Topic: Help! Blender Image and Texture Names that will Stick!...

[ACDmvmkr]

I've been finding often that when I name textures and especially images, that the names won't last, that they are altered, and thus hard for me to re-find and identify in a later blender session, like when trying to apply them to another object, or select them for use in the UV editor.

It seems quite random when these changes to the names occur. Sometimes longer names last and remain unaltered, then other times the name will be truncated and something like .001  or .003 added to them, or just simply truncated with nothing added, thus making me lose track of which is what.... And again, it seems quite random when Blender leaves them alone, and when it alters them. Result; I'm left with this bewhildering list of images that I can't keep track of them anymore.







As an example; If you look in the one picture, the top 3 "vb_helmet...." images are all the same image, but have been re-named by the computer and are now confusing, and the two lower files "vb_spacesuit_text" and "vb_spacesuit_texture_" are just copies of "vb_spacesuit_text_r" ....and each of those started out as "vb_spacesuit_texture_red".

I've searched online and seen people using texture names that are really long, and they don't seem to be having any problems with them...

Can somebody tell me how to keep my names from getting messed with?

[kat]

Yup, you're using one of the older versions of Blender and pre 2.50 they all had character limits for data block names... Basically anything over 19 characters get truncated and/or appended an incremental numerical value - the "001", "003" you mention. Names can be further truncated to accommodate the numerical append (which is why it appears even more random).

There isn't a fix for this unfortunately as it's a limitation of the application and cannot be changed. The only way around the problem is to use shorter file names or manually edit the material and/or texture ID references (note however, this is just the texture or material reference in Blender and yes, it does mean management at a glance can be confusing, it doesn't affect the underlying data structure of your scenes or objects).

[ACDmvmkr]

Thank You, I've been renaming my material images shorter now.

In that same vane, Is there a limit on the number of materials, number of textures, or number of vertex groups that can be assigned to a single object in Blender 2.49?

I find that when I combine several objects for ease of handling or import across files, that frequently some of my vertex groups or materials get dropped. I wonder if I'm hitting a limit there.

Also, if I combine 2 objects that both contain the same material, sometimes the new single object has copies of the same material (for example aluminum and aluminum.001). Is there a way to have it recognize those two as the same and just use the one version?

Thx

[EDIT] merged this post with your original topic. kat

[kat]

I can't remember off the top of my head but I seem to recall there being a limit on the number of Materials yes, 14 per object if memory serves. Not sure about vertex groups as I've never used that many but it seems reasonable to expect there might be some limits in 2.49 if other aspects of the application have limits.

The reason Blender adds the numerical append like that is because one or the other Material contains a property not 100% matched across the pair. In other words, Blender will merge duplicates, but they do need to be exact copies otherwise it treats them as 'different', hence the resulting ".001" append.

[ACDmvmkr]

Thank You.

In one seperate file, I have an object that has 184 vertex groups, and it appears to work flawlessly in
everything I ask of it.....but now that you mention it, those groups are assigned to armature bones and not
materials. That whole object uses only 3 materials in it. This is version 2.49b.

However, in other files I have objects containing maybe 11 or 12 vertex groups, but these groups are all
containing materials....and these are the objects I'm having issues with. If I try to combine them, some
groups are missing from the result, and many parts of the object have other materials assigned to them than
were supposed to be, as if the few remaining materials were spread out to cover more of the object.

Making sense now, thanks for straightening that out.