Replacing a Link to a Material

This task explains how to replace the link to a material with a link to another material. 
 
  • This functionality is relevant for linked materials only
  • Only the documents open in your current session are impacted
  • There is no impact on the material library which is not modified. Therefore you can work with a read-only material library.
Open the Materials.CATProduct document.
The same material (Gold) has been applied onto each part:
  You can also see that two of the three materials have been applied with a link to the material library: these materials are identified by a white arrow in the specification tree: .

  1. Select one of the materials in the specification tree.

  2. Right-click it then select Properties to display the material properties:

  3. Click Close.

  4. Right-click the first Gold material (which is a linked material) in the specification tree then select Replace Material Link... to open the Replace Link dialog box.

    the Replace Link... dialog box can also be accessed by right-clicking the object onto which the material has been applied, then selecting Material > Replace Material Link:
    This avoids selecting the material in the specification tree and is especially useful when working in Full Screen mode, for instance.
    The Replace Link dialog box always opens the default material catalog, whether it is the one provided by Dassault Systèmes or a user-defined catalog.

  5. Select a material from the list. By default, all materials are displayed.

    However, you can use the list to sort materials by family before selecting the desired material.

    In our example, we choose Floor in the Construction family.

  6. Select the Propagate to all materials check box if you want replace all occurrences of the selected material in all products open in your session.

    If you do not select this check box, the replacement only occurs on the current product.

    In our scenario, the check box is selected.

  7. Click OK to validate.

    The two Gold materials applied with a link are replaced with the Floor material and the product now looks like this:
    Moreover, when looking at the specification tree you see that only the linked materials have been replaced, the Gold material applied without link is still applied onto one of the parts.

  8. Now, access the material symbol in the specification tree. You can see that it has changed from to . The new material has also been applied with a link to the material library.

  9. Right-click the Floor material in the specification tree then select Properties:

    The properties now displayed are those of the Floor material and not those of the Gold material anymore.