How do I append objects without duplicating materials of the same name?

Support Materials and Textures
1

Is there a way to append objects from another blend file that does not create duplicate materials with .001 suffixes?

2

If you append all objects from a blend at once, it won’t create any duplicate materials. If you’d rather only import a few objects and still not create any duplicate materials, individually select objects that you wish by holding down the CTRL key while selecting object data-blocks in the File Browser.

Like this:

image
image1135Ă—697 22.3 KB

You can also use some Python API to selectively import objects based their names if you wish.

3

I tried both these methods. Neither worked. I got .001 suffixes each time.

4

That is odd… could you share your material setups or a blend?

5

Maybe the @lukon means the imported object uses the same material as an already instanciated one?? But blender imports the new one with .001 because there is no complete comparision of material settings so one have to merge/clean this manually. Maybe that’s the usecase of the Material Utilities addon with Merge Base Names ?? (In the other post.)

3 Likes
6

Yes. Okidoki understands where this problem comes from. And from now on, I’d rather not have to clean up the mess afterward with the “merge base names” add-on command.
I’d prefer to append my object that has the same material names in such a way that it does not create those .001 suffix versions of the materials.

7

problem is that material on different objects appended might need other scale factor for instance

so the need to create new mat
otherwise use the addon to clean up

happy bl

8

I get that. There is good reason to create new materials with .001 suffixes.

But there is also good reason NOT to. If I fully intend to merge the base names anyway, it is then a total waste of time creating the .001 suffix copies. There should be an option to merge the materials of the same names directly in the append operation. Let the duplicating be the default setting. But have an option to bypass the duplicating.

2 Likes
9

then make a suggestion to dev !
might be a workable solution

have fun
happy bl

10

alternative solution: you can delete all these extra materials by doing as shown in the video linked. It’s a fast and easy way.