Hi!
I want to make some blend files just to store materials (by using shader nodes) I make for example glossy.blend, wood.blend, …
So the files only have materials, no models and are like a ‘library’ of all my materials (by category).
Then I want to copy these materials into a destination file where I make model(s) and use the materials on them.
How can I copy a material from one blend file to another?
Thanks
There are a couple of ways you can do it.
If you don’t have any models in the .blend file, make sure to create Fake Users so the materials aren’t purged on close.
You can link a .blend file into another .blend file and reference the materials.
You can mark materials as Assets and drag and drop from the Asset Library.
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/files/asset_libraries/introduction.html
How to do this?
So everything you don’t use in a model is removed, unless you make fake users for everything?
This brings up a window to select a .blend file to link.
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/files/linked_libraries/link_append.html
Materials in a .blend file, if not used on an object will be purged when the file is closed. Unless you create a fake user for them.
Yes.
One quick way to do that is here…
If you select everything you want to be a fake user (make sure one is the Active object - brighter orange), hold down ALT and click the shield icon. The tick shows that it has Fake User set.
If you dont know…
Holding down ALT is a shortcut to make the same thing happen to many objects at once. Fake user, scale, rotation, sliders in nodes…
