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I have a Star Wars Star Destroyer in one blend file. The ship has 4 materials. I would like to use this model in a scene in a different blend file and I would like to have several Star Destroyers over there.

My first approach was to append into the scene from the master Star Destroyer blend file. Since I'm new to blender, I missed out that appending an object from a blend file three times messes up my workspace with triplicated materials of basically one master material. So I ended up with e.g. Hangar, Hangar.001 and Hangar.002, whereas each "Hangar" material is the same blueish emission material. I wouldn't mind the triplicated materials in my file, but also the presentation of this material was different and I thought it was because of the "triplication" and something got confused...

Now, what am I talking about? This is the Hangar material in the original blend file of the Star Destroyer: enter image description here

This is what happens after appending into another file (and yes, the screenshot is from a "Linked" blend file. More later...): enter image description here

So I read a lot of the same problem here at stackechange and figured out that there are ways of removing the duplicates by means of python scripting and manually deleting them in the outliner. Well, python scripting was not working in my case (dunno why) and manually tweaking seemed possible, but nothing changed regarding the wrong color of the material.

So I found out that instead of appending the object from the blend file, I can just link it. Then, all materials are referenced from the original file and everything should be working...

As you can see in the screenshot from my linked version, the material is still wrong, although the original file displays the material as expected at the same time....

Both vieports are rendered with Cycles...

What am I doing wrong here?

Thanks, Maik

Edit:

After Dans answer, I saw in my material browser that the preview dot for my materials also does not match the color that it is supposed to have. What does that mean? Also, the engine glow suffers the same problem....

enter image description here

Edit:

Next try: Video to strange effect

The first part in the video shows normal behavior when rotating the original model through different viewport settings. The second half shows strange flickering while rotating (I also removed some faces of the model, in order to see if there are intersecting face layers underneath them). I believe that the flickering is caused by the same effect that distorts my material. Maybe somebody can explain the effect....

Edit: Based on Dans idea to share the blend file, I figured that I can just use an emissive cube to append into my file. And voilà, the effect is the same as with the Star Destroyer... Also the one cube I gave an emissive material inside the blend file suffers strange effects, when I switch to render preview. I guess, this is really the last chance to get an answer for this issue. I'm looking forward to... ;-)

Here is the blend file:

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I was wondering if it's really necessary to append. Have you tried simply copying the object from a blend file to the other? You just open two instances of Blender and copy paste from one viewport to the other.

From what I've noticed (I'm still learning blender) is that basically almost everything depends on many coordinates and conditions that Blender uses to calculate exact details or attributes of a mesh, texture, material etc. So when appending, if I understand it right, there is a great risk that something will go wrong because of some settings that are different from a file to another and it's very hard to identify which one/s exactly.(For example in one file the Star destroyer might be located at certain coordinates with certain scale and rotation etc while in the destination file it's another)

Each time I want to copy an object or a characteristic of an object from a file to another I use this copy/paste method, than either use the object or just what I need from the copied object, then I erase the one I copied from if no longer needed.

For example if I want to take only the material from an object, after I copied it in the destination file/Viewport, I go to the shading tab, apply the material I need (that should appear now in the dropdown list) to the object, then make it single user and rename it, modify it etc.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks Dan. I just tried your suggestion (something basic like copy/paste I haven't tried, yet...). Unfortunately, it does not solve the issue. But it gave me the idea, to copy/paste to a brand new blender file and then, everything is copied correctly... This means, that my Scene Blender file is somehow corrupt or at least some settings may have gone wild. Unfortunately, I have no idea, what the reason for this could be... I try to investigate further but I'm still open for further suggestions. $\endgroup$
    – Kiamur
    Commented May 22, 2022 at 20:13
  • $\begingroup$ It is also possible that in the original file you have some hidden objects or lights that are affecting the object you want to reference. Try an ALT+H in the viewport while in object mode just to check. Also I wonder if the original Star Destroyer doesn't have some kind of procedural animation in the materials? maybe check in the shading tab along with the timeline if there is anything connected there...maybe the material is set to be red in a certain context or moment and blue in another? $\endgroup$
    – Dan
    Commented May 22, 2022 at 20:41
  • $\begingroup$ The original file ist based in a model that I purchased in cgtrader. $\endgroup$
    – Kiamur
    Commented May 23, 2022 at 5:29
  • $\begingroup$ Yeah, I always have a lot of trouble with purchased models. They always need all kind of tweaks that are hard to identify. But it’s a step by step process based on a lot of patience that will also teach you some things about Blender and it’s limitations as well as it’s power. I was thinking maybe you could try another idea. Export the object as an fbx and import it in the one you need it . Maybe it will keep it’s original characteristics… $\endgroup$
    – Dan
    Commented May 23, 2022 at 6:21
  • $\begingroup$ I really wonder what the red dot in the material preview means. I don' t know If Blender ist telling me something or if IT IS really a sign of something going totally wrong in a corrupted project. I'll try the fbx way. Thanks for your input! $\endgroup$
    – Kiamur
    Commented May 23, 2022 at 6:22

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