Material match by pick?

[voltron7]

Hello members!

I have a question, but not sure on the proper terminology...

For those of you with AutoCAD experience, I am basically looking for something, in max, that emulates AutoCAD's "MATCHPROP" command.

Reason is that as I develop a scene, a lot of times, I want to finish modeling something, and be able to-

1] click button "A"
2] pick(select) an existing geometry/model that already has a material (example: "Wood Planks V-ray") assigned to it.
3] pick (select) second piece of geometry (and viola, "Wood Planks V-ray" is now assigned to second piece of geometry.)

So, in 3 clicks I could create a new wood plank geometry, and apply the proper material to it, all without opening, dealing with, and closing the material editor...

I hope it is clear enough what I'm after as an end result...

Thanks in advance for any useful tips with this post...

[joconnell]

Nope - nearest thing is to open the material editor, pick a slot to temporarily use for your material, use the eye dropper beside the mat name to pick a material from your object, then select the second object and assign it to selection.

[voltron7]

Too damned bad - but thanks anyway, jconnell.

[joconnell]

Is it specifically this and nothing else that you want to do?

[joconnell]

Paste this code into a new script in the maxscript editor, then drag it to a toolbar to make a button. Seems to do what you want. Might be worth doing a hold first in case something blows up!

TheObjArray = selection as array

fn GeoFilt o = (superClassOf o == GeometryClass)
-- which you could use like this:
theMaterialObj = pickObject prompt:"Pick an object to take a material from" filter:GeoFilt

for i = 1 to TheObjArray.count do
(
	TheObjArray[i].material = theMaterialObj.material
)

[voltron7]

Yeah, that's really all I was looking to do...Thanks for that script, I'm going to try it right now!

[voltron7]

Mathprop for Max v1

jconnell, thanks a lot, it works perfectly and is so very efficient!

[joconnell]

Good deed for the day done!

[voltron7]

really appreciate it...

[voltron7]

Works perfectly, but is there a way to stop it from doing one odd thing?

let's say I am in "rotate" or "select object" mode and run the script. Script works as expected, but afterward, it leaves me in "move" mode instead of whatever mode I was in before running script.
Is that easy to fix?

Thanks again, I use this all the time!

[joconnell]

theToolMode = toolmode.commandmode

TheObjArray = selection as array

fn GeoFilt o = (superClassOf o == GeometryClass)
-- which you could use like this:
theMaterialObj = pickObject prompt:"Pick an object to take a material from" filter:GeoFilt

for i = 1 to TheObjArray.count do
(
	TheObjArray[i].material = theMaterialObj.material
)

toolmode.commandmode = theToolMode

[AJ Jefferies]

I've wanted to knock something like this up for ages, this is pretty bad code but hopefully of some help to you/others.

global CopyMat
global CurrentTool
fn GeoFilt o = (superClassOf o == GeometryClass)
CurrentTool = toolmode.commandmode 
--ROLLOUT
	
rollout MatPickRO "Pick Source"
	(			
		pickbutton PickSource "Pick Source" width:80 filter:GeoFilt 
		on PickSource picked SourceObj do  	
		(
			if SourceObj != undefined do
			(
				if SourceObj.material != undefined then
				(
					CopyMat = SourceObj.material
				)
				else (messagebox "Object has no material :(")
			)			
		)
		
		pickbutton PickTarget "Single Target" width:80 filter:GeoFilt count:#multiple forceListenerFocus:false
		on PickTarget picked targetObj do  	
		(
			--if targetObj != undefined do
			(
				if CopyMat != undefined then
				(
					for i in targetObj do 
						(
						i.material = CopyMat
						)					
				)else  (messagebox "No source picked :(")
			)
		)	
		
		checkbutton PickMultiple "Multi Targets" width:80
		on PickMultiple changed state do
	(
		if PickMultiple.state == on then 
		(
			if CopyMat != undefined then
				(
					PickMultArray = #()
					PickMultArray = pickobject count:#multiple forceListenerFocus:false filter:GeoFilt
					for i in PickMultArray do 
					(
						i.material = CopyMat
					)
				)
		)
  		PickMultiple.state = off
		
  	)		
	
		button CloseMatPick "Close"
		on CloseMatPick pressed do
		(
			DestroyDialog MatPickRO
			toolmode.commandmode = CurrentTool
		)
	)--End Rollout
createDialog MatPickRO 105 115

[voltron7]

theToolMode = toolmode.commandmode

TheObjArray = selection as array

fn GeoFilt o = (superClassOf o == GeometryClass)
-- which you could use like this:
theMaterialObj = pickObject prompt:"Pick an object to take a material from" filter:GeoFilt

for i = 1 to TheObjArray.count do
(
    TheObjArray[i].material = theMaterialObj.material
)

toolmode.commandmode = theToolMode

Works perfectly, thanks again!

[voltron7]

I've wanted to knock something like this up for ages, this is pretty bad code but hopefully of some help to you/others.

global CopyMat
global CurrentTool
fn GeoFilt o = (superClassOf o == GeometryClass)
CurrentTool = toolmode.commandmode 
--ROLLOUT
    
rollout MatPickRO "Pick Source"
    (            
        pickbutton PickSource "Pick Source" width:80 filter:GeoFilt 
        on PickSource picked SourceObj do      
        (
            if SourceObj != undefined do
            (
                if SourceObj.material != undefined then
                (
                    CopyMat = SourceObj.material
                )
                else (messagebox "Object has no material :(")
            )            
        )
        
        pickbutton PickTarget "Single Target" width:80 filter:GeoFilt count:#multiple forceListenerFocus:false
        on PickTarget picked targetObj do      
        (
            --if targetObj != undefined do
            (
                if CopyMat != undefined then
                (
                    for i in targetObj do 
                        (
                        i.material = CopyMat
                        )                    
                )else  (messagebox "No source picked :(")
            )
        )    
        
        checkbutton PickMultiple "Multi Targets" width:80
        on PickMultiple changed state do
    (
        if PickMultiple.state == on then 
        (
            if CopyMat != undefined then
                (
                    PickMultArray = #()
                    PickMultArray = pickobject count:#multiple forceListenerFocus:false filter:GeoFilt
                    for i in PickMultArray do 
                    (
                        i.material = CopyMat
                    )
                )
        )
          PickMultiple.state = off
        
      )        
    
        button CloseMatPick "Close"
        on CloseMatPick pressed do
        (
            DestroyDialog MatPickRO
            toolmode.commandmode = CurrentTool
        )
    )--End Rollout
createDialog MatPickRO 105 115

Thanks for sharing, I am going to try it now...