AFMG Network Forum

mixbyjm · Member

Hi,
is the material database in EASE 5FE different with EASE 4.4?
Is so, is there any way to import EASE 4.4 material data to EASE 5FE maybe as custom material?

Thank you

luisgsf · Member

I second the motion.

I'm not in love with the new way to have them organized. I rather have folders so I can get to what I need faster. Looking for them using search is slower than going to your common use materials in its specific folder. The search gives you a lot of similar named materials that are more difficult to parse for that same similarity, and you have to know the exact characteristics of the material you need to use instead of knowing where it is.

AFMG Silke Bögelein · Member

Hi JM and Luis,

The EASE 5-FE material database is more extensive compared to the EASE 4 database. It contains all materials that you can also find in EASE 4. If you have created materials yourself in EASE 4, you can of course also use them in EASE 5-FE. To do so, please proceed as follows:
The CUSTOM DATABASE can be equipped by the user. To add your own materials, a .mat file needs to be created using the material editor (see chapter 16 of the User's Guide) and then saved in the folder C:\Users\Public\Documents\AFMG\EASE\Custom Materials. Upon start of the software, EASE will load all materials in this folder and provide them for selection in the material menu.

However, we will of course take your comments about the material database into account for future versions.

Regards,
Silke

luisgsf · Member

I understand there are more materials in EASE 5 database. What I question is the way they are stored. In EA4 they were divided in folders (for example, I never had to open the german, database as I work with american materials. Now I have to deal with both, making it twice as hard to find the proper one. I just used common materials, american materials and my own ones. So my suggestion would be to have a way to restrict the results that show when you enter a keyword by excluding entire folders (if you had folders like in the past)

AFMG Silke Bögelein · Member

Hi Luis,

Yes, we do agree, that some kind of sorting would make the material base more convenient.
We will consider your findings for future versions.

Regards,

Silke

AFMG Silke Bögelein · Member

Hi Luis,

I would like to add, that you can add subfolders to your Costum Materials folder.
The individual folder name is imported at least as Search Tag, what allows a better filtering.

Regards,

Silke

JKeefe · Member

The CUSTOM DATABASE can be equipped by the user. To add your own materials, a .mat file needs to be created using the material editor (see chapter 16 of the User's Guide) and then saved in the folder C:\Users\Public\Documents\AFMG\EASE\Custom Materials. Upon start of the software, EASE will load all materials in this folder and provide them for selection in the material menu.

Please allow EASE 5 the functionality (like we had in EASE 4) to point to a materials database (and for that matter, a loudspeaker database, etc.) to a different location. This is critical for companies working on company-wide shared storage (such as a shared network drive, file server, or NAS). Users need to be able to change a material or create a new material and have everyone access those changed parameters, not just one individual on one computer.

With EASE 4 all of my company's EASE users had our database locations pointing to folders on our shared drive. With EASE 5 I am worried we are going to screw something up trying (and potentially failing) to make sure our files are using the same materials.

Bruce · Member

Hi Joe, please also send this to us at support(at)afmg.eu to move it directly into our ProductBoard tracking system.

JKeefe · Member

Email sent.