The Maxwell Referenced Material node allows you to use MXM files directly, without embedding the material settings in the Maya scene. This is useful when a material must be shared between multiple scenes.

The Update From File button reloads the swatch image and viewport texture from the MXM file if it has been changed externally. The New button creates a new MXM file and opens MXED to edit it. The Edit button opens MXED to edit the currently selected MXM file. The Library and Gallery buttons allow you to browse the material database and online gallery respectively. When a material is downloaded from the online gallery, the MXM file and any dependencies are placed in the sourceimages subdirectory of the Maya project.

The Embed in MXS setting controls how the material is written in the exported Maxwell scene files. When the embed flag is off, a reference to the file is written, so the material remains an external dependency. When the flag is on, the material settings are written in the exported scene, so that it will work independently of the referenced MXM file.

The Specify Shaded Color and Shaded Color settings allow you to change the color used to display the material when the viewport is set to shaded mode. By default, the material is displayed using the reflectance 0 color of the first active BSDF, or the material ID color if all the BSDFs are textured or no BSDFs can be found.

In textured mode, the material will be displayed using the active texture defined in the MXM file. If no texture is used, it will be drawn in the same color as in shaded mode. To set the active texture, click the checker button above the material tree in MXED.

Hint: to speed up editing of referenced materials, you can save and close the editor without additional prompts by clicking the silver disc icon on the right of the Wizards button.

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