Using the Group Editor

Overview

You use the Group Editor to create and change mapping and surface groups for a figure. These groups can be used as shortcuts for applying materials. You can save group settings and reuse them for other figures with the same material names

Surface Groups vs. Mapping Groups

There are two kinds of groups that you can create, edit and delete in the Group Editor: Surface groups and mapping groups.

Surface groups are logical sets of materials. For instance, "SkinHead", "SkinArm" and "SkinTorso" should all belong to a "Skin" surface group because they're all a part of the same surface of the body. They could also be in other surface groups as well: "SkinArm" and "SkinTorso" would both also be a good fit in a "Bodysuit" surface group. Materials can belong in any number of surface groups.

Mapping groups are sets of materials that use the same texture map. For instance, "SkinHead" and "SkinScalp" would both go in one mapping group, and "SkinArm" and "SkinTorso" would go in another. Materials cannot belong to more than one mapping group.

The !ALL Group

This special group cannot be edited or deleted. It contains all of the materials on a figure.

Starting the Group Editor

To start the Group Editor, click on the "Edit Groups" wacro button. If there are no groups already defined for the current figure, a default setup consisting of only the "!ALL" group will be created.

Selecting, Editing and Deleting Groups

You can select a group by clicking on its name in the blue panel on the left. The name of the currently selected group is always displayed at the top of this panel.

Once you've selected a group, you can do several things:

Delete the group by hitting the DELETE GROUP button or the Delete key on your keyboard.
Add a material to the group by double clicking its name in the MATERIALS NOT IN GROUP panel.
Add multiple materials to the group by hitting CTRL+Q on your keyboard and typing in keywords. If any keywords match a material's name, it will be added to the group.
Remove a material from the group by double clicking its name in the MATERIALS IN GROUP panel.
Click the IMPORT button (or hit CTRL+O on your keyboard) to load an existing material group's settings. The preset file (SS6) must have exactly the same material names in it as your current figure--capitalization counts!

Creating a New Group

Create a new group by either clicking the NEW GROUP button or by hitting CTRL+N on your keyboard.
Type a name for the group. You do not need to add an S or an M to the name of the group; the Group Editor will do that automatically.
Choose whether you want it to be a surface group or a mapping group.
Hit OK.

Saving Your Work

There are two different ways that your settings can be saved.

Click the SAVE button (or press Enter on your keyboard) to save changes to the figure's settings and close the Group Editor.
Click the EXPORT button (or press Shift+CTRL+S on your keyboard) to save a preset file for the current group settings.

When you hit SAVE, you're saving grouping information to a file that lives with the figure's geometry file. This file is used by ShaderSpider to read the figure's group settings. The geometry folder file has the highest priority, and this is where any personalizations you make to an existing group set up are saved.

When you EXPORT a preset to the "Presets" folder, you are creating a preset that ShaderSpider will look at if it can't find the geometry folder file. ShaderSpider will then copy this information to a new geometry preset. You can also export to any other location you want, but ShaderSpider will only read these files if you IMPORT them directly.

Closing Without Saving

To exit without saving changes, click CANCEL or hit Escape on your keyboard.