Managing Cycles Materials - Blender Cycles Materials and Textures - page 74

5. This is because, in the library file, we assigned the fake user to the material by
clicking on the F icon on the side of the material name data block. If not assigned
to any fake user , the prefix of the linked material would have been L0, that is, linked
and zero fake users inside the blend file (for example, Plane is simply assigned to
the object and has no fake user ).
The name of the material is grayed to show that it is a linked material. On the side
of the name, a new icon has appeared (a little arrow), and the number of users has
been updated to 2 (the fake user and the object we assigned the linked material to).
From now on, every modification we make to the material in the library will be reflected in the
linked material the moment we load the file.
Not only whole materials but also single node groups can be linked. In this case, instead of
the Material subdirectory to link from, choose the NodeTree subdirectory and then select
one or more node groups you want to link.
The data block name of a linked node group is grayed as well. You can modify the exposed
values and colors, and you can also enter Edit Mode, but that's all. You can't modify the
connection or the nodes inside the linked node group. To do this, you have to click on the
little arrow icon to the side of the grayed name to make it local and no longer linked from
the library file. This would mean that from now on, you have a new independent node group,
and that editing the node group in the library won't have any effect on it any more.
There's more...
A very useful add-on to help in node management is the Node Wrangler add-on. It
allows for effects such as quick material visualization, node switching, UV layer assignment,
frame assignments, node arrangements, and so on. To find out more about this add-on, go
to http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Nodes/
Node_Wrangler .
To enable it, just call the Blender User Preferences panel (press Ctrl + Alt + U ) and click on
the Node tab under the Categories item. Enable the Node Wrangler (aka Node Efficiency
Tools) add-on by clicking on the checkbox to the right. Then click on the Save User Settings
button to the bottom-left corner of the panel.