Unique Components with Different Materials, but same placement

Hello.
I have 4 tables that I have made and I would like to apply different materials to all of them. I have made all 4 tables into components and I have made them unique. I spent a lot of time making sure the placement of the material on the 1st table was exactly how I wanted it. I used Thru Paint and native tools to get this perfect. However, now that I have moved on to the 2nd table with unique material, I have to start all over with the placement. How do I avoid having to replace each material in the way that I would like? The materials that I am using are either the exact same material (just in a different color) OR it is a similar material with generally the same scale. Is there a way to eyedrop the “placement attributes” of material (but not the actual material) and apply it to my component? I am fine with minor tweaks, but having to start from scratch with each table is frustrating.
I feel like I am missing something…there has to be an easier way.
I appreciate any help you could give!

Check this post, there is an oddity that uv mapped faces remember their uv mapping if you delete the applied material in the material panel.

You can delete the components that you made unique, save the material of the one you already set up, then delete that material to import it back again, and apply it on the wrapper (component and copies)

Thanks for responding Mike. I tried this and it didn’t work for me. Perhaps I am missing something…yet again.

Do I right click on the material and choose “Save As”?
Then, I delete it from the materials panel? OR delete it from the component that it is applied to? OR both?
Import it back into the model and apply it on the wrapper…meaning the OUTSIDE of the component? Not directly on the face?

I wish there was a plug in that helped with remembering material placement.

Can you attach the model?

You can swap the first (positioned) material out from the materials browser with a new one from your drive…this will preserve all the uv placement, scale, etc. The only issue, someone correct me if I’m wrong here, is that in order to swap a material, you’re actually replacing it instead…thus affecting your original table’s textures.

You can get around this issue by saving the tables themselves as separate models, therefore not affecting each others’ textures. Since you say it’s the same table, with different textures, if you needed to load them into a larger context model, like a room design, or whatever, you could do that with the ‘replace component’ option from the context menu. This would allow for you to see each different table in the design model…the only limitation being to view them one at a time, rather than side by side.

Let me know if you need an gif or video showing visually what I described above.