Managing materials of linked files in the master file

[mesikepps]

Is it possible to make wholesale revisions to materials in a linked file without doing so in the linked file itself, but rather in the host file? This would be ideal for me because I have a set of 16 linked buildings in a host file. If possible I'd like to make appearance changes to the materials in the host file, and not in each of the individual linked files.

[DoTheBIM]

I'm not up to speed on this as it's been a while, but I remember having problems with rendering a main file with links. If you have materials in the main file with same name, I think things get wierd. Maybe they fixed it by now, but I was just playing around at the time. also it may make a difference if your links are set to overlay or attachment. Sorry, don't have time to verify, but should give you some things to try.

[jeffh]

In 2012 you can do this because the materials have appearance property sets. You can create a library of appearance property sets that multiple Revit projects pull from. Then change the appearance property set setttings and ALL materials using that property set would change in ALL projects.

This is not really so easy in previous versions of Revit because the materials traveled with each project. Now that relationship is de-coupled.

[DoTheBIM]

Oh... I want to explore that... Where do I start?
http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Revit/enu/2012/Help/Revit_User's_Guide/2921-Customiz2921/2931-Project_2931/2949-Material2949/3011-Managing3011 This explains the steps to use it but...

Any videos or links out there that explain a real world application of this functionality?

[jeffh]

Oh... I want to explore that... Where do I start?
http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Revit/enu/2012/Help/Revit_User's_Guide/2921-Customiz2921/2931-Project_2931/2949-Material2949/3011-Managing3011 This explains the steps to use it but...

Any videos or links out there that explain a real world application of this functionality?

Your link is a pretty good place to start. Currently we do not have any videos on the subject of using the property sets but I will add it to the list of proposed videos.

It is really not a whole lot different than before except that you can save out the appearances to a library. Then you hook your Revit material up to a specific appearance, which is in a library.

If you think of the Revit material as a kind of "holder" for information makes a bit more sense. The Revit material has different aspects you can associate with it. The render appearance happens to be one of those aspects and structural properties are another (structural properties can also be assigned this way.)

So lets say for example you have cast in place concrete and you have some precast planks in your project. You create a Revit material for both of them because the structural strengths of each are different and you assign the correct sturctural property set for both. Now for the render appearance you might want both to appear like "concrete" so you assign the same render appearance property. By doing this you now have 2 materials with different structural strengths but exactly the same render appearance. If you change the render appearance property, BOTH materials will pick up the changes.

In the previous version of Revit you would still create 2 materials but the render appearance was tied DIRECTLY to the Revit material so if you made a change to the way "concrete" looks in one material you had to remember to change it in the other material and the changes would need to be maually duplicated.

I hope that helps explains the change a little bit.

[David Conant]

In 2012 you can do this because the materials have appearance property sets. You can create a library of appearance property sets that multiple Revit projects pull from. Then change the appearance property set setttings and ALL materials using that property set would change in ALL projects.

This is not really so easy in previous versions of Revit because the materials traveled with each project. Now that relationship is de-coupled.

To be more clear, you can create appearance property sets and save them to a library file. Property sets from a library can be loaded into multiple projects. Once loaded into a project, the version in the project does not maintain a live link with the library. If the library version is updated, it must be explicitly reloaded into each project to propagate the changes. While this does not allow a single master set to automatically control multiple projects, it avoids the dangerous possiblity of changes to a master pushing unexpected changes into projects.

[patricks]

To be more clear, you can create appearance property sets and save them to a library file. Property sets from a library can be loaded into multiple projects. Once loaded into a project, the version in the project does not maintain a live link with the library. If the library version is updated, it must be explicitly reloaded into each project to propagate the changes. While this does not allow a single master set to automatically control multiple projects, it avoids the dangerous possiblity of changes to a master pushing unexpected changes into projects.

Which means that a model will render the same way no matter what machine does the rendering, I think. That most definitely needs to stay!

However being able to define custom materials and save them out for future use FINALLY is some of the best news I've heard all week!