I have a Poser (Pro 2012) materials file which I can edit by changing it to a .txt file... I also have .3DS objects with up to 700 material nodes. Instead of laboriously selecting each node and applying the material (which would take days) I'd like to alter the materials file and do it in bulk!

The question is how to duplicate the code, with the materials number going up by one each time.

Here's the sort of code I'm looking at: material mat71 { KdColor 0.3725 [... etc] } material mat72 { KdColor 0.3725 [... etc] }

.. what I need to do is have that going up to 700. But how?! I can't use Find and Replace or Copy & Paste as I need the number to go up by 1 each time.

Any ideas?!

It's the sort of operation that you can do in Excel - duplicating then using the black crosshairs to drag clones into new cells. However, as each instance is 530 lines of code (!), dragging that many clones to 371,000 lines of code is kinda ... not gonna happen!

Any other ideas?

I would load the models into a modelling app and consolidate the material zones down to a reasonable amount. 700 is a totally ridiculous amount for one model; even 100 is a hell of a lot.

You can also copy materials from one place to others by using "Select All", "Copy", then "Paste", or "Apply To All".

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The Grouping Tool can also do this without need of the external modeler route. I've seen freestuff and the odd for sale product set this way and the Grouping Tool provides a quick fix..

parkdalegardener is correct but I find the Grouping Tool to be an enormous pain in the hind end. I'd rather use a modeller to do the work for anything more complex than a cube.

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Take them into a modeling or UV app and assign everything to one material to clear out all that bad export practice junk. Then, start remapping material zones. You won't find an easier way. By the time you figure it all out, you could have already remapped it. :)

UVMapper lite can let you easily map everything to one material. IF the UV isn't crap, which I suspect it probably is, you could even remap it from there. But, you'll probably end up seeing a complete garbaged UV when you load it, so don't even think about it. :)

I'd load the thing up in my most lightweight modeler, remap all the material zones, then, dump it back out. If you need a good UV map for it, the remap the UV first, of course. Free modelers would be easier than using Poser for this. Wings3D, Anim8tor, Blender, etc. Some other free UV programs might work too, with less clutter you won't be using, like Roadkill.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. It's not a bad model, it just has hundreds of nodes because it's architectural and they're NURBS modelled as separate entities originally; not your average Poser prop.

I found the very simple solution was to apply the desired material to one node, then right-click in the materials window, select all, then right-click again and apply to all. Works a treat without having to remap the UVs (a relief because UVMapper won't go on Mac and I didn't want to bother hunting for a free alternative! Any Mac UVMapper suggestions welcome though. Aside from rebuilding it in Wine Bottler if possible).

Thanks for the suggestions again.