Create texture material from geometry

I am creating a pattern across a large set of surfaces. Imagine the love child of the Salvador Dali and the de Young Museums: curvy triangulated surface with perforated metal panels.

I've found a way to map the pattern of circles across a bunch of individual surfaces. I can apply the pattern to a few dozen panels, but it starts to get clunky. I need to do it to a few hundred. For that, I'd like to try to create a texture-mapped material on each surface so I view the whole thing more easily.

Any thoughts?