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1740 Chapter 16: Material Editor, Materials, and Maps
You can copy and paste only b etween channels
w ith the same topology, or you can copy from any
channeltoachannelwithnovertices.
Source and destination channels need not be of
the same type. For instance, you can copy from a
mesh channel to a map channel, and vice-versa.
Name—Lets you rename the highlighted channel.
Clickthisbuttontoopenasmalldialogthat
displays the current channel name and lets you edit
this name or enter a new one from the keyboard.
Cle ar —Usethisfunctiontoremovechannelsor
delete data from a map channel (including alpha,
illumination, and vertex color channels). Clear has
no effect on geometry or vertex selection channels.
The specific result depends on the type of object
and which channel you clear. In terms of reducing
theobject’smemoryfootprint,theutilityismost
effective with Editable Poly objects.
•
Geometric primitive or Editable/Edit Mesh
obj ect—
Deletes the highlighted texture map
channel if it is the last map channel in the
object, and it’s not the default map channel
(1:map). If the highlighted channel is not the
last, Clear deletes all vertices in the channel.
The faces remain, so the memor y-footprint
reduction is partial.
Note: This also applies to objects that collapse
to editable mesh, such as Loft objects.
•
Editable Poly object—Deletes the highlighted
texture map channel if it is the last map channel
in the object, and it’s not the default map
channel. If the highlighted channel is not the
last, Clear deletes all vertices and faces in the
channel.
•
Patch obj ect—Deletes the highlighted texture
map channel if it is the last map channel in the
object, and it’s not the default map chan nel. If
the highlighted channel is not the last, Clear has
no effect.
Note: When you use the Clear function, the
software adds a UVW Mapping Clear modifier to
the object’s modifier stack. You can recover the
deleted data by removing the modifier from the
stack, or changing its Map Channel setting.
Add—Appends a new map channel to the object’s
channel list. If multiple objects are selected, Add
becomes available only after you click a track,
sothesoftwareknowswhichobjecttoaddthe
channel to.
Note: If you apply mapping with a channel number
higher than any exist ing channels, the sof tware
automatically creates all intermediate channels.
Fo r example, if you apply a UVW Mapping
modifier to a standard object and set Map Channel
to 5 in the modifier, the software adds map
channels 2, 3, 4, and 5.
SubComp—Toggles display of the channels’
subcomponen ts. When displayed, you can
rename, copy, and paste each subcomponent
independently of its parent channel.
Each channel except vsel has three subcomponents.
Mesh and map channels’ subcomponents are
labeled X, Y, and Z; those of alpha, illumination,
and vertex color channels are R , G, and B (red,
green, and blue).
Lock —Retains the current mapping data
informationinthetableevenifyouchangethe
selection.
For example, if you want to see mapping data for
a specific object or objects constantly, first select
the objects and then click Lock. Thereafter, if you
select different objects in the viewport, the table
continues to display the data for the selection when
you clicked Lock. If you turn off Lock, the table
updatestoshowdataonlyforthecurrentselection.
If you click U pdate when Lock is on, the software
will refresh the table contents to reflect the current
selection, and then retain that data.