Locking material properties

[Anonymous]

I try to lock the properties of a material in Simulation Mechanical. But when I use software again for a different drawing, I am not able to use the previous properties I locked. Please refer to the screenshot I provided. Hope there is as solution to lock the properties as a template for future purposes.

[John_Holtz]

Hi @Anonymous

Your image did not get attached to the forum post. Can you log in an upload it? I was not aware that you could "lock" a material, so hopefully your image will clarify the steps that you are using.

Also, does the software work if you do not lock it?

[Anonymous]

Hello,

The software still works even if I do not lock the properties. 

[John_Holtz]

Hi @Anonymous

To be honest, I think the "Lock Properties" button does absolutely nothing (or at least nothing that is useful). This is what I think is happening in your case.

1. I see that you created a library (acrylic400000E) with one material (steel).
2. You selected that library and material for the part, but then you edited the properties.
3. Because you are editing the material for the part in the model, it will be saved in the model as "Customer defined" when you click OK. At that point, you are not using the material from the library. (If you do not change any values, then you are using a customer defined material with the same properties as the steel from the library, but it is not the library material.)
4. If you change any numbers and click OK, you are not saving it to the library; you are only saving it to the current part in the current design scenario of the current model. So it will not be available to any other part in the same model or any other model.
5. I noticed that the "Lock Properties" button status is not saved. If you lock a material, click OK, and edit the material immediately, the properties are not locked. (This is why I wrote that I think the lock button does nothing useful. If you have to click the Lock button every time to prevent accidental changing of the material, you can probably avoid changing a material by accident without needing the button!)
6. To change the properties of a material in a library, you need to edit the library: "Tools > Options > Manage Material Library".
7. If you are editing a material for a part in a model (so that it is now a Customer Defined material), you can save it to a library as follows:
   1. Select a library that you want to save it to. (You can only save to a custom library. You cannot save to an Autodesk library.)
   2. Right-click on "Customer Defined" and choose "Save to library".
   3. Enter a name for the material.

Let us know if you have any questions.

[Anonymous]

That worked for me. Thank you so much. However, I would like to know if I could delete or rename the material in the library? It does not show any options when I right click on the material. 

[John_Holtz]

Hi Sean,

You are showing the Material Selection dialog which is only used to select a material for a part in the model.

What you want to be using is the Library Manager: "Tools > Options > Manage Material Library". The library is where you can delete libraries, delete materials, export, import, rename, copy, etc. The page "Customize a Material Library" in the help documentation gives some of the details, but you can do more to the library than what is documented on that page.