Hi, I am brand new to SketchUp and work on a Mac. There are amazing YouTube videos that can get you so far, but leave the Mac user at a loss with materials and their importation to what is listed as the color dropdown menu. I found that you can import materials into the open cutlist extension from the 3d warehouse very easily. I would like to take advantage of these pre-made materials by lifting them from the objects in the warehouse to the color dropdown. Thanks for you help
A few things in the Materials Tray in Windows are different to how the same thing works in the Colors palette on Mac. In general you could search for videos and only watch the ones that were recorded on Mac.
But, for what you’re trying to do there is an easier solution:
Collin, thanks so much for the quick reply!
That is great for an individual situation, what I would also like to know is how to save that material in the colors palette. could you show me how that could be done? also perhaps how to delete materials from there as well.
All of this video is worth watching, but around 2:20 he gets into the topic of how to save materials into your own custom collection (which is referred to as a List within the Colors palette):
At one point he shows the Finder location of where the materials are stored. He misses the tilde character in the path, so where he says:
/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 2020/SketchUp/Materials
he means:
~/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 2020/SketchUp/Materials
Again Colin, thanks so much. Very helpful. This video spoke quite a bit about editing existing materials and working within the interface. All very useful for me and lack of knowledge. Do you know how I can import a material from the SketchUp 3d library to my color palette? I didn’t notice anything that would lead me that way.
If you mean that you want to take a particular material that is in one of the built in lists, and have it in your own custom collection, he did show that. Get to where the one you want is showing, single click on it, and it will appear as the swatch icon in the lower left of the palette. Select your customer materials entry from the list, and drag the swatch icon into your collection.
One thing he didn’t show is how you would edit the bitmap of a material. To do that, select the Edit option and in the edit area you see a button that you can click to then open the image in another program. Which program it will be is set in Preferences, Applications.
I want to add materials that are not in any of the lists to a list. thanks
Open a new file, delete the scale figure and purge the model ([menu]Window->Model Info->Statistics->Purge unused)
Create some rectangles, goto the 3D warehouse and search for models/ Material names.
Click on one of interest and then check Materials on the lefthand side in the Model Info.
It will fill your bucket with the chosen material.
Repeat for others and then duplicate the ‘in model’ list.
Different answer to Mike’s…
In the In Model materials, right-click in an empty space, choose New Texture… Choose the external image file you want the material to look like. In the next dialog give it a sensible name, and enter a width and height value for what that image represents, then click Ok.
You now have that image as a material, and when you use the paint bucket the image will tile at a size based on how big you said it should be.
Thanks Mike and Colin. I have let go using 3D as a source for material textures. Colin I used the new texture method and was successful in adding something new. I downloaded a high quality photo of hickory grain and used that. It is however so distorted when added as to be indistinguishable
as woodgrain. I tried making the size large and small each have the same poor quality. Is this pretty much what Sketch up is capable of or is there something I can do better in my process?
The standard pixel size that SketchUp renders is 1024x1024. If you set the [menu]SketchUp->Preferences->OpenGl to ‘Use maximum texture size’ it renders 2048x2038.
A 300 dpi A3 needs about 3500x5000 pixels.
Can you say what you mean when talking about ‘3D’ as a source? Is there a link to the texture you were testing on?
Thanks Mike, The multisample anti-aliasing is set at 8. will changing this affect my rendering quality? There seems to be no difference after changing this. Upon looking at this texture after added to my rendering vs a stock wood grain, it is obvious that the SU has vastly magnified the grain to such as extent that it is beyond recognition. The sock grain which looks like a cherry plywood is pretty good, so there must be something different about it’s file compared to my downloaded photo of the hickory.
Colin, I was referring to SU 3D Warehouse.
Sorry clarification There seems to be no difference after changing use maximum texture size
Well, it won’t interpolate non existing pixels, @colin has an app for that in Adobe, I believe.
So it depends on the material that is imported and the size it is scaled (rightclick on the face that holds the texture and choose ‘Texture’ to see it’s proportions.
The sides look like you have the width and height values set to something huge. Can you include the original texture image, and your SKP, in your reply?
So grateful for the help guys, I have and appointment in few minutes so will join you here later.
OK, Heres where I am right now. I have found some images on the web that seem to be tailored for SKP. Take a look at the new version of my vent cover if you would. can you see how the grain on the short sides is running with the plywood instead of the board on which it is located. Can that be changed? Thanks
