Most professional software now days, including 3D applications like Cinema 4D supports dark mode which makes it very comfortable and easy on the eyes.
Is there a plan to support dark mode in the next update?
I find myself that I can easily spend 10 hours using Cinema 4D without getting eyes strain, unlike the white interface of SketchUp, my 52 years old eyes get tired after about 2 hours! Most young people will not complain about white UI, but not the case with older people!
If I’m not mistaken, you want something like this.
The parts inside the document window are controlled by whatever style you are using. I’m pretty sure that Anoammar meant the entire UI of SketchUp.
We did recently add a dark mode option to the forum, I suspect though that adding it to SketchUp would be harder.
I think you would have to establish a general desire. I wouldn’t vote for it personally. I have to look at DWG drawings with a black background and I actually find it a strain when many line colours are themselves dark. What about just turning down the brightness of your screen?
I go all keyboard shortcut and fullscreen, so I have no UI at all. I also set the background to the same color as the bottom info line ( whatever its called) so I dont have to see that either. I can certainly understand one would want a dark mode though 
Rather than the default dark-interface in user’s preferences - [like your April 1st joke post] it is possible to force it in Firefox by using an add-on, giving a slightly better appearance…
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/dark-mode-by-albert-inc/ e.g. using Dark-invert#10 as the default setting…
Hi guys and thanks for your feedback.
Of course I meant a proper and official dark mode to the whole user interface. All professional NLE software supports it, and all professional color correction and grading software supports it, and all professional graphics software supports it, and all professional photo editing and painting software supports it. Also most professional 3D softwares supports it as well.
Here is example to some of top 3D applications in the industry:
AutoCAD:
ZBrush:
Blender:
Maya:
Cinema 4D:
Mudbox:
Rhinoceros:
Houdini:
MODO:
Vectorwork:
And of course, I am not asking to make dark mode mandatory, just make it an option so the user choose what’s best for him. And even better, make the the theme whatever it is light or dark customizable … a good example for such UI is in Cinema 4D.
Dark UI is healthier to the eyes and this is a proven science … please support it as a an optional feature.
simoncbevans, if it is offered as an option, what do you have to lose?
What do you mean you have no UI at all?!! You can not use the software without the user interface!
Which is what I do too.
Acad was the OG darkmode 
I remember from the development of Windows dark mode, the most difficult part was the icons.
Well maybe you guys are confused because you are still using the UI even when you are relying only on your keyboard! Your monitor displays information and the UI of the application which we interact with using input devices such as keyboards, pens and mouses.
Using a software without a UI is like using it blindly or with your display turned off 
They are not confused… They are trying to show you how it’s possible to get a DarkMode like experience right now. by using Full Screen and KB shortcuts to drive SketchUp.
The reference to not having a UI doesn’t suggest that Paul or Odd_Haakon_Byberg don’t make use of the UI… What it’s suggesting is that these guys are driving SU completely with KB shortcuts… and probably work a good deal faster than most other users because as you should already know KB shortcuts are kind of proven science for good efficiency… and they are a heck of a lot better then clicking on tool icons too initiate commands. One hand drives processes and the other controls geometry points… and there is no time loss by have to drag a mouse cursor halfway across the screen in order to click on a toolbar icon to select a different tool, only to turn around and reposition yourself back into the area you were already at.
So lets not get too disingenuous by pretending we don’t know what they mean.
But Hey, for that matter, I don’t think you need to worry too much about dark mode showing up either. It will get here eventually (no question abut it)… You’re not the first, and you won’t be the last person to request it. But it’s not going to happen until it works it’s way to the top of the priority list that the developers are working from.
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You actually don’t need to work this hard in order for the developers to take notice of a request you make around here. I made a suggestion one time… and not one single SU developer even acknowledged it… but I did get some push back from a couple of people in the forum who didn’t like the idea… and I wrote it off as something that will never happen. But as fate has it… that request managed to show up in the very next version of SketchUP, and no one said a single word about it… so go figure. They DO listen, and pay attention… you can count on it. In my case the idea was pretty simple so it wasn’t some big problem to sort out—and it found it’s way into existence within a matter of a few hours work I would imagine, so that wasn’t the kind of problem that took months to design out and test for.
For What it’s Worth… in case you might wonder if I’m friend or foe… I happen to like your other request very much… The one about Disabling the Z-Axis. I kind see it as more of a 2D Plane Lock but I also realize that you are talk about a wider idea then what I have in mind (in any event Rhino implements it very nicely, and people can access each of the major xyz planes independently).
And I guess even for Dark Mode, I’m okay with it as a useful feature. But, socially it might be fun to to see it disappear for a while… just to enjoy the collective uprising of a planet full of passionate computer nerds who couldn’t make it through to the end of the week without it… and perhaps right at the end, in the eleventh hour… it shows up again, and everyone finally gets a good nights sleep.
Just ignore these people Anomar. Around her we call what they are saying … (nevermind) . They are being very rude on something they don’t care about.
Thanks for your explanation, but why you are assuming I am being disingenuous?! Truly until now I still don’t know exactly what they did mean by not using the UI, and I thought they confused the input device with the UI! English is my second language so maybe sometimes I will not understand everything said in English, however I do understand that you can never escape from using the UI even when only using the keyboard! You are still looking at the UI after all, and although it is much faster to work using keyboard shortcuts, you still need the mouse because it is impossible to memorize ALL shortcuts unless you have supercomputer memory which is extremely rare. Also and to the best of my knowledge, I don’t think shortcuts are available for every single function in most software.
His reply kind of confused me when he said “disingenuous” 
This is my default (minimal) modelling set up in SketchUp…
But not this dark style.
I use keyboard shortcuts to summon up trays when required - of course the trays are not in ‘dark mode’.
All my frequently used commands / tools are shortcuts.
And curic’s recently released Pie Menu greatly helps.
I too am over 50
Hi, Anoammar,
I guess it’s about interpretation… For example:
When I read that last half of the sentence “so I have no UI at all”… I pretty much automatically start to fill in the missing word, and I just add in the word “visible”… and that only happens because I feel that it is implied in the context of the comment. It’s not even something I think about, I just understand that the spirit of the comment is that it would read something like one of the follow options:
they all mean basically the same thing… and if I were to shorten them to a minimal form… I’d just say it as it was written “So I have no UI at all”.
However, in a way technically you win on this, because you are right in a strict and literal sense. The original comment on it’s own does say that he has no UI… and that of course can’t work for all of the reasons that you have been pointing out.
But for whatever reason… I just fly right over all that… and fill in the blank because the overall discussion is about hiding part of the UI and showing SU in Full Screen Mode… and at that point we are talking about various forms of ‘visibility’… Tool bars that hide… modeling space that gets zoom in on. So I lock into to automatic interpretation mode without even thinking about it.
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The main exception I took to your comment… is that I DO assume the all users who run software primarily by KB shortcuts tend be more advanced, and more experienced.
Beginner don’t know what KB shortcuts are, and why they are so useful. And advanced user usually do.
If you think about it. it’s built into the very name… The so called ‘shortcut’ is a shortcut across the UI itself, or at least the graphical UI as it maybe should be called.
So, I’m simply giving the advanced users the credit of knowing what the UI is, because they know it well enough to understand that they can take a shortcut that speeds up their workflow. And in that sense I wouldn’t turn around and tell them that they might be confused about what a UI is.
The disingenuous term is that I’m also assuming that you know all this stuff too… and likely even more. So I was surprised, and wrongly suspicious about what you might have been trying to say… if one were to start reading between the lines.
You have to remember some of the subtle jabs that were made towards SU prior to all of this… How many times was it mentioned that other ‘Professional’ programs have adopted Dark Mode so therefore SU should to. Thats all fine, and it gets a pass if used once or twice. But when it gets mentioned much more than that… I start to see an undercurrent message that suggests that SU is NOT a Professional Program, because It’s not using Dark Mode.
So the combination of the two… is what I reacted to. And general personal shortcomings account for a number of misplaced sensitivities.
Anyhow, You are a nice guy Anoammar… and I don’t have a big problem deleting a bad statement out of my comment (just tell me what you want to see gone… even if it’s the whole thing, and I"ll get rid of it)… this is your thread and I didn’t intend to cause trouble… But I did intend to stick up for a couple of people who I thought were being framed in the wrong light.
It’s more than safe to say that they likely do know what a UI is, and they are probably not too confused.
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As far as your so called ‘English’ goes… Did you happen to notice how many times I edit my own comments? My post above it already sitting at 7 edits (and it will probably be up to 13 by the middle of next week)… and it’s not going to be too long before this one start to climb the ladder either… Yet somehow… if I take a look at yours I can’t find anything wrong with them. You haven’t had to edit even One. . . So I’m pretty much NEVER going to blame your English (that which is better than my own) for too much of anything… trust me on that. It seems to be very good.
Take Care,
Jim
I absolutely support a dark mode for sketchup, it should have been an option many versions ago… Obviously the current “light” mode should remain.
Now we are all mostly on Subscription, Trimble, show us how much value we are getting from this new payment method (as you have previously touted) and provide us professionals with a dark mode UI.
Previously I have resorted to using WindowsBlinds software which has worked quite well, although with some strange bugs and not all dark themes worked… For example, I had to reapply the theme every time opening SU, or there were some strange issues with dialogue boxes for opening models, and even with extensions such as flex tools.
EDIT: I should also add that personally I often work long hours, into the night, therefore my eyes would certainly benefit from a true dark mode interface rather than a workaround. Being able to change the background and face colours of any given SU model to a dark mode is something already possible using the Styles Tab, but only half the issue. I for one would feel much more comfortable working with a true dark mode that included the toolbars and menu system.
As for using Sketchup with a minimal UI, removing all toolbars, this would impossible for my own situation. I use close to 50 extensions on a daily basis, each of which has multiple options. Even with a 3D Connexion space mouse and CAD mouse, I would be unable to map every function I use on a regular basis without using icons docked in the workspace.
