Material Editor Dialog, Palette Tree

The Palette Tree contains controls for managing material palettes and the materials contained in them, environment maps, and material assignments/attachments. The name of the current material table is displayed at the top of the list, followed by material palette files. A "+" to the left of an icon indicates that the item may be expanded (and a "-" indicates that you can collapse the item). Palettes shown in bold contain used materials, while those shown in blue have been modified in some way. You can use the pointer or the keyboard to navigate through the tree. Many of the standard Windows keystrokes can be used, such as "*" to expand an entire branch of the tree, right and left arrow keys to expand/collapse one level of the tree, and <Delete> to delete an item.

You can display/hide the Palette Tree by clicking the Show/Hide Palette Tree arrow icon to the left of the Palette item in the Material Editor dialog. Menus, and the icons in the Material Editor dialog let you control the display of the material tree. As well, right-click menus give you a selection of tools for many of these manipulations. Clicking on a material, automatically sets its palette file as the selected Palette in the Material Editor dialog, and the Apply Material tool settings.

You can use the Filter materials icon in the Material Editor dialog to filter the display of items in the material tree.

In the palette tree, when you click on a:

Palette — samples of all the materials contained in the palette are displayed in thumbnails on the right.

Double-clicking on the selected thumbnail selects the material in the Palette Tree and displays the current settings on the right.

Right-clicking on a thumbnail opens a menu for the material.
Material — settings for that material, plus a preview window, are displayed on the right.

Icons help to discern the various types of palettes that are loaded, as follows:

Library palette saved externally to the DGN file.
Local palette saved with the DGN file.
Library 3DS palette (.mli file) — cannot be modified.

Similarly, materials have icons as follows:

Library material.
Local material.
Read-only material.

Where a local material references a library material that still exists in the original library palette, then two cases are possible:

The local material is equivalent to the library version.
The local material is different from the library version.

If a material's name displays in italics, then it has the same name as a material from another palette. Materials with duplicate names are ignored, and cannot be applied or attached to elements.

Setting	Description
Right-click menu for Material Table file	Located at the top of the tree is the current material table. Right-clicking on the material table opens a pop-up menu containing the same options as for the Table menu of the Material Editor dialog.
Right-click menu for Palette files	Listed under the material table are all the material palettes that are currently loaded. Right-clicking on a palette entry opens a pop-up menu containing the options that are available in the Palette menu of the Material Editor dialog, plus the following items: Paste — (Disabled if clipboard empty) Inserts the current material from the Windows clipboard into the palette. New Material — Creates a new material, using default material attributes, with focus on the material name so that you can give it a name of your choice. Rename — Lets you rename a palette.
Right-click menu for Materials	Listed under each material palette are the materials defined in that palette. Right-clicking on a material entry opens a pop-up menu containing the options that are available in the Material menu of the Material Editor dialog, plus the following items: Delete — Deletes the selected material. An Alert box gives you a second chance prior to deleting the material. If the material has been assigned to an element in the DGN file, then another Alert box warns you of this. If you delete a material that has assignment, its assignments will be moved to another material with an identical name if one exists, or else the material is moved to the Missing Materials palette at the bottom of the material tree. Rename — Lets you rename a material. Cut — Copies the selected material(s) to the Windows clipboard, and deletes them from their respective material palette file(s). Copy — Copies the selected material(s) to the Windows clipboard. Paste — (Disabled if clipboard empty) Inserts material(s) from the Windows clipboard into the current palette.
Material assignments	When a material is assigned by level and color, or attached to an element, the list of assignments and attachments is shown below the material. If the material is unused, no plus sign appears next to it in the tree. When the list of assignments/attachments is expanded, assignments can be identified by the icons, as follows: Material assigned via a level. Material attached via a template. Material assigned interactively. Material attached interactively. Material attached in a reference.
Right-click menu for material assignments	Right-clicking on a material assignment opens a pop-up menu containing the options that are available in the Material menu of the Material Editor dialog, plus the following items: New — (Not available for attachments) Creates a new assignment for the selected material, to be edited in place. Edit — (Not available for attachments) Lets you edit the selected assignment in place. Delete — Removes the selected attachment(s) and/or assignment(s). Cut — Copies the selected attachment(s) and/or assignment(s) to the Windows clipboard and removes them from the material. Copy — Copies the selected attachment(s) and/or assignment(s) to the Windows clipboard. Paste — (Disabled if clipboard empty) Inserts the attachment(s) and/or assignment(s) from the Windows clipboard. If any of the attachment(s)/assignment(s) previously were associated with another material, then those attachment(s)/assignment(s) are removed. Assign — Starts the Apply Material tool with method set to Assign Material. Edit Assignments — Opens the Material Assignments dialog. Attach — Starts the Apply Material tool with method set to Attach Material.