How to change materials sample cube to rectangular flat image in SU 2025? I saw it somewhere, but can’t find anymore. Does somebody know?
At the moment there isn’t a way to make an advanced material show anything but that cube. There are plans to add other preview shape options.
For any non-advanced materials, those should show up as the normal flat image. If you are working on a model that might need a mixture of old flat materials and new PBR materials, you could go into Settings, Graphics, and uncheck the options to automatically enhance materials. Then those ones will keep the old rectangle thumbnail.
Ok. Those cubes make it hard to see what the material actually is.
That complaint has been raised pretty much since when 2025 was released.
I’ll amend that… I can’t stand the cubes! Please give me back my old material library…
This complaint needs to keep being raised until the issue is fixed. I like the idea of advanced material options, but I hate the cubes. There should be a toggle option: “A: see the actual material” or “B: see a stupid cube”
How are these plans coming along? The cubes are too small and vague.
The Windows version for 2026 does give you the choice of whether to show a rectangle or a cube. There is ongoing work needed before the Mac version will have that option.
OK, good to hear somebody is working on it.
If Trimble think it’s important to highlight which one is PBR (I don’t) then just add a small dot or asterisk in the top-right corner of that particular flat swatch.
I assumed it was obvious, but the primary purpose of a swatch should be to easily identify and distinguish different materials, i.e. big enough to see the wood grain and tell that apart from a gravel swatch or solid brown swatch. Currently it’s impossible to tell the difference.
These tiny cubes are useless, and the material names in the Sketchup Content Library are also not helpful. i.e. “veneer_01”, “veneer_02”, etc. Why not use actual wood names, i.e. “pine”, “oak”, etc.
You may have missed that my point was that the negative reaction to the change was immediate and loud, yet nothing has happened.
Hello. Is SketchUp still working on viewing materials as flat thumbnails for Mac? it’s honestly the ONLY thing holding me back from using the SketchUp 2026 version because it really is inconvenient. To be able to view materials properly and see the difference between them, I need to draw extra squares in my model and apply what want to view {takes a lot of time} I’ve seen the update for windows, hoping the one for Mac will also be on its way 
I’m uninstalling 2026 and going back to the older pre-cube version in the meantime!
I don’t see these… I built a template long ago (latest update was in 2024) and use that for the bulk of my work. I have the preference turned off to automatically update the materials and haven’t worried about updating.
Agreed we need the ‘flat’ option on Mac… but until then I will just keep working with library of materials.
yep, it has been mentioned and demo’ed that the mac version is (sooner or later) coming to a similar interface to the PC version. That’s why, for the past couple of years, no major update has been seen on the UI for mac.
but no, it’s not there yet.
yeah it’s a shame because the materials are the only thing holding me back from updating, I genuinely want to update to try the new other feautures, specially the updates to DWG files being shared etc. but gonna need to wait
hopefully it won’t take too long! Mac never gets too many updates, feels like Mac users get left behind often
well, that’s the cause.
converting 26 years of cocoa (apple’s interface tool) to QT (the modern sketchup one) is not a simple task. when they did it for the PC version, it came with a couple of years of buggy UI and massive complaints.
but because of that, most interface changes happening on PC have not been ported on mac, why spend time and energy on something about to get replaced eh ?
(yes on the principle, but I agree with you, it feels like being left behind).
Aside from the UI change though, the mac version is not left behind, we get the same upgrades, same new bugs. but it doesn’t LOOK that way 
FFS you don’t need to give AI access to your working computer to do this… lots of explanations on how to do this if you search.
Do you use Codex to move a file from one folder to another?
these ones were flat because they were pre-pbr.
materials that have not been converted to pbr still appear flat.
suheir’s issue is with the cube preview of pbr materials. what she talks about is the fact that on PC, you can right click on the preview and switch from default to either cube or flat. and that’s what I’m answering about.
also, no need to sell your soul and install a full blown AI tool to get the older materials.
they are here, in the official default material section in the warehouse. the one that you can reach by clicking on the warehouse icon in your material panel.
and if you have an older sketchup version installed, no need for codex or AI. copying from one version to another takes about 30-40s by hand.
@suheirElali If having the latest version of SketchUp is important and the thumbnails are the only problem, Codex could change the thumbnails to flat ones while keeping the material information the same.
