How do you move a paint color from one SU2021 file to a seperate SU2021 file?
What I’ve been doing is importing a small component with the texture on it to the other file.
Thanks for the help.
Billy
If you are creating textures you ought to be saving them in a collection so you can use them again. You can create a local collection for your own textures and then drag textures from In Model to the local collection. I did this years ago on the topic.
Thanks Dave,
Looked at the video but not sure how to get textures back in from file.
When I save them they are Material Files (*.skm)
then no import for that?
thanks,
Billy
After you’ve created the materials collection, open the collection in the Materials panel.
OK Where can I learn about creating and importing in the materials collection?
thank you
Once you saved the materials out into a collection you don’t import materials into your model. You open the collection and apply the materials to your model.
You can also choose to add the collection to your favorites so they show up in the list each time.
I have created a number of collections. Some, like the Wood Species collection are divided into categories by species…
My current Pine collection:
FWIW, my thumbnails don’t look like the traditional square thumbnails because the texture images aren’t square. These pine textures are 10 feet long to use the entire board.
oops. @DaveR got there first 
the SketchUp help file will be a good start for learning as well as the Instructor section of the default tray. that said, you can import your component, then in the materials section of the default tray, select them and save as a collection.
in my example i created a collection called “0my” (zero so it sorts first in the list) and save (and add) materials to it. i can then select a material and apply it to a face, group, component, etc. no need to “import” it as you’ve already created a collection where you (favorite?) materials are stored.
Great Information
Thank you!
Dave, could you upload your species collection there… just as an example? 
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Question: Not to confuse the excellent advice you have gotten how to manage material collections. On a MAC one can use the eye dropper (modified paint bucket tool) in any open SketchUp window to load a material the pallet, and then change focus to another open window and paint with that material. Does this functionality exist in Widows? Not a substitute for proper collections but a good quick trick.
Hi Peter,
I appreciate the suggestion but I think I won’t upload my collection of materials.
Well, not for textures. You can sample a color from a different Sketchup model open in a different session but only a color.
It’s so easy to create a collection for custom materials, even if it’s really just going to be a temporary collection.
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Cool. No question collections is the way to go, just curious if that was a MAC only thing as I suspected.
I guess that’s a benefit of using the Mac-supplied color thing. Too bad it doesn’t allow the drag and drop thing for saving materials like on Windows (and like the Components and Styles panels work.)