Cleaning up Maya shading networks - duplicating without the `pasted__` mess, merging duplicate file
Two Maya shading-graph chores I kept scripting — curious how others approach them:
- Duplicating a shading network with clean names. Maya's duplicate/paste leaves
pasted__prefixes and number suffixes; I ended up walking the upstream graph and duplicating with unique, clean names instead. - Merging duplicate file-texture nodes that point at the same texture onto one shared node.
Plus the usual: search/filter materials, assign / select-by-material, batch-rename shading groups, delete unused nodes, find unshaded objects or ones stuck on the initial shading group.
How do you handle the duplicate-network naming and the duplicate-file cleanup — a script, a plugin, or manually? I bundled mine into a free single-file MIT tool (Maya 2022+) if useful: https://github.com/ruxinliang-dev/materialist
feedback on the edge cases welcome.
