I'm talking to a client (tiles manufacturer) who is looking at going Revit with his product. I'm trying to present him with the most efficient solution to get that done, and from what I've learned working for other companies, the best solution was to create a Revit project file with multiple surfaces (let's say default floors 1x1 meter). Each of the floor will have one type of tile material applied, so the user who downloads the file from manufacturer's website will be able to select the material based on its appearance. Some companies had also 3d text modeled under each sample, so the code/name of the material is also visible in 3D view.

Question - is that the best solution for creating materials library, or you have come across something better?

Also, is there a way to "hard-insert" materials to the file, or it would require separate folder with all the materials (jpg / png) stored there, that end-user will need to keep in the project folder in order to use materials?

Cheers!