Hi, is there a way to have a digital-asset object automatically reference a material-shader that i have also made a digital asset in the same *.otl?

If (in my digital-asset *.hip) I reference the material locally :“shop/myMaterial” then the files using the digital-asset *.otl cant resolve the link and the material option is greyed-out because its locked in the digital-asset.

I can use a parameter to expose the material to use to the top-level of the digital-aset but that means having to manually re-link the material every time I use the digital-asset, i'd like the material to be built-in to the asset wherever I use it.

Hope i'm being clear enough.

if the SHOP subnet with material asset instance is inside of your asset then you can reference it by relative path
from asset level it would be
./shop/myMaterial

from material SOP which is on the same level as SHOP subnet
../shop/myMaterial

etc.

im afraid im a bit new to Houdini.

I'd like the Material Shader “myMaterial” I have instanced in the “shop” and set with a base colour etc to be applied to my object sop, using the “Material” node is fine while im in the wallSegment.hib.

I can save the wall-segment as a digital asset but it doesnt save the material out with it, leaving the asset in building.hip without a material.

I can save myMaterial out as a digitalAsset as well ( into the same otl ) but I cant figure out a way of having my allSegment to reference the library-material.

Also, instancing the myMAterial node in the building.hip file ends up resetting the colours to defaults.

What i want is to have my wallSegment to use a pre-defined material saved into a library when it is instanced / used in other networks, I can manually set the material but it means I have to set the material for every instance of the wallSegment asset.

Should I be using a Gallery for the material instead?

All you have to do is create a shopnet inside your digital asset and instance your myMaterial node in the shopnet so that your wallsegment digital asset always comes with this material. Have a look at the attached example. Let me know if you have questions.
Hope this helps

cheers
-J