How to purge unused materials from the active scene?

[Anonymous]

When you merge an object to your scene, new materials add themselves to your material editor. After a while adding and deleting items makes your scene mixed up; automatically renamed materials, unused materials from deleted objects or your unused material trails covers the material editor. When we have similar problem with AutoCAD we just say ‘Purge’ and it works, you get rid of all the unused items (blocks, hatches, layers etc.). The Question is; ‘How do you clean your actual scene from unused materials if you do not have time to do it manually? Does Max have a command similar to PURGE for to clean active material library?’

[Anonymous]

If you delete everything associated with a material and it's in your scene but not in your material editor, it will automatically delete itself from the scene.

But if you have a material in your editor and delete everything associated with it, it will stay in your scene & your material editor. To remove all unused materials from the material editor you can use Utilities>Condense Material Editor Slots from the menu in the editor.

[Anonymous]

If you delete everything associated with a material and it's in your scene but not in your material editor, it will automatically delete itself from the scene.

But if you have a material in your editor and delete everything associated with it, it will stay in your scene & your material editor. To remove all unused materials from the material editor you can use Utilities>Condense Material Editor Slots from the menu in the editor.

Not the results I am getting.

[Anonymous]

What results do you get?

[Anonymous]

It works. This is something I didn’t realize till now. I think I had leftovers from deleted objects at my scene. It happens when you work on a project which was revised hundred times and out of control. When I cleaned them materials related to these objects disappeared from the scene. It looks like I have to manage Automatically Renamed Materials manually and assign them to one material. Renamed ones will be ‘purged!!’

I see that there is no need ‘PURGE’ command. Work proper. Thats all !!
Thanks for your enlightenment.

[Anonymous]

There are many maps/materials in my startup scene that will not go away...
Great, I just tried to save the scene and post it and now, of course, they are gone...
Is this a new thing?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I've had some occasionally that won't go away when using the condense method. They might be referenced in other materials or slots somewhere in the scene. For those I'll just use the Reset Map/Mtl to Default Settings button.