Sort Materials Order at Right Click ??

# 1 18-04-2012 , 05:38 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2012

Location: Porto - Portugal

Posts: 22

Hi, i've got used to apply materials right clicking in the mesh and then going to Assign New/Existing Material.

But for a long time now, i can't understand the order Maya uses to sort the existing materials, it doesn't seem to be alphabetical nor time related, and the thing i most wanted to do is to be able to sort that list myself.
Here's a print of what i am talking about:
Would be so much easy if you could just get that list as i wanted, and have for instance all the X materials grouped then the Y materials, phong/blinn etc.. user added image

Attached Images

Quote

# 2 18-04-2012 , 06:35 PM

EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Toronto

Posts: 3,374

I just did a little test, and it seems to be sorted in the same way as if you go view > by type in the hypergraph. So, by type, then alphabetically. I only tested it with ~8 shaders, but are you sure that's not the case for you?

-stwert

Website - Blog - YouTube - Vimeo - Facebook - Twitter

-->How to Effectively Ask Questions on Forums<--

Quote

# 3 18-04-2012 , 07:02 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2012

Location: Porto - Portugal

Posts: 22

I just did a little test, and it seems to be sorted in the same way as if you go view > by type in the hypergraph. So, by type, then alphabetically. I only tested it with ~8 shaders, but are you sure that's not the case for you?

Originally Posted by stwert

sry but how do you see them in the hypergraph? i selected all of them in the hypershade and clicked on "input and output connections", but they all appear in there and there are so many connections, other than that i can't seem to find a way to display the materials in the Hypergraph user added image

(also, the hypergraph is immense but it's only for display right? i might be wrong but i believe that vast space uses no order to arrange outer connections) (sry if my english is not good :S (not main language)

Quote

# 4 18-04-2012 , 07:27 PM

EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Toronto

Posts: 3,374

Sorry... hypershade. My bad.

-stwert

Website - Blog - YouTube - Vimeo - Facebook - Twitter

-->How to Effectively Ask Questions on Forums<--

Quote

# 5 19-04-2012 , 03:41 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2012

Location: Porto - Portugal

Posts: 22

I put the Hypershade sorting the shaders by name and still it doesnt sort them correctly! i have a C after W and pR pR pN pR.. and still it doesnt changes the order they appear when i right click :S (isnt there a way i can sort them manually in hypershade? and even perhaps hide some of them?) some materials belong to layered shaders that i will use only the layered one and not its components, so they could be hidden.

Quote

# 6 19-04-2012 , 03:47 PM

Technical Director
Join Date: Feb 2004

Posts: 2,988

To get them to sort, as far as I know, you would have to edit the code for the menus.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Quote

# 7 30-06-2012 , 12:48 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2012

Posts: 1

i can't understand the order Maya uses to sort the existing materials, it doesn't seem to be alphabetical nor time related, and the thing i most wanted to do is to be able to sort that list myself.

Originally Posted by BaalRoi

I would LOVE to know how to see what the order of materials is in maya too. Did you ever figure it out?

I'm exporting models to udk and also Cry with 10+ materials but if I want to add or delete a material in maya the order changes. So when I export the model again I have to re-apply and guess which slots the materials go in. It's hair pulling stuff I tell ya. If I knew what the order had change to in maya I could calmly re-apply them in the engine without all the guess work. If anyone knows how to find this elusive order in maya please help.

Quote