Request: Improve the material browser!

[ryantheengineer]

I use Fusion regularly and often use simulation. If I just need a rough idea of something it's fine to use the built-in Fusion materials, but if I need to customize anything or add a specific material that isn't in the built in library, the Material Browser just sucks. The following are particular pain points for me:

1. Why is there a whole library for Favorites that exists on its own? If I add something to favorites, it acts like a completely different thing, rather than simply a reference or tag to the single material definition in the source library.  I should be able to hover over a material in a given library, click a star (not multiple clicks) and voila, it appears in my Favorites. This would make more intuitive sense as a user.

2. Making a custom material is infuriating. Why do I have to duplicate an existing material from a library into Favorites, then change things from there? I want to be able to specify where the material should be defined immediately, rather than as an afterthought.

3. If I do make a custom material library, it appears to only exist locally. I bounce between a few computers, so why can't I have my custom material libraries in the cloud, like everything else?

[dsouzasujay]

Hi @ryantheengineer 

Thank you for taking the time to share such thoughtful and detailed feedback. We appreciate you explaining the specific challenges you're encountering with the Material Browser workflow.

The areas you have highlighted, including the Favorites workflow, creating custom materials, and the ability to access custom libraries across multiple computers, have been raised by other users as well. We have an existing improvement request tracking enhancements in this area (FUS-29069), and your feedback provides additional context that helps illustrate how these workflows affect users.

At this time, I can't comment on if or when any changes may be made, but feedback like yours is valuable and helps the product team better understand user needs and priorities.

Thank you again for sharing your experience and for helping us improve Fusion.