Mac Materials Edit - SketchUp 2015

Hi, I’m new to SketchUp - I’m having trouble editing materials. I don’t seem to have a dropper tool and the drop down menu under ‘Colour’ is greyed out so I can’t edit. Any help would be appreciated - thanks!

Hmm…something strange going on. I don’t get the search bar your screenshot displays and I can open the Color-Edit selection. What tool is active and what is selected in the model (taking stabs in the dark here)?

One of the weirdnesses of the Mac materials window is that the eyedropper activates only when you have a material opened in the Color->Edit mode, and then only when the cursor is over the model view. The eyedropper next to the palette at the bottom actually opens a magnifying glass!

FYI as a newcomer to SketchUp, the Materials window is one of the most commonly criticized aspects of Mac SketchUp. It bears little resemblance to the Windows version and is both obscure and confusing in its operation. We Mac users have been begging for a rewrite of this UI for a long time!

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I agree that the mac materials window is one of the weirdest things about sketchup for mac. I use a PC at work and I’m familiar with how all those windows work well with each other. Even the behavior of the mac materials window is so different from anything else. Editing a color or texture is confusing, awkward and time consuming. It seems to me to be such a minor issue to be neglected for way too long. How about some consistency?

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Can anyone tell me how to edit the name of a material in SU mac?

I’m trying to use the Cutlist extension and it requires that the material have a name such as “veneer” or “Plywood” and the Mac version of the materials window shows no way of editing that. All references I’ve seen are windows version and there it seems pretty straightforward.

I am a new user, so if I am missing something obvious, please let me know. After much headscratching, I stumbled upon this page and the various behaviors of the Mac version vs the Windows version and now I see that it wasn’t just me.

You can edit the material name on the Mac. In the Colors window, first click the house icon to go to the In Model colors. Select the material you wish to rename and then in the Color drop down below, click on Edit.

In the Name window type the new name and hit Enter. Then click Close.

FWIW, if you only want to sort between sheet materials, solid wood and parts, you can give component definition names either sheet material or part words and they’ll get sorted. I make lots of cutlists and rarely ever use materials for those models.

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DaveR-
Thank you so much for your detailed explanation on changing the material name.

As far as your second suggestion, I’m afraid that would not work for my particular use. I’m trying to get the Cut List Extension to do the sorting for me. Here is the FAQ on Sheet Material words:

If one of these words is found as a portion of a material name applied to a SketchUp the component is classified as a Sheet Good. ** For a sheet goods to be recognized, the sheet word MUST be in the applied material name NOT the component name.*

The only words permissible are: sheet veneer plywood hardboard or mdf, and they must be in the material name.

See

Couldn’t agree more. The Mac Sketchup Material Editor is a mess

What about deleting a color list in the materials, deleted list keeps coming back… workaround. Even after CleanMyMac2 total cleanup of the app ánd app reinstallation the issue is still there

What color list are you trying to delete? If it’s an OEM list, SketchUp will replace it upon opening.

Experimented a little to get the Colors back sorted
was an outcome of one of my attempts

Duplicated ‘Colors’ > Colors (1)
Deleted Colors and Colors (1)
When reinstalling SU
Colors (1) appears
How can I get the name back OK?

it seems like your messing with App >> Contents…

a reinstall should fix it…

john