How can you set multiple existing materials to use the same material asset?

[rebar_eater]

I have several existing glass materials in my project. I want them all to look identical in rendered views, but to still have different names and identities so I can tag them appropriately and have them use different surface patterns in line-style views.

As it stands, they all use different material assets, so when I want to change the way glass looks in rendered views, I need to individually update each one. I know it's possible to have multiple materials using the same material asset, since this is what happens by default when you duplicate a material, but how can I set multiple existing materials to use a single shared material asset?

I've tried using replace asset from the material browser, but even if I select the same material asset, it always imports the asset as a new asset, leading to the same problem, where each material has its own independent asset. How can I make them all use the same asset?

[barthbradley]

Not understanding what you mean by "imports the asset as a new asset", but you should be able to "switch" (e.g. "Replace") Assets of Materials.  

[barthbradley]

You are not by any chance referring to the number shown beside the little hand icon; are you? That number being the number of Materials sharing the Asset.  

[rebar_eater]

Okay, so specifically what I'm talking about is that for each of my materials, I click the replace asset button, find my material asset for the selected material to use, and click the replace asset button

And then what seems to happen is that revit re-imports that selected material asset as a NEW asset every single time, instead of having each material share the same material asset.

The shared number remains at 0 for each one, and it abbreviates a (#) every time it re-imports the material asset. So the end result is that multiple instances of the material asset (Glass - Translucent in this case) exist in the project, each only being used by a single material, instead of each material just using the same instance of that asset.

[barthbradley]

Ah! I understand now what you are trying to do.  Assign a Shared Asset to bunch of existing Materials. Right?  I don't think it's possible. You can "Duplicate Using Shared Asset" to create a new Material, but retroactively assigning a Shared Asset doesn't seem possible.  Sounds like a good Wish List Item. Maybe it's already been posted about on the Ideas Forum. Check and see.  

...are you aware that if you change one Shared Asset Property, it will change ALL the Shared Assets.  Just saying.