Blender 3.0.0 Asset Manager

Migitino

Quick question, is there a way to have any materials applied on an object that is currently in the asset browser just be switched with the ones inside the blend file you are trying to import it to? My materials are named the same but it still adds new materials.

gnoop

if  you  edit an object material  dropped from asset browser   and  then drop another object using same  material    Blender should recognize it and apply  the already edited one for your current scene.

If  your scene happened  to have a material with a same name   you get  material.001   and so on.

Imo it's a biggest disadvantage of  Blender  vs  3dmax  which always  asks you  if you want to make a copy or use already one in your scene.      Unfortunately Blender never asks you.

So one way is to run a script that  delete copies and apply material  without numbers  ( you original one)   and deletes 001,002  etc copies.       You can find it here https://blenderartists.org/t/how-to-clean-materials-and-texture-copies/1338347/7

in my experience it's not always workig. I don't know why.

You can also do so manually   in outliner > blender file > materials  > righclick on material and select "remap users"  

 

Another  approach is to always  use linked materials   ( my preferable)    You edit them in  a separate file  and apply as a link.     That way Blender never does  material copies.