Where are the Material Library Folders in Revit 2011?

You may notice that under Options > Rendering, there is no line for the Render Appearance Library Location in Revit 2011 products.

Because Revit 2011 products share the material libraries with AutoCAD 2011, Inventor 2011 and 3DS Max 2011 this location cannot be modified.

If you need to locate the material library folders, you can do so at the following location:

32-Bit OS:  C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Materials2011

64-Bit OS:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Materials2011

Comments

[Jared]

So does this mean that the libraries cannot be stored on a central server?

[Ryan Duell]

That is correct, the shared material library must remain at the default location for Revit. Since this library is designed to be local and read-only, any changes \ modifications you make to these material definitions are stored in the specific project file.

There is a good post on AUGI with some additional information on this topic:

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=117513

[Jared]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I haven't talked IT into installing 2011 on my machine yet so I have not had a chance to play with it. I was hoping the material library would be something that could be centrally stored and changed instead of having to transfer project standards to get standard materials like we have been doing. Based on that AUGI discussion, I am not alone. Maybe someday. :)

[Dave B]

So Ryan, to be totally clear...you're saying that the materials folder cannot be moved to another location on the C drive? We have content centrally located on the network (templates, families, content for other Autodesk products, etc.) and then it is automatically replicated to a special folder on the C drive, and would like to keep materials in a subdirectory of that same folder. Are you saying this is not possible?

[Ryan Duell]

Thank you for the follow-up. While family and template content library locations can be customized, the shared material library must remain at the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Materials2011 location.