The MaterialsA set of attributes or parameters that describe surface characteristics. Tab displays a list of all the ArchiCAD materials, along with the Octane node structure that those materials where converted to.
MaterialThe representation of the surface or volume properties of an object. Conversion
The first time an ArchiCAD material is selected from the plugin, the plugin will convert that ArchiCAD material to an Octane material. Once this happens, the Octane material should be the “master copy” of that material, since changing the ArchiCAD material will not automatically change the Octane material. If you need to at any point, you can re-convert the ArchiCAD material to an Octane material by selecting “Re-Convert From ArchiCAD” from the Additional Options popup.
Material Tab Controls
Select From Materials – This popup box contains a list of all ArchiCAD materials in the scene (excluding GDL materials). Selecting a material from this box will present the Octane material for that ArchiCAD material in the tree structure.
Select From Selection – This popup box contains a list of all ArchiCAD materials (including GDL materials) for the elements that are currently selected in ArchiCAD. Selecting a material from this box will present the Octane material for that ArchiCAD material in the tree structure.
Material editing tree – each tree item represents an Octane node. Click on any item, and the edit options for that item will appear the the Node Parameters box. You can change the node type by selecting a different node type in the Node Type popup control (only node types compatible with the selected Octane node pin will be available).
Copy – Copies the currently selected node into the plugin clipboard. Only one node can be in the clipboard at any given time.
Paste – Pastes the clipboard node into the currently selected tree node. The Paste option will only be available when the clipboard node is compatible with the currently select node pin.
Additional Options
LiveDB – This option allows you to load a material from the Octane LiveDB database into the currently selected material. To select from the LiveDB, select the category from the Categories tree, and then selecting Materials will fill the preview window. Click OK once you have the required material.
Re-Convert From ArchiCAD Material – Select this option to reconvert the selected ArchiCAD material to an Octane material.
Import/Export Material – Allows you to save and load materials into the currently selected Octane material. Material exports are saved in the Users[username]AppDataLocalOctaneRender for ArchiCADDefaults folder (on Windows 7).
Load/Save from Default Settings – you can save the current material settings as “Default”, so when you next load a scene which does not have any saved Octane settings for that material, the plugin will use the “Default” settings rather than converting the ArchiCAD material. Defaults are saved in the same folder as Exported Materials (and share the same file format, so can be interchanged).
Save All Materials To Defaults – This option saves all the converted (and modifed) materials from the ArchiCAD scene as Octane default materials, so they will be next used on a new scene.
Copy This Material To All Materials – Copied the node setup for the current material into all other Octane materials. Useful for doing single color renders. Be cautious perform this operation and then save over your original ArchiCAD pln file, since you will loose all your origin Octane material setups doing this.
