Batch convert jpgs to skms

[adameee]

I have downloaded a handful of form font texture images that I would like to incorporate into my materials collection. They are all jpgs, and I know that to become materials, they must be converted to skms.
What is the most efficient way to do this?

[DaveR]

Are they all the same dimensions? Are they intended to cover the same area in the model space?

There used to be a mass material importer extension but I’m not sure it’s still available or if it’s been updated to work in current versions of SketchUp. I’d have to research that.

My preference is to import them manually using FIle>Import. I import as a material and apply the image to a rectangle that is the desired size for the material. That way I ensure they are correct from the git go. After I’ve imported the materials I either add them to a current collection or I save them as a new Local Collection via the Materials panel.

Edit: From what I can find the Mass Material Importer no longer appears to be available. The links I could find are all dead.

[adameee]

Thanks again Dave.
Follow up thought/question:
I’ve been using SketchUp for five years (came over from ACAD), and while I use it professionally, and love working in it, I have struggled to develop efficient workflows for collecting/organizing/using and working with materials. Even the terminology is hard to engage–textures versus materials versus images…
Besides pecking through the knowledge base and doing periodic deep dives (“Materials Monday!”), is there a book or other resource that approaches materials in a comprehensive, hierarchical way?

[DaveR]

@adameee

Even the terminology is hard to engage–textures versus materials versus images…

I think you could safely consider ‘textures’ and ‘materials’ as interchangeable terms. I guess materials would also include simple colors that have no textures, though. Still, for discussion, they can be thought of as the same. ‘Images’ would be the source files from which materials/textures are created.

As for efficient workflow for collecting and organizing them, I think the first thing is to consider not collecting them unless you have a use for them. No point having huge collections of materials you don’t use anyway. That just makes it harder to find the ones you do need.

As for organizing them, think about how you can categorize them. Most of the texture I create for my modeling are wood grain materials. I organize by wood species and in some cases by finish. For example I have collections for Cheer, Pine, Red Oak, White Oak, Fumed White Oak, etc. If I need to create new materials I’ll do as I described previously making rectangles that match the sizes of the textures and them importing the images. Once I’ve got the materials in SketchUp, I either save them to an existing species collection or I make a new species collection.

If you already have a collection to add to, you can open the secondary pane of the Materials panel, set it to the collection, and drag the thumbnail for the material from In Model to the collection.

If you are making a new collection of materials, you can go to the Details menu on the right side of the Materials window and choose Save Collection As. This works great if you want all of the In Model materials to be in a single collection. Alternatively you can open the secondary pane, go to Details and choose Open or Create a Collection. Create a new folder for the materials and then open that. Drag the thumbnails from In Model to the collection as above.

To further categorize your materials you can create sub-folders. In the User/AppData/…Materials folder I have a folder called ‘Wood Species’ and then inside that I have my folders for those specific species. You could do a similar thing for metals or roofing or whatever. This is my current Wood Species folder.

As for deep dives into this, I don’t know of any books specifically. I’ve been doing this sort of thing for a decade or more and it’s gotten refined as I go. I think it’s a lot like collecting hardware in the shop. I didn’t go out to buy a bunch of every size machine screw available. When I need something for a project that I don’t have on hand, I go out and buy them and if I need a dozen, I buy a hundred because it’s almost always cheaper. Then I file them into an organizer so I might find them the next time. I started with nothing and now I rarely need to go buy any hardware unless it’s very specialized.

[TIG]

My oldie “import from folder” [Plugin] Import ALL from Folder • sketchUcation • 1
SketchUp Plugins | PluginStore | SketchUcation
takes the chosen folder of image files and makes new materials using them…

PS: After you’ve made the materials you can tweak sizes of the textures.
When you are happy export the materials to a ‘Collection’, which then allows you to access them in any model…

[adameee]

Dave,
Thanks for the thoughtful reply.
My thinking has been that slowly building material libraries would mean I don’t need to go off searching for materials when I’m in the middle of modeling. But the hardware analogy is a good one (it’s how we have built out our actual shop!).