The MaterialsA set of attributes or parameters that describe surface characteristics. Tab displays a list of all the Inventor 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 am Inventor material is selected from the plugin, the plugin will convert that Inventor material to an Octane material. Once this happens, the Octane material should be the “master copy” of that material, since changing the Inventor material will not automatically change the Octane material. If you need to at any point, you can re-convert the Inventor material to an Octane material by rightclicking the material tree and selecting “Re-Convert From Inventor”.
When an Assembly scene material is being converted from Inventor to Octane, the plug will first query the Inventor Part to see if it has an Octane node setup saved. If it does, that node setup is used. Otherwise the Inventor assembly material will be converted to the Octane material.
When editing a Part, the Octane materials for that Part get saved to the Part, and will be used as the Octane node setup when converting material for that part in assemblies.
Material Tab Controls
Scene Materials – This combo box contains a list of all Inventor materials in the scene. Selecting a material from this box will present the Octane material for that Inventor material in the tree structure.
Selection Materials – This popup box contains a list of all Inventor materials for the elements that are currently selected in Inventor. Selecting a material from this box will present the Octane material for that Inventor material in the tree structure.
Material editing tree – each tree item represents an Octane node pin. Click on any item, and the edit options for that pin 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).
Rightclick the tree for additional options:
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.
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 Inventor – Select this option to reconvert the selected Inventor material to an Octane material.
Load/Save as Default – If you save this Octane material as a default, when this Inventor material next needs to be converted for a scene, the saved default will be used. It is highly recommended that you save all materials as a default as you edit them in order to minimise the amount of effort required to edit Octane material for each new scene. Defaults are saved in the Users[username]AppDataLocalOctaneRender for InventorDefaults folder (on Windows 7).
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 InventorExport folder (on Windows 7).
Save as Favourite – Adds the current Octane material node setup to the “Favourites” combobox.
Save All Materials To Defaults – This option saves all the converted (and modifed) materials from the Inventor scene as Octane default materials, so they will be next used on a new scene.