The Material Editor interface features several custom controls designed to enable a quick and convenient workflow.
At the left side of the Material tree toolbar, you will find three buttons used to manage a Material history. To use this history, click the middle button to 'take a Snapshot' of the current state of the Material. This will be stored, and you may return to this state by clicking the 'Back' button. If there are several states stored, you may choose one of them by using the drop-down that appears when the Back button is clicked near its' right side.
When a previous state is recalled, the current state of the Material will be stored, and may be recalled by clicking the 'Forward' button. As with the 'Back' button's drop-down, there may be several versions available for recall and these may be edited by choosing one from the Forward drop-down. The states stored in these lists are 'live' - that is, they are not static copies, and they may be edited in-place. They are also not stored in files; they are a run-time-only feature, and they are also cleared when a new document is opened.
If you wish to save any given state in the history as a new Material, simply navigate to the desired version using the Back or Forward lists, then drag the Material from the Material Editor (i.e. drag the preview image) to a Volume in the Database Manager while holding down the CTRL key.
Material Layers TreeMaterials are built from BSDF, Coating, SubSurface, Emitter, and Displacement layers. Adding and removing these layers is accomplished by right-clicking the appropriate parent component and choosing from the options presented in the context-menu. It is possible to drag Texture and Colors between different layers by dragging them over the desired layer. When this is done, the layer currently under the mouse will be shown in the editor panel. Layers may also be renamed in the Material Layers tree directly by clicking the layer name, followed by a short pause.
Texture ControlThe Texture control consists of a Texture button and related checkbox. The checkbox enables or disables its associated Texture. Left-clicking the Texture button causes the associated Texture to become the Material's 'Selected Texture'. It is this Texture that will be shown in the Texture Editor, as well as in the Viewport. Right-clicking a Texture button toggles the visibility of the Texture Editor, which is located on the right side of the Material Editor.
Color ButtonClicking a Color button will bring up the Color Picker. Colors may also be dragged from one button to another, and between layers using the method described under the Material Layers Tree topic. Colors may also be picked from anywhere on the screen by holding RMB down on the desired Color button, and dragging elsewhere. The cursor will then become a color eyedropper, and a tooltip will be shown detailing the RGB values currently under the cursor.
Numeric TextboxThe Numeric textbox allows a few different ways to adjust its value. Besides standard keyboard input, it is also possible to adjust the value by moving the mouse up or down while holding down LMB. The value may also be incremented using the small +/- buttons at the right of the textbox.
Path TextboxFile path textboxes do not accept direct keyboard input. Paths are set using the file browser available by clicking the button next to the path textbox. The Path is cleared by clicking the red 'X' button, or by right-clicking the textbox, and choosing 'Clear'.
Color PickerThe Color Picker is basically self-explanatory. Colors may be added to the favorites panel by drag-drop from the 'Current Color' and 'Starting Color' panels. As a small shortcut, right-clicking any color-picking surface is equivalent to clicking OK.
