Materials Editor for Blender
Do you ever find yourself hunting through long lists of materials or textures, unsure which ones are actually in use or wasting time reassigning them across multiple objects? I’ve been there, too. That’s exactly why I created the Materials Editor: to cut out the busywork and help you focus on the art that truly matters.
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Rather than sifting through material slots or flipping between menus, you can do it all in a single, customizable panel right within the 3D Viewport. Think of it as your command center for:
- Creating Materials instantly—no more fumbling through multiple menus.
- Filtering by name so you can quickly spot the material or texture you need.
- Assigning selected materials to selected objects or faces in just one step.
- Isolating certain materials or textures so you see only the items you care about.
- Opening a Shader Editor in a brand-new Blender window automatically focused on your chosen material—perfect for node-based workflows.
- Selecting & Deleting Unused materials or textures to keep your .blend files lean and tidy.
All these features work together to save you time, reduce clutter, and let you focus on creativity rather than admin tasks.
A Glimpse into Real Use
Imagine you’ve imported a large asset pack for your latest scene. You have dozens of new materials, some with similar names, and your Outliner is brimming with textures. The Materials Editor pulls them all into one organized list. With a quick search, you find “StoneWall_Green.” You notice it’s slightly off-color—no problem! A single click on “Edit” opens a separate Shader Editor window that’s already pinned to that material. You make quick tweaks, see the changes in real-time, and jump right back to your main viewport. No extra windows or wasted clicks. That’s the experience I wanted to create.
Materials Editor – Key Features:
Create New Materials with Nodes
Generate a brand-new material (including a Principled BSDF node setup) directly from the add-on, no more navigating multiple menus. !!Notice for editing a brand new created material it needs to be assigned to at least to one object due to blender doesn't support editing materials that aren't in any object material's slot.Refresh Material & Texture Previews
Force Blender to re-render thumbnail icons for all materials or images, ensuring up to date previews whenever you make changes.Viewport Textured Toggle
Instantly switch between standard Material shading and Texture shading in the 3D Viewport, letting you preview node-based textures on the fly.Powerful Search & Filter
Narrow down long lists of materials or textures by typing a keyword. Quickly locate the asset you need instead of scrolling endlessly.Isolate (or Hide) Selected
Focus on just the items you’ve marked as selected, hiding the rest for a cleaner overview. Perfect for large projects with dozens of assets.-
Select from Object / Select Objects by Material
- Select from Object: Grab all materials assigned to the active object or selected faces, adding them to your “selected” list in the add-on.
- Select Objects by Material: Working in reverse, pick a material and select every object in the scene using it.
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Unused Material & Texture Management
- Select Unused: Instantly find materials or textures not linked to any object.
- Delete Unused: Remove them with one click, keeping your .blend file lean and organized.
One-Click Material Assignment
Choose any material from the panel and apply it to your currently selected objects or faces—perfect for rapid prototyping or quick updates.-
Dedicated Texture Operations
- Import Texture: Bring new image files into Blender with a built-in file selector.
- Select by Texture: Identify all scene objects using a specific texture.
- Refresh Texture Previews: Keep thumbnails up to date after edits or file changes.
One-Click Shader Editor Window
Open a new Blender window in Shader Editor mode, already pinned to your chosen material. Great for quickly tweaking node setups without leaving your main layout.
Combining all these features, the Materials Editor provides a single, intuitive panel for managing every aspect of your materials and textures speeding up your workflow, reducing clutter, and giving you instant access to deeper shader editing whenever you need it.