topic Re: Retrieve the preview of material(swatch thumbnail) in maxscript in 3ds Max Programming Forum

Retrieve the preview of material(swatch thumbnail) in maxscript

Veena_Revankar — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 12:01:24 GMT

I am looking to retrieve the preview of material (swatch thumbnail) in the form of image (jpg,jpeg,png) from the material editor in maxscript. I am using 3ds max.

Please help.

Re: Retrieve the preview of material(swatch thumbnail) in maxscript

miauuuu — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 06:17:44 GMT

Check this thread.

Re: Retrieve the preview of material(swatch thumbnail) in maxscript

Veena_Revankar — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 09:27:48 GMT

Thanks @miauuuu . The solution is working but how do we get material index for only the materials used in the object ?

Please do help.

Re: Retrieve the preview of material(swatch thumbnail) in maxscript

miauuuu — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 09:45:43 GMT

Store the material of material slot 24 to a variable: matSlot24 = meditMaterials[24]

Get the material of your object and add it to material slot 24: meditMaterials[24] = selection[1].material

The material index is the index of the slots of the Compact Material Editor, so when you use any of the functions from the cgtalk thread, use 23 as material index(because the material index is 0 based).

After you get the material preview use meditMaterials[24] = matSlot24 to put back the original material, applied to material slot 24.

Re: Retrieve the preview of material(swatch thumbnail) in maxscript

Veena_Revankar — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 10:07:25 GMT

Thanks a lot @miauuuu. It is working.

Re: Retrieve the preview of material(swatch thumbnail) in maxscript

Veena_Revankar — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 11:47:37 GMT

Currently the material preview we can get is of very low quality that is 24x24. Is it possible to get it of high resolution ?

Re: Retrieve the preview of material(swatch thumbnail) in maxscript

Veena_Revankar — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 16:19:09 GMT

I have changed the size. Now I could get material preview of good quality.