Save your own presets

A material or a sky you have built can be saved as a preset, which then sits beside the presets that come with Orbit and is applied from its card like any of them. Your presets can be sorted into folders, and each one is a file that you can copy to another Mac. Materials are saved in the MATERIAL BROWSER (M) and skies in the ENVIRONMENT BROWSER (⌘E), and the two browsers handle presets the same way unless this page says otherwise.

#Save a material

1. Select an object that wears the material and press M.

   The MATERIAL BROWSER opens with the object's material on the right side.

2. Click SAVE AS PRESET at the bottom of the panel.

   A new card appears under USER PRESETS on the left, selected, with a name such as Material 1. After a ROLL, the name is Rolled followed by the kind of material and a number.

3. Click the preset's name under the preview at the top of the right side, type a new one of up to 20 characters and press Return.

   The card takes the new name.

The + NEW PRESET card at the end of USER PRESETS does the same as SAVE AS PRESET. Neither changes the object. Your presets also appear in the MATERIALS strip, after the ones that come with Orbit.

If the name matches a preset that already exists, ignoring capitals, Orbit adds a number to it, such as Gold 2.

#Save a sky

1. Press ⌘E.

   The ENVIRONMENT BROWSER opens with the current sky, sun and fog on the right side.

2. Click SAVE AS PRESET at the bottom of the panel.

   A new card appears under USER PRESETS, named Preset and a number, or Rolled Sky and a number after a ROLL. The scene takes the new preset as its sky.

3. Click the name under the preview at the top of the settings, type a new one and press Return.

   The new name shows on the card.

#Change a preset you saved

1. In the browser, click the card of your preset.

   The browser shows EDITS UPDATE THIS PRESET, at the bottom of the MATERIAL BROWSER or under the name in the ENVIRONMENT BROWSER. The click also applies the preset, to the selected objects or to the scene.

2. Change a setting.

   The change goes onto the selected objects, or onto the scene's sky, and into the preset file at the same moment.

   

Edits go into the preset whenever one of your cards is selected. Opening the MATERIAL BROWSER on an object that wears one of your presets selects that card automatically, so an edit you meant for the object alone also changes the preset. To try something without touching the preset, click SAVE AS PRESET first. The edits then go into the new copy.

Other objects that already wear the preset keep the version they were given. To bring them up to date, select them and click the card again.

The presets that come with Orbit cannot be changed. Editing a material that came from one of their cards changes only the selected objects, and SAVE AS PRESET keeps the result.

#Sort presets into folders

1. Click + FOLDER at the top of the preset list, type a name and press Return.

   A folder card appears under USER PRESETS.

2. Drag the card of one of your presets onto the folder card.

   The preset moves into the folder.

Click a folder card to open it. ROOT in the path above the presets goes back, and dragging a preset onto ROOT moves it out of the folder. SAVE AS PRESET and + NEW PRESET save into the folder that is open.

A folder cannot hold another folder, so + FOLDER is dimmed inside one. The presets that come with Orbit cannot be moved. To keep a copy of one in a folder, click it, click SAVE AS PRESET and drag the copy.

In the MATERIALS strip, folders appear as their own cards. Click one to show its presets, and click ROOT to return.

#Delete a preset or a folder

Right-click a card of yours and choose DELETE. With a material preset selected, DELETE at the bottom of the panel does the same, and in the ENVIRONMENT BROWSER the × on the card of the preset in use deletes it too. Orbit deletes the file at once, without asking. It does not go to the Trash, and ⌘Z cannot bring it back.

To delete a folder, right-click it and choose DELETE. An empty folder goes at once. For a folder with presets in it, Orbit offers MOVE PRESETS TO ROOT, which keeps the presets, and DELETE FOLDER + ALL CONTENTS, which removes them for good. CANCEL leaves the folder as it was.

#Find the files and share them

A material preset is a .orbitmat file and a sky preset is a .orbitenv file. Orbit keeps them in its own folder on the Mac, and REVEAL IN FINDER shows where.

1. Click the card of your preset. In the ENVIRONMENT BROWSER, the preset has to be the one the scene uses.

   REVEAL IN FINDER appears at the bottom of the panel.

2. Click REVEAL IN FINDER at the bottom of the panel.

   A Finder window opens with the preset's file selected. Right-clicking a folder card and choosing REVEAL IN FINDER shows the folder.

Images used by a material preset are stored inside its file, reduced to at most 1024 pixels on the longest side, so the file can be sent on its own.

To add a preset file you received, double-click it in Finder. Orbit copies it into its presets and shows a message such as "Imported material preset “Gold Leaf”. See the Material Browser." The open scene does not change. Dragging .orbitmat files onto the presets in the MATERIAL BROWSER, or .orbitenv files onto the presets in the ENVIRONMENT BROWSER, copies them into the folder that is open. The browsers ignore any other kind of file dropped on them.

A saved scene carries the presets of yours that it uses. Opening the scene adds them to the presets of the Mac it is opened on, where they stay after the scene is closed. For the same reason, a preset you deleted comes back when you open a scene that uses it.

Related: Apply and edit materials, Set the sky, sun, fog and clouds and What undo covers.