How to purge unused materials from Plan Materials ?

[pattyw]

I am trying to cleanup my file and I see a lot of materials in the Select Material dialog under plan materials that are no longer in my plan.  They have InUse checked and I can't purge.  I can't find them anywhere on my plan.

 

I did a test and created a new empty plan and it already has all the same materials as in use on that empty plan (except for a single wall I placed to get into the dialog).  

 

How can I clean that list up?

[solver]

The program has a bunch of defaults. When you have a material assigned as a default, it shows up. Some materials, I think, are built in with no way to remove them.

[pattyw]

Thank you.  Is there any easy way to figure out where they are in use so that I can change the defaults?

[solver]

No, and it's been requested more than once.

[pattyw]

Is there any way for me to define my own custom color or material based on another material?  For example, I'm going through default settings try to reset a bunch of these, but I don't like picking the same color/material over and over again for different things.  Is there a way I can create my own color, for example  Color - Interior Door,  Color-Exterior Door, Color - Window Sash, etc so that later I can change all the doors easily?

[DavidJPotter]

 

DJP

[pattyw]

Thank you!  I played around with that.  It's not really the question I was asking but I think I can take what you posted and make it work.  What would be nice if there was a way to create new materials as a shortcut to another existing material.  So for example, I could create a material like Ground Floor Drywall and point it straight to an existing material.

 

Using you what you posted I dug deeper into the Select Material dialog and in there I can both edit a material to bring up what you show in your video and I can also copy an existing material.  That's better than nothing at all, so at least now I can create new materials called Interior Door Color,  ExteriorSiding-GroundFloor, ExteriorSiding,1stFloor, etc.  If I change my mind about what siding I want, at least I can edit that material.  I'll have to make sure to copy every setting within that material to match the new material I want.  Maybe someday they can add a feature to clone another material from within that edit material dialog.

[solver]

Working in the library, you can simply copy a material and rename it.

 

 

[DavidJPotter]

Copy it, alter it in an image editing app like Photoshop and then import as a custom material, sometimes you  have to  work a bit harder to get what you want...

 

DJP

[Robborito]

On 6/30/2022 at 9:15 AM, pattyw said:

etc so that later I can change all the doors easily?

I just use the spraygun (material painter) with the 'material painter plan mode' selected, and you can change the same parts of objects in one click?

I do it all the time with window and door frames etc when deciding on which colour suits the design best;

No need for extra layers.