Templates and Libraries

[fakircho]

Hi all

I have just started playing with Twilight and there is something i can not figure out.
If i use a template to assign a material then i can go to edit and play with its parameters.
But if i go to the libraries and select a material from there and then go edit i can not adjust anything.

Is this the way it is meant to work? The materials under libraries are preset as is and not editable?

[Ecuadorian]

Yes, that's the way it is. And there's a good reason for this. Materials in the libraries were created with Kerkythea, and thus have a ton more options than what you're given in the templates, so in order to be able to edit them you would need to have the full KT material editor within Twilight. And believe me, some library materials are so complex in the logic behind their construction that you'd need a deep knowledge of physics, optics and some math in order to touch a number. So when using those library materials in KT I prefer not to touch any setting as just use them as they are, and that's exactly what you can do with them in Twilight.

And be happy we have Templates; in KT I was never able to figure out how to create my own subsurface scattering material, not even after reading tons of posts by the experts, but with Twilight Templates it's as easy as 1-2-3.

[fakircho]

Thanks man, i am not complaining i am just asking

[Ecuadorian]

Sorry if that sounded harsh, it was not my intention. I too wish I could change the color of some material libraries, but as I said, they are far too complex to fit Twilight's material editor. But nothing stops you from editing them in Kerkythea and bringing them back to Twilight.

[Fletch]

Hi Fakircho, Welcome!
Please watch the video tutorials. In less than an hour you will be 'fully trained' in Twilight. Much is explained in the User Manual, which is a surprisingly and refreshingly helpful document.

After consulting those sources, if there is any material you need that can not be made using a Template, and/or is not already included in a library, please let the Twilight community know and someone will come to the rescue.

If you have an idea for a Template that does not already exist, please share that idea as well.

[SectionAA]

Trying out Twilight materials in SU7, Library materials in particular.
I have been using other materials selected in SU and using Templates with reasonable success, within my limitations.

But I find it very disconcerting that if a material is selected from Twilight Material library, and applied to SU face, which already has SU material, the appearance in SU does not change. The new material only becomes visible when rendered.
This is in all cases and for all materials I have tried, except in the following cases. If Grass, TV screen, Branch Art Glass from Architectural Twilight are chosen, then it changes the appearance of the SU face. It is possible to apply each of these three in turn and the appearance in SU updates to match.
However, if having first chosen one of these three, and a material different from these three is then applied, the appearance in SU does not change.The appearance from the last of those three materials applied is retained. But the new material is correctly displayed when rendered.

This has not been a problem for me in practice so far, but I can imagine for a complicated model, it would be impossible to know, just by looking in normal SU window, which materials were library materials and which not.

I have searched in Manual, and through this Forum, but have not found reference to this situation.
Is this the case for everyone? Is it as it should be? Or is it something peculiar to my setup?
I would appreciate any comments on this please, and apologies in advance if the solution is something obvious.
Many thanks

Barrie

(Further issue. In Material editor, Edit window, the lock button icon on LHS displays as chain when locked, but when unlocked a black rectangle appears as background to the chain. At least I think that is how it is; it could be the other way around, its hard to tell.)

[massimo]

As far as i know the material will change in SU only if the applied material from a library has a texture and it seems quite logical to me since then you can scale, nudge etc. that texture.

[Fletch]

The material texture in SU will only change if a texture exists in the material from the library which you are applying has a texture which can be inserted. In many many cases for library materials there simply is no texture to insert, and therefore it remains unchanged. This is advantageous, for instance, if you are applying the library material "Chrome" from the NK metals but you want the chrome in your scene to remain looking like that fake default shiny metal in SU. Then you have the best of both worlds.

If you replace a stone in SU with a library Stone texture it will insert the image if you right-click the library containing a texture and choose "Texture To SketchUp" in the context menu.

[Fletch]

(Further issue. In Material editor, Edit window, the lock button icon on LHS displays as chain when locked, but when unlocked a black rectangle appears as background to the chain. At least I think that is how it is; it could be the other way around, its hard to tell.)

This is correct, when it's unlocked a black square appears to provide contrast to show you that it's for sure unlocked. It's not an "issue"... you just maybe don't like the icon.

[Fletch]

However, if having first chosen one of these three, and a material different from these three is then applied, the appearance in SU does not change.The appearance from the last of those three materials applied is retained. But the new material is correctly displayed when rendered.

Seems odd, we will look into this issue. Have you tried if problem persists after right-clicking the library material containing a texture and choosing "Texture To SketchUp"?