Renaming or deleting Material Zones...

Mr_Batsu12

Hi, I've been using the Geometry Editor for creating new material zones and it's been very useful.   The problem I'm having is I can't see how you can either rename an existing material zone or delete one that already exists.  

I'm using a few .obj files that all seem to have a similar naming convention for the material zones,  such as:  "wire_027177027" - which tells me nothing about what part of the object it is.   I'd like to be able to rename the material zone to something more meaningful.    Currently I've been creating a new material zone with the same selected polygons in it and naming it to something I want.     I'd like to be able to delete the old ones but I can't seem to find how to do that as well.

Is there a way to rename an existing material zone?  This would be the easiest thing to do.   If not, is there a way to delete an existing material zone?   In the attached image the red are the default ones I'd like to remove and the green is around the ones I copied/created with the new name.   I appreciate any info you have that could help me out with this.   Thanks!

Richard Haseltine

Use the Tool Settings pane - click twice on a group to edit the name, right-click for a remove option.

Mr_Batsu12

Hi Richard.  Unfortunatley I don't see what you are referring to.  Tool Settings panel just shows me settings for whatever tool I have selected but nothing about the surfaces of the object.

I'm trying to rename or delete a material zone that shows up in the Surfaces tab when you expand the "Surfaces" section.   These don't let me double click or right click to get any options.

Unfortunatley it doesn't look like the image I added when creating the post got attached.   I'm adding that now.

In this image the red box is around the surfaces I want to delete.   Or if there's a way to rename surfaces I could just rename them in the future.   Thanks.

Mr_Batsu12

Thank you Richard.   After some playing I found it.   First you have to be in the Geometry Editor (Tools -> Geometry Editor) and then when you go to the Tool Settings you see the surfaces and can delete or rename them!   I never would have thought about looking there.     Thanks again!

Risk3D

Woot! Thanks for this! Never would have thought to look there as well. This will come in very handy when importing Hexagon props that always have that annoying bonus material surface that isnt assigned to anything.

DrNewcenstein

You can also cut up larger areas into smaller materials, such as trim/edge sections, or dynamic and static segments. If you find that you have a large enough model, like a house, and you have several instances of similar materials (pipes, baseboards, etc), you can Assign those to a single material, and remove the empty group (it'll show 0 polygons). I've been importing a lot of Skyrim assets (houses and whatnot) lately, and every section has the same materials for the same thing. Grouping them this way makes assigning textures easier, and cuts down on the material stack, especially when recreating the Hearthfires homes with the front shack, the main house, and the three side rooms, plus the upstairs, which are all counted as separate sections, and made up of about 30 pieces.