EDIT: the “make unique” dialog shows for PerObject material on Materials/ObjectProperties panel. But not for Layer materials that are duplicated…
EDIT2: the reason why the option to “duplicate” the same material stems from the bug below. When copying layers or matching layer properties, sometimes, even though the material is the same, the duplicate is not detected.
It looks like there is a big mess with layer material assignments.
Whether I copy layer (which creates duplicate material) or match Layer Properties (that should match the material as well) - it is a mess… which explains my original post and question. I can’t even pinpoint what exactly is wrong because it looks like a lot of things…
To answer your first question, you should be able to duplicate the material by right-clicking on the preview at the top. However, it seems that the Duplicate option is missing from the menu. I will fix this today. In the meantime, you can open the drop-down list and right-click on the material in the list to get the missing Duplicate option.
To answer the second question, I have indeed just fixed this.The fix should appear in the next service release.
Good to see fix is coming as this is critical for our workflow. The “workaround” is not that convenient for files with 100s of materials. I was mainly after the “make unique copy” for materials used for many layers. But its absence I think was caused by the other bug when duplicating layers or matching layer properties…
If that is fixed, then all should work OK.
Thanks again
Another potential bug in that area:
When in Layer or PerObject material panel, and picking “Floating Editor” from RMB menu,
the editor opens with the correct material. But as soon as I click the 3 bars icon for menu in the upper-right corner there, the material changes to something else in the file. Please try in a file with several materials.
Not sure if this is related to the above or something else.
testing here with the latest daily build (9/13) - looks like “dancing materials” bug has been fixed indeed, but there is one more thing that misbehaves. When you either duplicate the layer or match layer properties, on the first click on the new layer material, the “make unique” yellow field doesn’t show up (which is when it is most needed). You have to close it and reopen to see the dialog. Recording below, for your reference.
Also, please see my post above with another bug in “Floating Editor”. Not sure if you can replicate that on your end but here it always jumps to wrong material.
Hi John @johnc, I have just checked the latest build with fixes. Sorry! still not 100% there, I think
Floating editor - fixed.
Duplicate Layer - copy works well and shows yellow “duplicate” message OK. Now, when I make the duplicate copy of material, the first time I click on the original layer material, it shows the yellow “duplicate” box, while it should not, since the duplicate has been created and no other instance should exist in the scene. On second viewing all works OK
Match Layer Properties - the original problem of not showing yellow box persists on the matched layer (on the first try, further clicks show it properly). Also, after making a duplicate, the original still showing the yellow box on first try still happens in that case as in layer duplicate.
@nathanletwory, @johnc - one more find: in LayerMaterials editior, the thumbnail geometry does not stick.
When changed, next time we open the same material it resets to the “fancy” one. Per-object and general material editor seem to work OK and remember what the preview thumbnail uses. I am trying to set “Sphere” as typical layer material thumbnail, so it sticks.
I uploaded a file to Tech@mcneel to your attention. It’s a sample file that over here when clicked on any layer material, takes good 3-4 seconds before the material dialog shows up. This does not happen in V5. I wonder if that is a part of the optimizations you were working on. This lag makes it difficult to work since we need to access layer material a lot in the process.
And one more: editing layer material color: Viewport updates in real-time (nice, even though a bit slow on heavier files). Now when “OK-ing” the color change, objects with that material “blink” (redraw) showing the old color, then redraw again with the new updated color.
On simple scenes this is really quick, but in heavier ones, multiple redraws on simple action slow things down a bit and make working cumbersome. Hope this can be fine-tuned as well !
Hmmm, in a “simple box” file, I have this one quick blink, which is not a big deal.
But in the files I work on sometimes it looks like I get multiple redraws (blinks) before Rhino “settles” into OK-ing the material color change in the Layer dialog. With heavy scene that takes a few extra seconds. Each time.
Looks like John dove deep into fixing these issues recently, maybe fixing that became somehow easier now? It is noticeable. It’s a regression. Let’s fix it
@Jarek So… it seems like somehow the screen is being refreshed more than once. I didn’t realize that when I said it was really hard to fix. First I should make sure it only updates once and see how that goes.
