Timesaver with multiple materials

Imagine this; you have just finished a huge model of a machine containing a lot of shiny hex nuts. You have already made a shiny map definition in all the neccesary levels that contain a nut. Now, if you wanted to add two different noisemaps defining bumps in all these places, it would take quite a while to do this, at least without some pretty good RPL-coding. So if you know that the model is going to be like this, why not plan forward to avoid all this extra work. Here is a method you can use when doing work of this nature:

• High up in the hierarchy, create a level called 'multimap'
• Select it, and set the mapping flag. You may also want to set CD and RT invisible, just in case.
• Create a link, rename it to 'multimap', and set the same flags as above.
• When you want to use all these maps, cut the 'multimap' link object and paste it were it belongs.

All objects having the link in the level, will use all the materials in the multimap level. Just make sure there is an extra level in between, otherwise all 'multimaps' will affect the root, which we off course don't want. Like this:

root                        TAGS               FLAGS
  level1
    object1
      ellipsoid
      multimaplink(M)       SIDE=100           Mapping flag
    object2
      polyhedron
      amateriallink(M)      SIDE=200           Mapping Flag
    object3
      level
        object4
          cone
          multimaplink(M)   SIDE=100           Mapping flag
  level2
    testobject
      cube
      amateriallink(M)      SIDE=200           Mapping flag
materials
  multimap
    multimap(M)             SIDE=100           Mapping flag
      shiny(M)              SMAT=shiny         Mapping flag (+CD +RT invisible)
      bumps1(M)             SMAT=bumps1        Mapping flag (+CD +RT invisible)
      bumps2(M)             SMAT=bumps2        Mapping flag (+CD +RT invisible)
      noisecloud(M)         SMAT=noisecloud    Mapping flag (+CD +RT invisible)
  amaterial
    amaterial(M)            SIDE=200           Mapping flag
      color(M)              SMAT=color         Mapping flag (+CD +RT invisible)
      brilliance(M)         SMAT=brilliance    Mapping flag (+CD +RT invisible)

I know this is quite obvious really, but it is so easily forgotten. I have not tested if there are any speed differences in the rendering using this method instead of mapping each level with all the materials.