When I import my house into my topography file it is creating a new instance of the siding which is not the color chosen but the color that the original material started as. Any ideas how to fix it?
So half my house is green siding with the material name [Cladding Siding White]1 and half is white with the material name as Cladding Siding White.
Separate issue: (maybe related)
This is not the first time I have had sketchup splitting my materials and using this naming convention. It usually happens with [Translucent Glass Sky Reflection]1. I have not found a rhyme or reason except copying a group.
I have seen something similar, but years ago. It seems SketchUp can’t always distinguish an edited material from an original one, and falsely think they are the same. Component definitions uses GUIDs that regenerated on each small change, to tell SketchUp it is now a new component. Don’t know if materials also have GUIDs, and if so, if there is a bug in GUID regeneration.
@Barry, you are on the core team, right? Do you know how SketchUp identifies unique materials?
I have never used the external editor. Would that not create a new instance where it is in essence a new material? So theoretically it would solve the problem but maybe a problem for workflow?
The image in the SKM file doesn’t get updated when you edit it in the built in editor. If you edit the material in an external editor, the image in the SKM does get updated.
It wouldn’t create an additional material in the In Model collection. It would replace the image in the SKM with the edited one. This won’t have any impact on the material file in the Bricks, Cladding, and Siding library, though. You could give the edited material a new name and save it for later use if you want.
Not if you edit the material with the built in editor. As before, the image used for the texture doesn’t get replaced with the modified image if you edit in the built in editor.
Hm. I am not very good at the software/programming side of sketchup. It is convoluted and abstract for me. When I open in external editor it just opens in picture viewer. Do I need to open it with photo shop from there?
(Do you have a tutorial channel or videos. You should.)
In SketchUp, go to Window>Preferences>Applications and choose the EXE for the image editor you use. Then, when you right click on the material thumbnail in the In Model collection, you can choose Edit Texture Image… and it’ll open the image in the editor after you make the changes, save them and return to SketchUp. The material will show the updates.
Thanks. I do although I don’t think I’ve ever done a tutorial on this topic. If you think it would help, I’d be happy to show you “in person.” Drop me a private message if you want.
I think I understand that. This opens some interesting options. It does not override the original material correct? (I wont be able to mess up the default materials forever?)
Correct. You can only modify the In Model textures. And you can save the new material back to the library so you expand your library as you need new textures. Starting from that white siding texture you can create an entire rainbow of siding colors.
Separate topic -I think I got this one. It makes sense I feel like I should have thought of that but that is just not how my brain things. I would love if someone would do a video on how to make materials that are not super big for sketchup.-
I’ve done some things on making new textures. Mostly wood grain materials which involve using images of whole boards instead of the little square texture images that are usually used. The little squares don’t work well for textures that wouldn’t repeat in reality.
Sometimes it is necessary to make big textures. Brick walls for example tend to look fake when the pattern repeats too frequently. Much like in the case of the wood grain textures I make, I prefer images of large sections of brick to avoid the repetition.
