@quatic it's working just fine on my end.  Can you provide any screen shots or error messages so I can look into this?

quatic

Bartalon said:

@quatic it's working just fine on my end.  Can you provide any screen shots or error messages so I can look into this?

got skype?

Vit

When I'm pressing on any preset name, I've got this error:

"line 1953: setAttr: No object matches name: Brick.color".

I found that in line 1951 of the code material take a suffix to its name. I delete  + ''_SG"  and all works.

Bartalon

@Vit Hmm, that's strange!  It should definitely work without any code modifications.  Can you tell me which version of MM4 you are using, which version of Maya you are using, operating system, and whether this issue persists in an empty scene?

Thanks!

Vit

@Bartalon
Sure! I'm using windows 10, maya 2016 ext2. I don't have any other version of this script in my maya script folder.

Bartalon

Great, thanks for the info!  I'll get this fixed up in the next update.  Glad to hear your code tweak works for the time being.

Vit

Oh, I do nothing Thank you for this really good script! 

< ASH >

Bartalon said:

There have been a couple updates since my last post.  Version 4.1.1 is now available which fixes numerous bugs and a couple of version- and situation-specific crashes.  (Version history in original post.)

@Ash Yes, the new version is a refreshing update to what is/was bundled with Legacy dDo!  Also, I'll go ahead and add that icon in the next update

I just got the last update (I probably missed the one from early September): you did a lot fixes and improvement: many thanks !

Bartalon

Hey everyone, just a quick update to let you know MM v4.3.0 is out!  I spent some time fixing up the Color ID Baker and Smart Exporter among other things.  You can read the Version History in the original post above to learn about what's new.  Download link is up there as well.

In addition to a lot of bug fixes, I've added a new tool which lets you use the marking system to duplicate materials along with their full upstream and downstream connections.  The button for this tool is nestled right between the refresh and search buttons, as seen below.

Cheers

sadpunk

Hi there,

I have an odd issue regarding baking ID maps. I can't seem to get it to work and I am sure I have followed the steps in the video. 

I have added and high, low and cage mesh. Entered a valid file path and auto-assigned colour IDs to my high poly model. 

Yet when I press the Bake Color ID Map button I get the following error message:

// Warning: line 0: Flags describing target surfaces must be included once for every surface

Am I missing a step? 

I'm using Maya 2016 SP6 Student on a Windows7 system. I have also tried it in Maya 2017 (I now realise this version isn't supported). 

Bartalon

That's a new one!  Is it possible you have instances or identical names nested in different groups in your high/low poly selection?  If possible could you send me your file so I can investigate?

Thanks!

sadpunk

Bartalon said:

That's a new one!  Is it possible you have instances or identical names nested in different groups in your high/low poly selection?  If possible could you send me your file so I can investigate?

Thanks!

Sure:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5wgr7zpzqpo2uq1/Thruster.mb?dl=0

Appreciate you taking the time to look at this issue. I would still rule in user error :-)

Bartalon

Thanks, I'll get right on this and let you know when I figure something out!

Bartalon

Alright I think I got a fix in, definitely no user error on your end!  Go ahead and grab the latest version.

Thanks for pointing this out!

sadpunk

Bartalon said:

Alright I think I got a fix in, definitely no user error on your end!  Go ahead and grab the latest version.

Thanks for pointing this out!

Awesome thank you so much for response and rapid solution. Confirm fix works here too. 

I did try and drop you some cash via gumroad to help support further development but since I had already downloaded the plugin for $0  a while back I could not pay for something I have already "purchased".  

Do you have a PayPal account I could use to send a small payment to you for your efforts? 

Cheers,
sp.

sadpunk

Hi Bartalon, 

I am using your excellent material manager in production you will be pleased to know  

I have stumbled upon an issue however which you might be able to help with. 

Basically some of my material names are ending up quite long due to naming conventions etc. Would it be possible to add the ability to expand the material name field in the window to enable me to view longer material names? 

I have attached an extreme example which is a test scene maya renamed everything after a crash!  



Many thanks in advance. 

sp.

Bartalon

Hey sadpunk,

Glad to hear the tool is proving useful for you!  Changing the width of the window is not supported in the current version of Material Manager.  In this specific and extreme example, you can use the namespace removal tool to shorten the material names to better fit the window.

In the meantime, you'll be happy to hear that I'm in the process of working on the next version which does include window width adjustment along with ranged toggling of markers, multi-string search filtering, wider support of materials including StingrayPBS, preset color swatches, the ability to easily and permanently include your own basic material presets, and many more things.

Stay tuned!

Sajeet

oooh! Happy to hear that @Bartalon

sadpunk

#Tuned 

Nice one Bartalon 

bitinn

Bartalon said:

Hey everyone, just a quick update to let you know MM v4.3.0 is out!  I spent some time fixing up the Color ID Baker and Smart Exporter among other things.  You can read the Version History in the original post above to learn about what's new.  Download link is up there as well.

In addition to a lot of bug fixes, I've added a new tool which lets you use the marking system to duplicate materials along with their full upstream and downstream connections.  The button for this tool is nestled right between the refresh and search buttons, as seen below.

Cheers

Hi Bartalon, thx for the great tool!

One question: this duplication feature seem to face the same issue as "Cmd + D" duplicate in Hypershade: it doesn't create the shading group automatically, so the duplicated material can't be assigned:

select -r Table_BarCounter_Low1|Counter_Low ;

sets -e -forceElement internal_standInSE;

// Error: line 1: No object matches name: internal_standInSE // 

See the screenshots (I am using Maya LT 2018, pretty sure this is the case in Maya LT 2017 too):




Sure I can create the shading group and connect it myself, but that's what I would like to automate

For your reference, this is how I would create a material along with shading group (it doesn't call menu item so no need to open Hypershade):

/*

  CreateMaterial - create a material and related shader group

  input:

    - $MaterialPrefix / string / naming prefix of the material

    - $ShaderName / string / type of shader

    - $GroupPrefix / string / naming prefix of shader group

  return:

    - string[] / {material name, shader group name}

*/

proc string[] CreateMaterial (

  string $MaterialPrefix, string $ShaderName, string $GroupPrefix

) {

  // material

  string $Material = `shadingNode -asShader $ShaderName -name $MaterialPrefix`;

  // shading group

  string $ShadingGroup = `sets

    -renderable true

    -noSurfaceShader true

    -empty

    -name $GroupPrefix`;

  // connect them

  connectAttr ($Material + ".outColor") ($ShadingGroup + ".surfaceShader");

  return {$Material, $ShadingGroup};

}

I think it should be possible to adapt this for duplication.

Bartalon

bitinn,

Thanks for the input!  I've been aware of the bugs present in 4.X including this one.  The Duplicate Material tool has been completely rewritten, along with literally everything else.  I'm making sure that everything properly duplicates and all connected file and placeTexture2D nodes are appropriately renamed according to the name of the duplicated material.

I'll take a look at the code you've provided and see if it can help.  Thanks!


P.S.  To everyone - still no ETA but I am about 98% complete with rewriting all the code. I just have to do some testing and then record a video to cover all the new features.  Soon!

P.P.S.  If anyone is interested in helping me bug test the new version please send me a private message.

Bartalon

Bump!  Version 5 is finally out!  Check original post for more info or pop straight over to one of these locations to grab it for free:

• https://gumroad.com/l/MaterialManager
  
• https://www.highend3d.com/maya/script/free-material-manager-for-maya
  
• http://cbr.sh/xw5m6f
  

< ASH >

That's great new Dennis ! I can't wait to give it a shot.
Thanks for taking the time to develop and improving this plugin: I am so used to it that I cannot imagine to go back using the Maya hypershade.

sadpunk

Hey Bartalon, 

Congrats on v5 release. I've only spent 15 minutes with the latest version but am not seeing the adjustable width feature. Did this make it into the release build? Sadly I am still having to deal with long material names especially from outsourcers ! 

Thanks in advance. 

Bartalon

Hi sadpunk,

The window width feature should be under the Bonus Settings menu.  Make sure the title bar of the Material Manager window is showing the correct version (latest is 5.0.1 presently).

sadpunk

Ahhhhhh Nice one Bartalon. In my defence I was very busy yesterday and didn't pay enough attention Thanks for confirmation. 

EDIT: During the course of using the plugin today I have stumbled upon the following issues: 

1. A fatal error occurs when closing MM after I changing the window width using the Bonus Settings. I have tested various widths including the maximum and various in-between the stated values and error occurs. Also, changing the default value in mm_config.txt has no effect after restarting Maya.   

2. Ctrl + Click nameplate to select polys assigned is not working.

3. When Ctrl + Click a nameplate the material list scrolls back to the top - I don't think this happened in previous versions.

4. When Ctrl + Click to skip naming of Create and/or assign materials with poly selection - the new material does not get assigned to selected faces. 

I am using 2017 Update5 - maybe this is the reason I am seeing the above issues? 

Bartalon

Thanks again sadpunk.  I'll look into these issues soon and let you know when I get them resolved.

Bartalon

@sadpunk I have fixed a number of the things you discovered and then some.  Pick up the latest version (linked in original post)!

14 March 2018 - v5.0.3

General

1. Added .surfaceColor & .diffuseColor to the list of valid color channels

2. Added .diffuseRoughness to the list of valid roughness channels

3. Added .KsColor to the list of valid specular channels

4. Added .emissionColor to the list of valid emissive/incandescence channels

5. Added more Bitfrost materials to the list of valid materials

6. Range selection should now work on nameplates (select a material, then hold shift and select another material in the list)

7. Ctrl + Clicking a material nameplate in the Material List should now once again act as a quick “match material” shortcut.

Bug Fixes / Performance

1. Fixed a fatal error that was happening after changing window width using the menu option

2. Fixed an issue where the Material List would snap back to the top even when Sort Assigned Materials First was disabled

3. Fixed an issue where an Object “” not found error message would prevent MM from initializing on the first try

4. Fixed an issue where assigning a material to an instance caused an error when the selection was an object rather than a component (due to the presumed fix in 5.0.2)

sadpunk

Bartalon said:

Thanks again sadpunk.  I'll look into these issues soon and let you know when I get them resolved.

Awesome Bartalon - confirm those issues I was seeing are resolved in 5.0.3. 

triton

I have version 5.0.3 and I got this message every time I select an object.

// Warning: file: C:/Users/xxx/Documents/maya/2018/prefs/scripts/dp_MaterialManager.mel line 3419: Unknown object type: aiShadowCatcher //

Bartalon

Hey @triton thanks for bringing this up.  That has to do with the Arnold plugin.  It's possible there are some material types that only exist for certain versions of Maya (as with shaderFXPlugin.mll).  What version of Maya are you using?

This warning should not interfere with the behavior of Material Manager, so you can ignore "unknown object type" warnings until they get patched out in the next update.   But still definitely report it you find any other types that produce a warning!

Thanks

triton

Thank you for your reply,
I really loved your tool.

I am using Maya 2018.2, I will ignore the message as you said 

Is there any way of assigning a random [selected] materials for selected objects?
Let's say I have 8 shaders and I want to assign them to the selected 100 objects I have in the scene randomly, Is there anyway of doing this?

bitinn

I wanted to try out v5 but it yields many errors, all of them I suspect is platform related (mine is macOS):

https://gist.github.com/bitinn/685841c9bbe570ff423c079082f2c950

Bartalon

@bitinn looks like it's actually just a single error.  The first one is an unterminated string error which will cause a flood of other errors afterward.  I guess OSX doesn't like the way I've written that particular command.

Can you tell me which version of Maya you are using also?  I will get you something to test with within the next day.

bitinn

Bartalon said:

@bitinn looks like it's actually just a single error.  The first one is an unterminated string error which will cause a flood of other errors afterward.  I guess OSX doesn't like the way I've written that particular command.

Can you tell me which version of Maya you are using also?  I will get you something to test with within the next day.

Maya LT 2018, as you might guess from the folder path

Bartalon

Latest version is out now, which fixes a couple of specific errors.  Thanks everyone for the bug reports!

20 March 2018 - v5.0.5

General

1. Material Manager should now be reporting the proper version and release date again.

2. Removed some obsolete commented code

Bug Fixes / Performance

1. Fixed an “unterminated string” error that prevented the tool from running on Mac OS

2. Fixed a “more than one object matches name” error when attempting to assign materials to objects inside instanced groups

3. Fixed an issue where some tools and menu items incompatible with Maya LT were still showing up, namely the ID Map Baker

triton

Just wanted to tell that when download from Gumroad the zip file named: Material Manager v5.0.4 which make it a little bit confusing.

And the first two lines in the "dp_MaterialManager.mel" says:

global string $mm_Version = "5.0.3";
global string $mm_Release = "14 March 2018";

I don't know which one to trust

Thanks for everthing Bartalon
 

Bartalon

Hey triton,

Yes this was noticed shortly after release of 5.0.4 (whoops!).  This has been fixed in 5.0.5 and now displays the proper version again   You can view the Version Information under the MM5 Help menu to see what's been fixed in the latest versions, as well as what has been planned to be fixed in upcoming versions.  

ThomasVeil

Love this tool - saves me a lot of hassle.
But (you knew there had to be one): I have trouble with v.5 up to 5.0.5. When duplicating materials it assigns the new one to the object... but somehow the old one stays stuck on it. So then I have two materials on it apparently... but not really on any polygon. Not exactly sure what it is - even reassigning via the normal Material Editor fixes it. The only thing I can do is opening the "Input Output Connections" graph, and delete the wrong material there. 
Also, currently the update of the list is very slow. I mean... I have a terrible file with hundreds of materials, so It's kinda my fault... but it makes it hard to work with and I have to temporarily turn MM off. Before at v4 it wouldn't have that problem (though there it wouldn't always update the list on changes). It might be because of this new warning that pops up a lot: "// Warning: file: .../scripts/dp_MaterialManager.mel line 3356: Unknown object type: aiShadowCatcher // "

And as I'm at it: Is there a reason why there isn't a "quick phong material" button? There are for Lambert and Blinn... but everything else seems to be made for Phong materials. What's the reason - am I missing something?

Edit: And yeah, something is iffy with Gumroad. The text shows the current version... but the files are still 5.0.4 right now. Before it was even older.

Anyways, thanks for your work.... doing Autodesks job

Bartalon

Thanks for the feedback @ThomasVeil !  Sorry to hear you are having trouble with the new version.  I will look into these issues and try to find ways to optimize when/how the Material List updates, as well as look into the Duplicate Material tool.

I might be able to bring back the Quick Phong button.  Since there is no "Refresh" button anymore I could put it there...

The aiShadowCatcher warning is a known issue.  I guess it must be version-specific to 2018.  It's just a warning, though, so it's not interfering with how MM5 works or updates the list.  You can ignore it for now.

I'll post an update when the next version comes out.