Why don’t the Model Info and Colors windows behave the same as others (Components, Scenes, etc.) and allow themselves to be “attached” to the bottom of other windows and to be minimized like those others. They are regularly used windows in my workflow (especially the Colors Window) and they become clutter and it is inconvenient to open and close them during modeling.
Thanks, Carl
Principally, I understand, because Mac windows don’t work that way, and SU uses some native Mac windows.
Someone with more technical knowledge of Mac programming may be able to give a more detailed answer, or correct my assumption if it’s wrong.
Model Info is a preferences-like window for the current model. As with Toolbars and Preferences, it doesn’t dock to anything, not even on Windows.
The Colors palette is a macOS window, and not a SketchUp one. To recreate everything that comes with the system palette, just so that it can then be a SketchUp window, was at some point deemed to be too much work. Adding the custom SketchUp needs to the system palette was easier to do.
Thank you John and Colin. Not the way I would have done it, but then I have never met a program that was done exactly the way I would have done it (even ones I wrote and looked at years later! 
).
On Mac the materials window has had some short-comings-.
However, I thought it was by design that the window is different from other dialogs, in that it is meant to pop open when materials are being applied. It’s probably a good idea to become used to the key command (as displayed in the Windows Menu) to easily toggle it closed again when you are done with it (something I never thought to do).
Mac windows CAN glue to others, as noted, but the color palette does not. I use programs that handle color in different sorts of palettes and they act like all the others (if the programmer applies the glue-to /collapse and other functions etc… As Colin says, Trimble would have to design their own palette to get these actions. the “Fonts” window in Macs is similarly “special”, and runs by the OS rules, apparently not very programmable by the developers.
Also palettes CAN be put into “Trays” like in Windows machines. This is seen in many programs. I don’t know if Trimble is following some Apple protocol to avoid this, but I see PS and GIMP (for example) have no problem with it. Not all bad. There are trade-offs of in usage between the methods.
I’d just like to see a List view of materials window that is usable similar to the Windows palette (TIG’s plugin doesn’t do it for me). I am usually more interested in materials by name than by the little picture (sorting functions would be great too).
It does pop open when you choose the paint bucket.
Some things are done differently on Mac than on Windows, and there may be something that is easier on Windows, I’m not sure. On Mac you can use an image as the set of source colors. It would be nice to do that with the Windows tray.
This is a preferences setting: SketchUp->Preferences->Drawing has the check box for it. If unchecked, the materials window does not open automatically when you activate the paint bucket tool. The label on the checkbox is misleading. It says “Auto-activate Paint Tool”, which is not what it actually controls!
I wasn’t clear perhaps. I know how it works. I was commenting on the intent, and it makes sense for it open on use of the tool.
I always thought that it actually worked like that!
If this is true it is pretty depressing. I feel like that kind of integration would be the exact kind of thing people expect from pro software, especially now that it’s subscription. Cheers.
It’s two way. One way is that when you click on a material in the Colors palette, it does auto activate the Paint Tool. But, it does the other way too.