I downloaded shaders from alias wavefront. I put it in my "D:\Program Files\AliasWavefront\ShaderLibrary\shaders" folder. However, when I use hypershade, in stead of displaying icons as a preview icons, all the shaders that I downloaded and installed appear as small maya logos.
I can use those shaders, but it is inconvenient for me to use because the icons are not displayed as previews. I think that is something to do with the ".mayaSwatches". I appreciate if someone can help me out with this.

Ohyeah:

Yea, I was wondering the same thing. Except, mine were all the same icon of a shader.

---

- Hybrid

I have the same problem... there must be a way to make it read the icon file so that it show up right... I was going to toy around with it a bit later today. I'll let you know what I come up with!

---

May the force be with you...always!
A Jedi shall not know anger nor hatred nor Love
The only way to live a good life is to act upon your emotions
A warrior is reborn when he has something to protect

Thanks wicket

Ohyeah

i think there is something to do about the shader library files
the default shaders are using the images in the shaderLibrary/html/images folder.

---

------------------------------------------------
our decisions-not the conditions of our lives
determine our destiny.

Inside each folder in your maya shader libray frolder, should be a folder called .mayaSwatches

This folder contains .swatch files, (only opened my maya) that show you a picture of each shader. Im not sure how to fix your problem, but that bit of info may be of some help.

Tah tah!

---

Armitrex Studios
Now open!!

I just started playing with this and this is how I did it but I'm sure someone has a better way.

1. create a surface and assign the shader to the surface.

2. render the scene and save the file as abc.ma.swatch. I think the name has to be the same as the original file name( i.e. abc) but you can change the name of the original to suit your needs.

3. Open the folder where you saved the file, in my case it had .iff added to the end, just remove that extension and your icon should change to a camera.

4. Copy the file and paste it into the .mayaSwatches folder where the original file is located. In other words if ABC is in a folder called Misc then you should copy the new file into the .mayaSwatches subdirectory of that folder. If you created a new folder you will have to copy and paste a .mayaSwatch subdirectory folder from one of the directories ( Windows won't let you name a folder with the period in front of the name) and then just delete the copied files inside it.

You'll probably have to play with your settings and stuff to get it right, I know I still am.
I hope this helps, I think I explained it right.

Pete