I am an architect, using Sketchup to create visuals for a client. Starting with a 3D view in Revit (2018.3 if it matters), I export to DWG 2010, then import that to SketchUp 2019 Pro. The imports in 2019 come in colored rather than with the default material applied. It’s particularly painful because it applies the randomly colored material to the front and the reverse face of all objects, so even when I have everything selected, I have to go ‘inside’ my walls to apply the default material to the reverse face as well as the obverse face. Since I’m importing something that has subcomponents, and maintaining them as subcomponents is useful to me, I also then have to go into every single subcomponent and apply the default material to both sides of the faces as well. This gives me no benefit, and adds noticeable time to my workflow.
Is there any way to apply the default materials to everything on import like it did in all previous editions? This new “feature” occurs regardless of whether I have the “Import Materials” checkbox ticked on the import options.
Interesting workaround, thank you. I just gave it a try on a smaller model and it’s definitely a LOT faster than what I’ve been doing. Not AS easy to do with a model that’s already got materials in it I want to maintain (like on other objects in the sketchup file), but I can always import the DWG into its own file, delete all materials, then copy it into the file I actually want it in.
So yeah - VERY much appreciate that improvement, but still I’d rather just not have the materials applied in the first place, if there’s a way to do that. =)
I think if I use the same color for every layer in my DWG, it will still apply a colored material to it in SketchUp (rather than the default material). I’m not sure the process of doing that or putting all geometry on layer 0 is faster than what you already suggested.
Well… it didn’t happen before I upgraded to SketchUp 2019. I’ve followed this same workflow a lot of times in multiple previous versions of both SketchUp and Revit without the DWG import coming in with colors.
In response to your question - the materials being imported are not related to my original. They relate to the layers in the CAD file from what I can tell (Eg. all windows are one color, all doors a different color, etc) whether I have different materials applied to them in Revit or not. Plus removing the materials from my Revit file (even if that were associated) would take at least as long if not longer than clicking through in SketchUp. See above reply in regards to homogenizing material or layers in CAD before import. Don’t think it would be faster than just deleting the automatically applied materials.
I was hoping I had missed a checkbox somewhere or something.
I am having the same problem. When importing solids from Autocad, they get imported with the ‘by layer’ color instead of default materials and doesn’t allow me to assign a material or color to the whole component but I need to enter in the component and doing it face by face. Is this problem above being resolved?
I assume nothing is being done about this. That’s how SketchUp materials work. There is a plugin “Material Tools” that has a command: “Remove from entire model” (every material) leaving them in the Material browser, then you can paint the ones you like. Or if you don’t want to use any of the materials you imported, first import to an empty model and simply remove all materials in Material Browser, in the pull down menu in the browser “List”, “Delete all”.