Adding color(textures) to duplicate objects

[jwatson4]

New user here. I have acoustic panels on the wall in this room. making the panels I just used the duplicate command as this speeds up workflow, however now when I'm starting to work the render side of things I'm applying colors to the panels. for simplicity sake, there are 6 panels vertically stacked but the colors will be alternating. when I edit the object and apply a color it changes the color of all the panels. no matter class separation or even using the ungroup command. what am I missing? 

[markdd]

I assume your panels are using the same symbol for each panel? If that is so, then either make a different symbol for each colour you are using (by duplicating your original symbol) or convert each symbol to a group (Cmd K or Modify/Convert/Convert to Group) and edit each resulting group individually.

 

Edit: What I should have also said is that every time you edit a symbol all instances of that symbol update which is the point of symbols. If you convert them to individual groups it breaks the link and they can be edited individually.

Edited August 2, 2017 by markdd