Material asset hand icon different numbers

[skyeg321]

I don't understand why or how the hand icon numbers could be different on the different properties tabs of the same Revit material. For instance on the physical tab the hand is holding a 5. On the thermal tab its holding a 2. I would have thought that the material asset would apply to all the tabs in the material. 

[ToanDN]

That number indicates how many materials using the asset.

[alfmedina]

But those are not the same asset. One is Concrete, the other one is Concrete(1).

[ToanDN]

Never mind... thought you were OP. 

I thought you were asking about the number 2 and 5 next to the Asset hand.  If you are asking about (1) then Concrete (1) is a just copy of Concrete.

[syman2000]

This means that there are two other material having the same thermal property and 5 other material having the same physical property. This is common if someone duplicate the material name without duplicating the asset. This was a big major factor in the past. I believe 2023 added in duplicate material with asset and make it independent from the original.

[skyeg321]

Ok so is it true that the physical properties are coming from material asset Concrete(1), and that the thermal properties are coming from material asset Concrete?

If so I don't understand how to apply just the physical properties to a material. Or just the thermal properties. 

[ToanDN]

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@skyeg321 wrote:

Ok so is it true that the physical properties are coming from material asset Concrete(1), and that the thermal properties are coming from material asset Concrete? Yes.

If so I don't understand how to apply just the physical properties to a material. Or just the thermal properties. 

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[syman2000 · Accepted solution]

It just depends on how the original material is made. By default it will not add physical or thermal tabs. You can define it by adding the physical material or have the aspect read physical

If you want to add thermal, you can search for it by typing insulation. However you have to ensure the aspect is thermal property.

These material properties are only useful if you export to software that read physical and thermal properties like cove tools, sefaira or other energy model tools. If you aren't going to use your material for energy model, then both the physical and thermal tabs are not very useful. You can remove them.

[skyeg321]

Thanks @syman2000. Very Helpful. I didn't know the material could adopt assets independently on different tabs. Some folks at my firm are using Insight for energy modeling.