# Getting objects with a specified material
**URL:** https://forum.highend3d.com/t/getting-objects-with-a-specified-material/5544
**Category:** Maya
**Tags:** mel
**Created:** [February 6, 2003, 4:00pm UTC](https://forum.highend3d.com/t/getting-objects-with-a-specified-material/5544 "2003-02-06T16:00:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@matt-lewis](https://forum.highend3d.com/u/matt-lewis)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 4:00pm UTC](https://forum.highend3d.com/t/getting-objects-with-a-specified-material/5544/1 "2003-02-06T16:00:24Z")
Hi.
I have the name of a specific material, and would like to get all the meshes that the material applies to.
e.g. given the material name "lambert2" I get the following results:
polySurface2248.f[201]
polySurface2248.f[218:219]
I can get the information by using Multilister, but I'm trying to get the info via MEL.
Any help would be great, thanks.
---
### Author:  [@gdc](https://forum.highend3d.com/u/gdc)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 4:56pm UTC](https://forum.highend3d.com/t/getting-objects-with-a-specified-material/5544/2 "2003-02-06T16:56:23Z")
here is one way, may not be the best method for what your doing, but it should work.
//-----
hyperShade -objects lambert2;
string $faces[]=`ls -sl`;
//------
Hope that helps
--g
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### Author:  [@ism](https://forum.highend3d.com/u/ism)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 7:05am UTC](https://forum.highend3d.com/t/getting-objects-with-a-specified-material/5544/3 "2003-02-07T07:05:34Z")
Agree with GDC.
But if you work with polygons, i think it's beter to use
"filterExpand -sm 34 -ex 1" instead of "ls -sl". It allows you to avoid such replies like "f[10:30]".
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### Author:  [@joojaa](https://forum.highend3d.com/u/joojaa)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 10:17am UTC](https://forum.highend3d.com/t/getting-objects-with-a-specified-material/5544/4 "2003-02-07T10:17:29Z")
Or "ls -selection -flatten" Will give you the individual faces not aglob!
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### Author:  [@gdc](https://forum.highend3d.com/u/gdc)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 5:08pm UTC](https://forum.highend3d.com/t/getting-objects-with-a-specified-material/5544/5 "2003-02-07T17:08:41Z")
Agreed! but the orignal post said the results should be:
poly.f[218:220];
--g
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### Author:  [@warpcat](https://forum.highend3d.com/u/warpcat)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 9:30pm UTC](https://forum.highend3d.com/t/getting-objects-with-a-specified-material/5544/6 "2003-02-07T21:30:14Z")
Note: I've pasted my script in a couple times now, and every time I post it in, not only does the formatting get screwed up, but the "for" loops loose a bunch of their code. I aplogoize, but I don't know what's going on 
I have a proc written to do this stuff. Select a material from the Hypershade (not multilister... the multilister dosen't "select" things by default), and it will select the nodes it's assigned to, plus list them in the script editor:
global proc EP\_listShadedElements()
{
string $material[] = `ls -sl`;
if (size($material) != 1)
error "Please select only a single Material";
text -e -l ("Shader Name: " + $material[0]) T\_PSF\_shaderName;
string $destinationConnections[] = `listConnections -s 0 -d 1 $material[0]`;
for ($a=0; $a {
if (`objectType -i "shadingEngine" $destinationConnections[$a]`)
{
string $shadingEngine = $destinationConnections[$a];
string $setMembers[] = `sets -q $shadingEngine`;
for ($b=0; $b {
setParent CL\_PSFelements;
button -l ("Select: " + $setMembers[$b]) -c ("select -r " + $setMembers[$b]);
}
}
}
}
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### Author:  [@matt-lewis](https://forum.highend3d.com/u/matt-lewis)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2003, 3:35pm UTC](https://forum.highend3d.com/t/getting-objects-with-a-specified-material/5544/7 "2003-02-12T15:35:23Z")
Thanks for the replies, it's exactly what I needed.
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### Author:  [@bentneuron](https://forum.highend3d.com/u/bentneuron)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://forum.highend3d.com/t/getting-objects-with-a-specified-material/5544/8 "2003-06-01T21:31:37Z")
Hi Warpcat,
I'm still rather new to MEL and was wondering about your syntax here? The "for ($a=0; $a{" is confusing me...is it shorthand for something?
Thanks,
-bN
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### Author:  [@warpcat](https://forum.highend3d.com/u/warpcat)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2003, 7:39pm UTC](https://forum.highend3d.com/t/getting-objects-with-a-specified-material/5544/9 "2003-06-02T19:39:20Z")
You work at Spark? Ask Lonnie... he can tell you ALLLL about it. Tell him Warpcat in San Francisco says hi 