Ive resisted commenting on posts like this but since it was finally said. Keyboard shortcuts (hotkeys) are the only way to go to speed things up. Once a person gets used to shortcuts you forget what the icons look like or where they are. I found an inexpensive way to have a programable keypad,Check out matricapp.com it runs on an android tablet or phone. I have a cheap tablet and have created a numeric keypad and most used hotkeys in both SU and Layout. Gamers have some pretty amazing applications of this app but its easy to make something that helps SU.
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bring back the xp start button
This is a good reason not to install the latest version. It is incomprehensible why they would change something so basic. Like when they changed from layers to tags. They are still layers to me and in all other cadd software. I’ll skip the 2024 upgrade.
It’s a pretty poor reason considering all the improvements you would miss out on, in addition to the fact that the change is so superficial it doesn’t actually change workflow in a meaningful way. Same goes for the tags change, which changed absolutely nothing about how things work. It’s just a word, which makes more sense.
Keyboard shortcuts IS a better solution but it’s also a workaround to bad UI and an excuse to ignore bad UI. We can have both and it’s not asking a lot.
My eyes are also starting to go within the last maybe 2 years and I have gone with the larger fonts (and SKP 23 made SMALLER fonts than 22) and I hate that fact but it’s irrelevant to icons being better before and worse now in terms of actual usability and functionality. Being pretty or consistent doesn’t make it functional and just about everything related to architecture is form follows function. The current UI is a worse product because it is simply less functional and usable.
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Well put. Way better than mine. We’ll never know what prompted the change, which is unfortunate and indicative of a software provider that puts the needs of the user dead last.
Dave
so any typos are due
to large fingers & small keys.
They did it to synchronize with the new UI of the ipad and apple versions. I get the rationality but that doesn’t make it work in terms of practicality or make it a better product.
it was with the online version actually, and desktop was the one lagging out of all of them
You are probably right or maybe some combo thereof. I kind of consider the desktop version and then everything else in it’s own circle in the venn diagram of SKP…
Chiming in to second this complaint. The toggle options of look/icon readability seems like the least that could be done. I waste a lot of time interpreting the new icons over and over again. Yes, like another poster I know I could learn key commands. Maybe I will, but it becomes just one more thing I have to do versus relatively uninterrupted workflow previously.
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I actually like the continuity of the new icons but at the same time the color scheme of red and blue makes them too similar in appearance and I also find myself having to work harder to discern between them. Maybe my eyes are just getting older but I also feel like the monochromatic nature of the icons is also causing me more eye strain, but this is very subjective.
How hard would it be to provide a simple option to switch between the new and legacy icons?
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That is what Vray for Sketchup icons looks like.I can’t work with that and keep my sanity.
They have remained the same for as long as I have used V-Ray. If you don’t like them, why not complain to Chaos?
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Those are V-Ray/Chaos Icons, nothing to do with SketchUp/Trimble
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Yeah they SUCK interface looks rubbish
Anybody built a Ruby script to turn them back
It’s not that hard to change them without a script. I’m on mac so I can’t say how it works on PC but if you right-click the application in the Finder, and choose ‘Show Package Contents’…then you can navigate to ‘Resources’ and all the icons are there. In theory, you can drag and drop/replace this with the old icons. Of course the names would have to be the same. Note: if you’re editing the application contents, use at your own risk.
I don’t know about Mac but on Windows the icons now appear to be “baked” in for SketchUp 2025.
Prior 2025 (or was it 2024 – I can’t remember) you were able to do a similar thing as Eric outlined for Mac.
I don’t know about using a script for the tool icons but for the cursor tool icons the API method set_Cursor will not work with native tools.
My opinion is that the new icons and the UI in general look like a pair of washed (pre-worn) jeans.
Well now that you mention it, I did a bit of photoshop “Sharpen” effect and increased the vibrancy a touch…and they do look cleaner, to me (at least on my monitor / graphics combo)
Of course scaling of icons isn’t easy but I do often think that Sketchup’s look a bit fuzzy.