Autotext feature to show the Material applied to a surface

LayOut Feature Requests
1

I was revisiting a topic that has been discussed since at least 2021 and thought it was worth bringing up again: the addition of an autotext feature to display the material applied to a surface. I apologize if this seems repetitive, but I believe it’s a critical feature for many of us working with Paint Suppliers’ color palettes to “paint” walls, doors, trims, and other elements.

Currently, while SketchUp recognizes these materials, they do not appear in a callout label. I’ve seen the workaround suggested by rtches, but it appears to be a bit cumbersome. From what I understand, it doesn’t automatically pull the material from the surface; instead, you have to manually insert (copy/paste) the text into the material attribute. If I’m mistaken, please let me know.

Given the importance of this feature for efficient design workflows, I kindly request that this be considered for the next update. It would greatly enhance productivity and accuracy in our projects. (ChatGPT made my words sound so nice :wink:)

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1 Like
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Hello all,

I have found a work-around based on rtches example: This ONLY works when you apply a Material to the Group and not to a “Raw” Surface within the component. In other words; the component should be with the Default colour only.

  1. make Component
  2. add Material Attribute > (Optional: Set to “Users can see this Attribute” Helps to verify it’s working)
  3. add Custom Attribute: SurfaceMaterial > (Optional: Set to “Users can see this Attribute” Helps to verify it’s working)
  4. Set Custom Attribute to: =Material
  5. add onClick Attribute then enter: REDRAW()SET(“SurfaceMaterial”,“=Material”)REDRAW() [I don’t know why I had to Insert REDRAW() front and back but it didn’t work until this was the case.]
  6. Apply a material to the component
  7. use the Interact feature to Apply Changes to the component
  8. Save file
  9. In Layout, Update Model then it should appear as an option.

Check out the 2min video showing this. Google Drive Link
| Dropbox Link

image

I still hope it becomes a standard in the next update and it can pull the material off individual surfaces within a group or component.

Enjoy

3

The problem there is it only works for components. When working with flexible shapes I sometimes find it easier to keep groups e.g. I might have a component, but it contains a few groups. The method you describe can be used to label the component in LO, but I can’t label the different materials inside the component.

Personally I would like to see SU & LO grab hold of the assignment of attributes and the labelling process to make both programs a lot more useful.

2 Likes
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Agreed

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