Filtering the Autodesk Showcase Material Library - A Quick Tip

“Language screens reality as a filter on a camera lens screens light waves”
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One of the great things about Autodesk Showcase is that it comes with plenty of materials that you can get started with.  It lets us get right to creating renderings without having to devote time to customizing your material library right out of the gate (that step we can save that for later).

But there is a downside.  With so many materials available, how do we find the one you want?  It can take forever to find the right red, green, or blue! 

So many choices, and this is only a few!

The first trick is to use the filter.  This will let us search for a material that contains the text string we type into the filter.

Notice that in the image below, I've typed "Blue" into the filter.

Materials filtered for "Blue"

All materials containing "Blue" are shown. 

We can type in anything we want.  But be aware, that if the material contains the text you type, it will show it!  For example, typing in "Red" will of course bring up red materials, but it will also bring up materials that contain the word "textured". 

Why?  Because "textured" contains "red".  "Textured".  Get it?   And no, I have not found a wildcard that works.

Still this can be a great way to filter down the materials and make it a little easier for us to find the material we're after.

Another trick we can use, is take  commonly used materials and copy them to a custom library.  Even if we don't change them, we can at least put them in one easy to locate category, and not have to look through several categories to find them.

Materials added to my own library

So those are some suggestions on making life a little easier.  Naturally, there's a video to go with it, so take a look!

Do you have your own methods you use to organize your materials?  Post a comment and share!