Details
Convert Pre-NX11 Custom Materials and Textures to NX11.0 and Later Releases.
Solution
There is no direct conversion from pre-NX11 materials to Iray+ materials in
NX11 and later releases. While there are options that will allow users to
continue to use legacy parts with the pre-NX11 materials in NX11 and later
releases, that the process is not easily recognized by users.
With no direct conversion of a pre-NX11 to a NX11 material, as all of the
'conversions' are done based on the material name, each time the user will
have to create custom materials in the new release and save them in the System
Material Palette, with the same names as their pre-NX11 custom material.
NX12.0.1 and later NX releases:
The easiest path is in 12.0.1 and later, if a user has custom materials, they
need to:
1. Create new materials in NX 12.0.1 and later (with the same name as the
legacy materials).
2. Then when opening the pre-NX11 part in NX12.0.1 and later, the old
materials will be replaced by the new materials of the same name.
NX11.0.0 to NX12.0.0:
Prior to NX 12.0.1, the steps are a bit more complicated as the automatic name
based mapping was not working correctly for custom materials.
An NXOpen program can be used to map the materials from the 'old' to the 'new'
materials.
See the example code here:
%UGII_BASE_DIR%\UGOPEN\uft_disp_mattex6.c
Some things to note:
3. This example uses a table in the code to list the 'old' name and which
'new' material to use for the name based mapping. For a real user, it would
be necessary to edit the table to pair up their 'old' materials with the 'new'
materials. The example table in the code would be read like this;
Old Material New Material
"AuthorMaterial01" "Varnished Cherry"
"AuthorMaterial02" "Blue Powder Coat"
"AuthorMaterial03" "Glass Red"
4. The 'new' material name has to exist in the System palette. It can be a
custom material, but that custom material will have to be added to the System
palette.
There is another approach, but it is more of a manual process per part, so if
there are numerous parts, this could be quite time consuming.
Open the NX part file.
Select Advanced Studio.
Select Material Texture.
In Material in the Part palette, select (using Mouse Button one) the material.
In Materials/Texture dialog bar, select 'Show Usage'.
Select 'Add used to Selection'.
Now go to System Material palette and select the 'new' material for the
replacement.
Notes and References
Hardware/Software Configuration
Platform: INTL64
OS: window
OS Version: 764SP1
Product: NX
Application: STUDIO_DESIGN
Version: V11.0.2
Function: VISUALIZE
Ref: 001-9200105