File Link Manager not keeping material assignments

[Anonymous]

I've built a model on Autocad and used 3ds Max 2009 to add materials and such to it but when I use File Link Manager to reload the drawing after making some changes, the materials that I previously assigned to certain layers disappears. I've checked out the reload options and checked off the boxes for 'Use Scene Material Definitions' and 'Use Scene Material Assignments on Reload' but only for the same result.

Technically checking off these boxes should do the trick based on the Help menu description. Am I missing something here?

[Anonymous]

Well, I'm going to post my own reply because I think I figured it out.... so this is for anybody else having this problem.

As soon as you link a file a certain way you can't change the settings, so you have to detatch the file and then reattatch the file using the proper settings. Under the FLM, go to Presets and hit last settings and then go to modify. A window will pop up and then you have to change the 'Derive AutoCAD Primitives by:' window to read 'Layer' (I think the system default is 'Layer, Block as Node Hierarchy, Split by Material'. Once the file link is set up like this you're good to go 🙂

[Anonymous]

So great you reply yourself with a solution for it. I´ve doing a lot of research myself without a real solution since i use 3dsmax8 and wanted to upgrade for long, but i find this same bug in posterior releases.
A lot of people think that we were doing material assingnments from AutoCAD and that is not what we're talking about.
I do this same process in my pipeline and it is a real time saver since material asignment is a repetitive task at least for most of projects.

Thanks a lot for this solution.