Importing Custom Material Libraries

[NGallant.Evans]

Evans Consoles Corp.

Autodesk Product Design Suite 2013

I am looking for some help regarding the material libraries in Autodesk Showcase. We are going to start using Showcase to improve the look of our inventor drawing packages that we send out to our clients by adding renders of the custom products that we design. I am just going through the program to prep/optimize it for a more seamless transition for the other 3D modelers in the group. Here at Evans we use the Wilsonart color selection and therefore we have generated a full material/appearance library for use in Autodesk Inventor.

The problem I am having is that I cannot figure out how to import this custom Inventor library (.adsklib) into Showcase. I have watched videos regarding creating and importing a material library over shared networks in Showcase. However, Showcase libraries consist of an .XML file paired with a folder of material maps, where Inventor libraries consist of a single .adsklib file. From what research I have done on this topic, .adsklib file format seems to be the common library file format throughout the Autodesk Suite with the exception of Showcase.

Is there a way of importing our existing (custom) .adsklib Inventor Material Library into Showcase without manually creating every material from scratch in Showcase?

[cikho]

inside showcase you can add a library under the material hud-menu. open showcase and a random scene. pres "m" to open the material HUD.. in the lower part of the menu you find the libraries. press the manage button and select add library. point to the folder where the library is (you won't need to point the adsklib file). in this way, it will locate all the adsklib files and will create a material folder for each adsklib file.. in the HUD, a parent folder will appear, named as the folder path in your system (c:/libraries/inventor). and as child folder you will find all the adkslib related libraries. in this way you can also save different libraries, for example one for paints, one for plastics, one for leathers etc and save all the libraries in a single folder. and then point to a single folder. server based folder, for shared systems, also work.. but they won't updated in real time when someone else adds a new material.. you will have to restart your instance..

[NGallant.Evans]

Your response does not solve this issue; unless im not understanding what your saying.

I have atempted this before. Showcase does not support .adsklib files. When I select the folder containing the custom Inventor material library (.adsklib) when adding a new material library in showcase, a new library is created in the list of libraries. Just as you say, it is named after the location of the folder you direct it to (C:\InventorMaterial Library.fbm). However, this new showcase library is empty. I can add/save materials I create manually in showcase to this new library but the point of this is to import our existing Inventor material library (.adsklib).

This process works just fine if you are trying to add a showcase library or an old (pre 2011) Autodesk product library (.XML file & folder full of images). However this does not work with the new Autodesk Material Library file format (.adsklib). Showcase is the only Autodesk product that has not moved to using the new .adsklib file format.

[Christian_Garimberti]

Actually is not possible to convert an inventor library in a showcase library.

I had the same problem with ral colors. On the web there are several Ral inventor library, but none for showcase.

And i never found a procedure to convert the inventor lib to showcase lib.

the manual approach could be this:

1. create a part in inventor (a simple sphere is enough).

2. put the part in a new assembly.

3. serialize the sphere. 1 sphere for each colors you need convert in showcase

4. in inventor give each sphere a differen color (from your library)

5. save the assembly and import in showcase.

      here in showcase you'll have a model with each sphere with the "Converted" color from inventor.

6. create a new custom library in showcase

7. from the "material in scene" library, rigut mouse button add to ... your new library.

I know that if you have to convert 10 or 20 colors, this could be your procedure...

If you have to convert 100 or 200 or more colors.... i don't know...

Bye

[cikho]

oh, sorry, i made confusion between the adsklib file and the xml library that showcase creates.. posting during the evening at home is not favorable i guess..

sorry for the wrong answer 😞