Creating New Materials in Sketchup 2017

Tutorials
, ,
1

I use Sketchup in my woodworking projects which for me has become essential to my work. With it, I am able to make very detailed models having precise dimensions and also develop accurate material lists for establishing project costs. I have 2D CAD software but I would much rather use Sketchup. It is easier to use, and there are tons of great free teaching resources available.

The models that I use for the shop are gray or whatever color is the default, but if I want a customer to visualize the piece I add some texture or color. Woodgrains and wood colors are preferred but few are in standard Sketchup. That set me on a mission to learn how to add new materials which lead me to a model in Sketchup 3D Warehouse containing woodgrains and colors.

But, how to get them into my desktop Sketchup? The warehouse entry did have a few comments/instructions, but it didn’t seem like any complete process was found. Using the many contributions along with lots of trial and error I have something that works and thought I’d share. My solution is likely not optimal and there are probably training videos all over staring a better or correct method. My instructions include screen-shots which aren’t allowed here, so I made a PDF and loaded to it Google Drive.
Here’s a link to the PDF which I hope will work. Create new materials in Sketchup from JPEGs

2

Your profile indicates you are using SketchUp Free wich is the web-based version. You can’t add materials to that. If you are using a desktop version of SketchUp, you can make all the materials you need. Since you are using it for your business, you need to be using SketchUp Pro, not SketchUp Make or SketchUp Free.

Your tutorial is interesting. I prefer to use much larger texture images.

3

If this is a tutorial it probably needs moving to that category too…

4

This topic was automatically closed 91 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.