Each layer in the layer stack represents a slab of a certain material. There are several ways to 'fill' a layer with a material, either by  drag&drop operations or using function keys on the keyboard.

Drag&Drop within the layer stack definition window:

On the right side of the layer stack definition window you see in a tree view the available materials:

Clicking the + or - signs in the treeview you can open or close the individual nodes. The first node called Materials (this configuration) gives a list of all materials in the list of materials of your current SCOUT configuration. The second one called Materials in database shows all materials available in the database to which you are connected at present. In order to assign a material to a layer in the layer stack, just drag it from the lists to the right and drop it onto the layer.

In case you drop a material from the database SCOUT checks if a material of this name is already in its list of materials. If yes, this material is used and nothing is loaded from the database. If the wanted material is not yet in the list of materials, it is fetched from the database and entered into the list of materials. Note that the treeview of the available materials is not updated automatically, so the new material will not show up in the node 'Materials (this configuration)' unless you apply the menu command Update lists.

Drag&Drop from the material list:

For this method you have to open both the layer stack list and the material list. In the material list, point with the mouse cursor on the wanted material, press the left mouse button without releasing it and move the cursor to the appropriate layer in the layer stack list. Now release the mouse button and check if the correct material is entered in the layer. Each layer in the stack can be filled by such a drag-and-drop operation.

Keyboard commands:

If you have only a few entries in the list of materials this method is quicker and should be your favourite one. In the layer stack list, place the cursor in the cell that specifies the material of the layer of interest. Now press the F4 function key and observe that the material changes. By repeatly pressing F4 you iterate through all entries of the material list, and you can stop when the appropriate material appears. You can move backwards in the list of materials by pressing F5.

In the case of anisotropic layers, only the drag&drop assignment from the material list can be used.