I am very new to SketchUp, and I come to it with a GIS/Image processing background. So, some of my workflow expectations reflect that background. I am using SketchUp for a model that incorporates a shadow study. To improve the look of my model, I imported Google Earth imagery through the SketchUp tool when I specified the location of the model for accurate shadow rendering. However. The brightness/contrast of the Google Earth terrain imagery really diminishes the shadow casting I’m trying to illustrate in this model. If only, says the image processing part of my brain, I could freely adjust the color/brightness/contrast/transparency settings of the imagery - then I could tweak things to look great, and accentuate the shadows. But I have no clue how to do this in SketchUp. Is there a way? I did a Google search, but I haven’t found anything to help me with this. I appreciate any pointers, advice, suggestions - or the knowledge that it can’t be done! Thanks.
Yes, you can edit the image from Google Maps after you’ve got it into SketchUp. Once you’ve got the terrain imported, the image will be included in the In Model Colors library. Probably the best thing to do is use an external image editor to modify it. Find it in the the In Model Colors, right click on it and choose Edit. The select Edit from the Texture menu. See below. It’ll open in your selected image editor. To set a default image editor, click on the SketchUp menu (left of File) and then Preferences. Choose Applications and select the image editor there.
THANK YOU! That helps a lot. I’m nearly there. (By the way, I am on MacOSX an using SketchUp make 2016). I was able to pull up the Gimp to edit the image as I liked, but I haven’t figured out how to save it and have SketchUp use the edited version. Gimp saved it and said it overwrote the original file, but even closing and reopening SKetchUp didn’t result in any imagery changes. What am I missing, to save the changes?
When you save the changes in the editor and return to SketchUp, the changes should show. Do not close SketchUp while editing, though.
AH. I see the problem - I had more than one image tile in the model colors. When I edited the one I am using, it did indeed update. Brilliant! Thanks DaveR.
Perfect! Glad it helped.