topic Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy) in Inventor Forum

Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

bradeneuropeArthur — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:33:29 GMT

Hi,

For most materials added (migrated from 2012 to 2018) are added with only "appearance properties" added to the asset browser.

For some there are only with only "physical properties" added to the asset browser.

Why is there a difference and how can I prepare some consistency for this.

Am I doing something wrong.

Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

Xun.Zhang — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 02:38:44 GMT

Hello,

Your assessment is not true. Material asset should work with an appropriate appearance which means material asset can't be alone, you can edit any of them and you will find there is an appearance there. However, appearance could be stand alone.

Meanwhile, both Material and Appearance assets can be stored in the same library (*.adsklib), no need to separate them into two, I think that's why you are thinking inconsistent here. So, the short answer would like, appearance assets are more than materiel assets in most of scenario.

If you have any more questions, please upload your color/material.xml here and we glad to help here.

Thanks!

Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

bradeneuropeArthur — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 07:29:25 GMT

Hi,

Thank you.
Why does the one "Custom material" have only appearance assets.
And the other one also a physical asset?

Why is that?

Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

bradeneuropeArthur — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 07:44:13 GMT

These pictures will make my question more clear I hope:

Material 2 without phbysical assetMaterial 1 with physical assetMaterial 1 with appearence asset

Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

Xun.Zhang — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 08:07:26 GMT

Hello,

OK, Just saw the latest information, so would you mind expand the information tab for physical of A2? Just want to double confirm which physical asset was referenced in detail.

----------------------------------

~~If you migrate two xmls in the same folder and select the folder for migration, the newly created library should contains all pysical and appearance assets, test.adsklib as an example for below image.~~

Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

bradeneuropeArthur — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 07:47:03 GMT

I did the same to migrate!
No example attached.

Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

Frederick_Law — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 19:31:52 GMT

Migration create a mess in material. I end up create a new library make it default. Edit all migrated material in the document and redo all physical and appearance using asset from AutoDesk library. Then move them to new library. New asset are moved to new library also.

I think when migrated, duplicate asset are created when its different then default. Result in a long list of confusing asset.

Old material was one record with material, physical and appearance. New one is 3 records.

Be careful with duplicate. It will create a new copy for appearance and physical asset instead of reusing the asset.

Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

bradeneuropeArthur — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 19:51:19 GMT

Thank you that you confirmed my problem.
I think the normal user will not see this behaviour.

Is this mess really a problem or will this be no problem . Think basically it isn't but I try to understand the behaviour.

I also think recreating the materials will be the only option. But I think this will than result in other issues like the internal name of the new created material differs from the old one. I think I am getting a really big dirty mark issue in inventor and vault.
What do you think?

Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

Frederick_Law — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 22:28:47 GMT

Not much problem. You'll have a long list of confusing material and asset.

You can put them all in template or a custom material library. Library can reduce asset you see since you can pick library for asset. Also reduce template size

Create another library for good material. Update it when you have time.

You'll have issue when try to change physical or appearance in bad material. Make proper one when you need to.

Took me a few try to learn how to create material. Edit is better then duplicate. Edit and change material name and its a new material. Change appearance and physical if necessary. Duplicate will create a copy of appearance and physical also. Not helpful at all.

Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

bradeneuropeArthur — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 06:40:26 GMT

Hi,

Why is that behavior as you described.

Does this make sense to create duplicates without (The User) knowing it.

I think it is strange that:

For some materials I have appearance asset and for some I have a physical asset ,also when they have been created the same way.

You can see in the pictures above that I only have 1 physical asset and I have a lot of materials.

I understood that you would have at least:

one appearance asset
one physical asset

per material

so I understood for material X I have:

appearance asset X
physical asset X

I understood I can reuse assets so I would be able to create a "Carbon Steel" asset and use this in all Carbon Steels if needed or wanted.

so I understood for material X-CS I have:

appearance asset CS
physical asset CS

so I understood for material Y-CS I have:

appearance asset CS
physical asset CS

As I can see this is not the case.

What is your opinion about this?

Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

Frederick_Law — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 17:39:29 GMT

When migrated an material, IV will create physical asset same name as material. It doesn't create appearance with same name.

So material X will have physical asset X.

I have 304SS, 304SS #4, 304SS 2B for material. Their physical are the same but migrate create 3 assets. I edit them so they use same physical.

Technically it doesn't matter as long as density is correct for weight. Unless you'll use them for FEA and stress analysis.

I try to clean everything up by using appearance and physical asset in "Autodesk Material Library" and "Inventor Material Library". So everything is "Standard". Physical asset in those libraries are good for FEA.

Also it might improve performance since less asset is used.

If I can't find an asset I need then I create new one in my library. So updating Inventor will not remove asset I added.

Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

bradeneuropeArthur — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 18:01:00 GMT

For me it is as follow:

I have appearance assets for all materials but only no or only one Physical asset as you can see in the pictures BM8A Cls1D only this one.

This also when I start new.

Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

Frederick_Law — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 02:17:45 GMT

If you select "2018 Material", does it show more asset?

BM8A is the only asset in "Misc". There could be more in another category and in the library.

Select "Inventor Material Library" and there should be more asset also.

In Material Editor, open the Information tab in appearance and physical. It'll have the asset name.

When you're editing material, its in the document. You need to move it to the library.

So all material migrated are in the document ONLY. Until you move them to library.

When editing material, with Material Editor open. You can open Asset Browser. Select a library then select an asset. It will apply to Material Editor.

The whole material library is a bit confusing. Take some time to figure out how it works.

Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

bradeneuropeArthur — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 06:14:29 GMT

No the BM8A is the only physical asset in 2018 library.

This is a bit strange I think.

Also when I create a complete new library there will be no or sometimes a physical asset created, but not for all.

So there is no rule in this behavior.

Doe it help if I provide the library file?

As you can see there is only one Physical asset BM8A....

Also the structure of the library assets is different than the library.

Physical assetAppearance assetNameMetal CarbonMaterials overview

Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

bradeneuropeArthur — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 06:54:21 GMT

Hi,

Found something strange:

if the name of the material is the same as the Physical asset than there will be no Physical created.

Why is this behavior like this.

it is also not always the case.

ie BM8A has the same name as the asset!

Does this mean that the materials need to be different than the asset name?

Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

bradeneuropeArthur — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 07:38:37 GMT

Hi,

Anyone having the same issues.

Seems that the only option is to create all materials new with their assets.

This has a really big consequents for the dirty mark problem I assume.

But we will see....

Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

bradeneuropeArthur — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 09:53:42 GMT

Hi,

Again I receive an error regarding style conflicts.

I found out some incorrect duplicate asset names in the Inventor appearance Library:

This will lead of course into errors....

Please Autodesk let us know how to handle and how to migrate the style libraries correctly from older versions. Secondly I would like to notice you of the fact that internally between the inventor libraries there is already a conflict which cannot be easily repaired or modified.

Since I receive some information here on the forum, I assume that this is an issue without knowing it, because the error message can easily be skipped.

Because I would like to know how to avoid these errors I am not very happy with this situation at the moment. As you may understand I would like to understand the new library setup and changes.

Regards,

Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

johnsonshiue — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 19:32:57 GMT

Hi! If possible, you may want to lock up Autodesk Material/Appearance Library and Inventor Material Library. If you need to create custom library, create a new one or migrate the existing custom library. There is no need to migrate existing Autodesk Material/Appearance Library and Inventor Material Library. They are all included in each release.

Many thanks!

Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

bradeneuropeArthur — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 19:44:22 GMT

Hi Johnson

I know that. But i am receiving errors from the content center member i would like to create that the styles are not the same as in the library.

I know that I can skip them But I would like to know why this is the case.

Furthermore I want to use the assets for what they are meant for if you may understand.

Also some materials are not in my custom library, like the default and steel and steel mild. But there have changed since the assets. As you maybe the definitions of steel and steel mild have changed since the newer release! 2018.

Also internally there are inconsistencies as you can read in my earlier posts.

Please let me know how and why this is configured this way.

Regards,

Re: Material library (Asset Browser inconsistancy)

Frederick_Law — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 20:30:09 GMT

To prevent Style not matching error.

Create and use custom library as Active. Custom library can be used as Appearance library.

If you modify material, appearance, physical then move them to custom library.

Material can use appearance and physical form any library.

Make sure template use only material in custom library.

Fix material in custom library then update templates.

Appearance might change with new Inventor update.

There can be same asset name with different properties in different library and in different category.

The 2 Semi-Polish, one is Aluminum, one is Steel. Expand the window to see full list.

All asset can only be modify in document. Then save to library to update library.

Don't use duplicate to create similar material. Use rename.

Copy material to document, rename and save it back to library.