What Sven, in all his humbleness, failed to mention, above, is that this plugin [Mat Slots], makes a great companion to his new plugin; Embed Material.
Sven’s suggestion is also a very good one.
Thanks to you both, Marcus and Sven.
Sven, thanks - I may just update it someday and adding in the numbers would be a good idea.
acmepixel, glad you like it. 
marcus,
This was one of my first and my favorite ZB plugins. There is still no better way to keep track of what slots are being used manage them consistently. What are the chances of getting an update for ZB 3.1??
Pretty please?
dangalf,
Thanks, I’m glad you like this plugin. I hadn’t considered updating it for ZB 3.1, mostly because the new ZBrush doesn’t have the same restrictions. Materials are no longer limited to 76 slots - putting materials in the ZStartup\Materials folder extends the number, so knowing which are available is rather less important. But I’ll take a look to see whether there’s a need for some similar functionality.
Very Useful ZScript…! Thanks a lot!
Thanks marcus - the main problem it solved for me was keeping track of the “live materials”. Even though more slots are now available, it’s hard to tell which materials were used if I want to go back and tweak their settings or restore saved models.
Consider:
- Load up any model
- Load up a user material using the “load” button under materials
- Paint it on part of the model using the “m” button on the shelf and polypaint
- Save the tool
- Exit out of ZBrush entirely
- Restart ZBrush and load the saved tool
You will see the default slot 00 material where you painted the different material earlier. The only way to restore the way you had it before is to reload the user material in the same slot as it was previously.
Now, imagine having 3 user materials in a similar scenario – it would be necessary to reload them in the right slots in the right order to get the model back to the way it was before. If you didn’t remember what materials you used in which slots (especially since the slots don’t have actual number labels in ZBrush) this could be a headache. I used to use your plug-in to manage this. It listed the slot number and material used in each!
dangalf,
There is a simple solution to your problem. When you have done working on your model, first save it as a ztool. Then make sure the model (or models if you have been working on several) is drawn on the canvas and then save the Document. Saving the document preserves any custom materials that are drawn on the canvas. Next time you want to work on your model, load the document you saved, then the ztool; all the custom materials will be in there right places. To continue work, clear the canvas (Ctrl+N) and proceed.
Additionally, the Material:Show Used button will show all materials in use on the canvas, Flat Color (the special ‘active’ material), and the currently selected material.
HTH,
Gadzooks! That’s useful information – thanks marcus, it does indeed solve the problem I was having!