Option for material manager to open drop down instead of dock window

[BeastyBlake101]

As a Roblox developer, it is currently too hard and time consuming to bulk edit materials for complicated models using the Material Manager button.

Because the material manager opens an entire docking menu, this takes up unnecessary time and space to scroll and select the intended materials for respective groups/parts. When working on large buildings, these extra actions add up, interrupting my creative flow, taking up space on my screen, and evaporating my time.

Though I love and appreciate the ability to preview and manage my custom materials in the material manager, it can require 5 lengthy steps to simply change a material.

1. Select a model
2. Open the material manager (if it is not already open)
3. Select the material category
4. Choose a material
5. Select the button to apply the material to the model

Alternatively, the properties window can be used. This can require 4 steps to change a material.

1. Select the model
2. Select the children in the model
3. Scroll to the material property in the properties window
4. Choose the material

Myself, alongside many other builders in the community, feel that a frequent action like this taking such a long time is a workflow problem. Changing a color requires just 2 quick steps, as seen in the media above.

1. Select the Color button
2. Choose a color

In addition, the UX does not match the expected behavior being next to the change color button. One button to change the visuals of a part/group is a dropdown, while the other opens a dock window. As a developer, this visual building experience does not feel natural and integrated.

If Roblox is able to address this issue, it would improve my development experience because I would be able to decorate buildings/models at the speed I did previously. My proposed solution is to add a simple option for this in Roblox Studio settings.

Community response from my Twitter post during beta, and another recent Twitter post, indicate that, despite having some time to adjust, this is still a widespread challenge many are facing. Thank you for your time and consideration.

[kh_834 (sisyphus)]

Honestly I kind of agree, but being able to see what a material looks like is also a cool feature. But in general I feel like making the process faster is what we should focus on and much less design.

[VSCPlays]

It was a drop down before, and you are a long-time developer, so you might have remembered that feature, but it got changed

(yes i used your profile to show that you are a old player, and I use RoGold, RoPro, BTRoblox, and Robacks)

[Judgy_Oreo (DisplayName)]

Custom materials have only existed since late 2021 though? Nobody needs to be a 2012 veteran to remember there used to be a drop-down prior to the Material Manager plugin releasing.