VRMESH no vray materials

[glennco]

Hello,
Rhino 7 SR36
Vray 6.20.01
I create entities, apply materials.
Export VRMESH, tried both ways replacing & not replacing original.
Open another file, import VRMESH, materials are not there. There are generic materials assigned to the entities, so I can copy the materials from original file, paste into new file & replace/assign in the drop-down arrow.
Why aren't applied materials saved with VRMESH during export?
Thank you,
Glenn

[natalia.gruzdova]

Hello glennco,
Thank you for posting your question.

Proxy Mesh (.vrmesh) file contains all geometric information for a mesh such as vertices and face topology as well as texture channels, face material IDs, smoothing groups, and normals. In short, everything that is needed to render the mesh is included in the file.
It does not store materials information, therefore what you describe is expected.

If you want to include materials you may try following options:

• Export Proxy Scene (.vrscene) format instead of Proxy Mesh. V-Ray Scene is a file format that allows for assets, such as geometry, materials, and lights, to be shared together between all platforms that run V-Ray.
• Export your Proxy Mesh as .vrmat. When a proxy asset is saved as a .vrmat file, both its source file (.vrmesh or .abc) and its referenced material asset files (texture maps) are saved along in a subfolder called Maps. Please find a tutorial of the process here.

[glennco]

natalia.gruzdova
Thank you for the fast reply and the links.
To clarify, can a single asset (think early spring tree branches with blossoms) be exported as a vrscene or should I use the vrmat steps from your link V-Ray Proxy Tutorial: Saving proxies as vrmat files?
Glenn

[natalia.gruzdova]

glennco both options are applicable, choose whichever works best for you.

In case if you have already exported your geometry as .vrmesh you can try exporting it as .vrmat.
And for example if you want to include lights you will have to use .vrscene instead of .vrmesh.