I think this has been asked a dozens of times, and yes 2 years ago i knew how to do it.
But i cant get it to work anymore.
I´ve created a vray-matlib with 24 good materials for a start on each project. Now i would like to configure max 2009, to open this materiallibary allways right from the start. ( and of course to use vray as the standart renderengine… )
In sp2, there is a 3ds Max V-Ray default supplied that you can select from the Customize > Custom UI and Defaults switcher… which will cause the material editor to be filled with V-Ray materials on startup. Otherwise the steps to manually do this are somewhat complicated, will have to do some digging to see where the .mat file should go.
In the 3ds Max root folder, there is a sub-folder called “Defaults”. Inside it, there should be a “Max.vray” folder. Copy this folder to e.g. “MAX.mydefault” folder. Inside this folder, there is a folder called “FactoryDefaults”, and inside it - file called “CurrentDefaults.ini”. Copy your material library in the same folder as that .ini file.
Start 3ds Max, and from the Customize > Custom UI and Defaults switcher… select the Max.mydefault preset. That should be it - next time you start 3ds Max, it should load your material library.