Hi McNeel
Couldn’t find this one on the forum or YT (but it’s probably there!), but I’d love for the material tab to have folders available. As scenes become complex, it takes ages scrolling through 2-300 materials to find a specific one. I’d be nice to be able to make one for eg. specific material types (woods, plastics etc.), specific objects (seat, dash board, wheel assembly, engine etc.) or areas (living room, court yard, bath room etc.). If not on already the list, please find it a spot 
TIA, Jakob
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Jacob,
Looking for this ?
You are the commander of your folders, all tweeks here
Then with = drag and drop in to material editor
Hi @eddi
Thanks for the reply, but not what I had in mind. I’ve made a quick Photoshop mock-up of what I’m looking for. I want to organize the materials already in the scene, so that it’s easier to navigate, find and apply materials. @pascal Could this be added to the wish list, if not already there?
TIA, Jakob
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Hi Jakob - currently, Tags are used rather than folders - it takes a bit of getting used to but it works well - have you tried that? It allows a material to reside in more than one folder so to speak, so in a way may be more useful than folders.
-Pascal
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Hi Pascal,
I like this idea but I would rather have folders so one can be open and others closed so I don’t have all the clutter in the materials panel.
There needs to be more flexibility in the material panel we should have folders there. For instance I want to put all client textures in a folder and all textures from a blocks or work sessions in a folder, so as not to clutter the material panel. Now I have to scroll through hundreds of materials and I can’t remember tag names that is really less useful for me than folders. This tab idea needs to die for the materials area it’s time for a good dedicated material editor.
RM
Hi @pascal
Thanks - must admit I have never used (or even looked into) tags. At first sight, it seems like a rather clunky MO, having to right-click, select tags, write the tag name; and the having to type the search criteria when looking for a specific type. Major plus, though, is of course the ability to assign multiple tags to a single material. I’ll give it a shot, but the simplicity of folders seems preferable.
Regards, Jakob
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I kind of tend to agree… but for now, tags is it.
-Pascal
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Why not have both?
Smart folders that automatically contain materials based on a tag or combination of tags…
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How would the desired folder system differ from the Windows folder and file system?
Different interface?
Fundamentally different structure?
I may be wrong as I am not the one making the original suggestion, but I guess the maine difference would be that a rhino materials folder could contain materials from different locations (on your harddrive or servers)
Hi @davidcockey
As @norbert_geelen has already pointed out, I’m talking about the materials already in a given project - not the materials that have been saved/premade. I’m looking for the possibility to make folders inside the material editor overview, as some of our projects - especially fully furnished interiors - sometimes have hundreds of different materials (especially large numbers of plants, books and bottles tend to drive up that number) and finding a specific material can sometimes be a little tedious, scrolling up and down to spot the highlighted one. Also, when dealing with a lot of imported geometry (some bought, some from colleagues), the material names aren’t always the most obvious/conventional 
So basically, it shouldnt differ from the Windows folder system - it should “just” be available inside the material editor.
-Jakob
+1 for better material library organization!
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how about
- add a dropdown to the editor that lists all tags, with buttons for each, which when clicked, create a new folder in the list, with the tag associated
- for each folder, also have a dropdown listing all tags, but here, with checkboxes that include the tag in this folder (also allow creating a new tag here on the fly)
- whenever no folders exist, behavior is just the same as it is now (could also be represented as a permanent folder for “all tags”)
- only allow 1 level of folders (so maybe really more aptly called “sections” or “collections” than “folders”) to keep things from getting too fiddly, and probably just weird, given the panel’s existing tree view mode
the idea being to be compatible with, and minimally intrusive on how things already work, while allowing to quickly & easily create different “views” on your materials, if you so choose
Please, folders for materials. It gets too clucky way too quickly for big projects.
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If folders are too difficult to code in, I wish I could at least bulk-add a prefix to material names so that the material list is organized. If I try that, it erases the original material name and just adds #s behind.
Again, tags don’t work because it still leaves the material list a mess until you search a specific tag.