Custom Objects Materials Problem

[ievans]

I am having major issues with creating custom objects using the graphic creation of custom objects method and saving the 3D model as Object. When I use the object in an Archicad model and export to Artlantis 2 (or 1.0 for that matter) the reference materials on all the custom objects are not using the same materials as on the model. So for example I build a custom wall with window out ofr slabs and the wall has material 'whitewash'. I use that custom object in a model that also have archicad walls with 'whitewash' material. I export that model to Artlantis and I proceed to modify the materials or shaders. When I modify the 'whitewash' of the model it does not modify the 'whitewash' of the inserted objects within the model. The object shader reference will have a GDLM # infront of the shader 'Whitewash'. Is ther a way for objects' materials not to have the GDLM # in front.

This is also a problem when I use custom objects in models and I alter the material in the model, the object material , although the same, is not altered.

Thanks in advance.

[Karl Ottenstein]

There is some normal behavior in what you are seeing, and some odd behavior.

When a custom object is assembled from elements and saved, the materials of those elements are the materials that will be seen when that object is placed.

But, the way those materials are saved is by name e.g. 'whitewash'. In contrast, materials in the AC model are stored by index number (visible if you look at the material list in Options > Elements > Attribute Manager). As long as the name used when the object was saved matches the same name in the current attribute list, changing the material should change things in both places.

(If the material was created via GDL coding, then it is static / fixed.)

The Artlantis issue is a variant of the above and is related to the Artlantis export process. An extra step is required to merge things there. Open up the tray for the shader inspector, select an element that has 'whitewash' - and then from the context menu select Merge Materials with Same Shader. Be sure that you want all whitewash (e.g.) surfaces to be linked together before you do this!

Karl

[ievans]

Thanks Karl for the response but I am still not sure how to resolve the problems I am having. Speciffically I would like to understand better how to merge materials in Artlantis. I can't select 2 materials at a time to merge and when I right click items like 'merge materials with the same name' are greyed out.

[Karl Ottenstein]

ievans wrote:
Thanks Karl for the response but I am still not sure how to resolve the problems I am having. Speciffically I would like to understand better how to merge materials in Artlantis. I can't select 2 materials at a time to merge and when I right click items like 'merge materials with the same name' are greyed out.

Right. You cannot select two materials at the same time, only one. (I wish we could shift-click in order to make a bunch of elements invisible in one go, but not possible.) But when you issue the command, it merges all materials that are currently assigned the same shader as the one that you've selected. If there is only one material using the shader (the one you selected), the command is not even available.

In the screenshot below, you'll see that I have Limestone_02 applied to two different materials (Walls Interior and 09 | Paint 04 Grey), over-riding whatever had come in from ArchiCAD. If I never want to be able to assign different shaders to all elements with those two materials again, I can do the merge by selecting either one (not both) of the materials that have Limestone_02 applied.

Hmm. What is unfortunate in all of this merging is that when you first open an ATL exported from AC, no shader is assigned to the materials per se - only the texture from the ArchiCAD material. So, the merge command is not available as these initial settings are not considered shaders. You can drag Basic (e.g.) on top of the names of the ones you want to merge, and then merge them. So, a bit more tedious than I thought it might be. What's more unfortunate, is that using a reference file - either on export or via the Artlantis File menu - does not recognize and re-merge the materials, so the process has to be repeated.

Sorry...looks like I wasn't much help at all.

Karl

[ievans]

Thanks anyway Karl.

It suprises me more people aren't having similar problems. This issue is a frustrating one as I export early on in the designing/modeling to Artlantis to set up cameras , objects and heliodons so that as the model progesses I can continually import into Artlantis and reference the previous Artlantis file for progess renderings. What is happening now is that I continually have to reassign materials/ shaders. Whats worse is that for some reason even my textures from Archicad don't seem to export properly. I will find that a single texture will be slapped across everything when I bring it into Artlantis. Even the shaders that have been applied previously to the reference file are not being referenced.

I've had this problem in both Artlantis 1 and 2 but didn't seem to have the problem in 4.5

Ian

[Karl Ottenstein]

ievans wrote:
I will find that a single texture will be slapped across everything when I bring it into Artlantis. Even the shaders that have been applied previously to the reference file are not being referenced.

I don't know if this helps ... but I found that selecting the reference file in the ArchiCAD export dialog did not work as well as using the File > Reference menu inside of Artlantis once the newly exported AC file was opened...

Cheers,
Karl