Asigning material to family

[brane1012]

Hi!

I downloaded rfa valve family from the manafacturer site and now I am trying to modify few things...First thing that I want to change is the valve material so that valve has its own material and not material defined by Default material under category Pipe Accessories when I use it in project.

The problem is that family is made from 27 parts and I now I need to click each part and define material to each part (see Picture 1.jpg). Is there any way to select all parts and asign them material that I want (see Picture 2.jpg)? Or is there any other way to change the material of whole family so that it has different material when using it in project?!

I have attached pictures and the rfa family.

The second thing that is bothering me is it important on which connector I define specific loss?! As far I know it is important to define that only on ONE connector? Is it important that connector is primary connector?

Best regards!

[brane1012]

Anyone? :s

[L.Maas · Accepted solution]

To give an answer to your first question. The approach you took of assigning a parameter to the material is the one I often take.

Selecting all items will not work because some items (like groups) will not have a meterial property.

If there is a limited set of items I usually CTRL-Click several items and keep watching the property window. I keep clicking/selecting until I have several items or until I see that (in this case) the material property dissapears from the property window. I then SHIFT-click this item (to deselect) and the material property should reappear. 

When I have several items selected I assign it the right material or a material parameter.

If I have many items then I select many/all and use the category filter to only select similar items.

Another approach I often use is instead to assign a material to items is to assign a sub-category to those items and assign material to this sub-category.

Assigning material directly, through parameters or through sub-categories, it all depends on your workfow.

[brane1012]

I found out that I have extrusions and void extrusions...I am curious is there any way to select only extrusions so that I attach material to them because void extrusions are let's say trouble makers in this case?!

[L.Maas]

No, that is not possible in the family editor.

That is the advantage when you start from scratch. Than during the modelling process you can already start to control things (e.g. adding parameters, assigning sub-categories).

If you receive a family you have to select them manually. But then again...the modelling part is already done for you.

[brane1012]

that's pretty stupid to me...because I am sure that it is pretty easy to program to filter extrusions from the void extrusions :S

[CoreyDaun · Accepted solution]

This has been a pain to me before to, but unfortunately I do not have a solution. I tried many things, but came up with nothing. Unless the extrusions are already part of a Subcategory, there no way to do this. I would suggest using the link below to voice your opinion with the Autodesk Development Team.

---

Autodesk Product Support

The following link is setup for you to submit feature requests, or feedback, directly to our Development group:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=1109794

---

[brane1012]

Tnx for your help once again!

Best regards!