Hi all, I need your advice. I created a three word sentence with a blank alpha background in Photoshop and saved it as a targa file to maintain that transparency. I then imported that into Sketchup Pro and saved it as a .skp file consisting of that one file.
My aim is to create and save that image as a texture file which I can do but by painting it on a blank rectangle, it then contains the rectangle. If I Push/Pull, the whole rectangle extrudes too. I just need to extrude the lettering in the word. The letters are custom designed by me for an airport sign. Unfortunately, it must be seen by SketchUp as a texture so it’s available when exporting as a .dae file for MCX.
If you can help me on this, I’d be very grateful. This is the final stage of a 6 month project and I’m well and truly stuck.
You could use Fredo6’s Pic2Shape or TIG’s Image Trimmer, both from Sketchucation to make actual geometry cut to the shape of the text so it can be extruded. Then make that a component which you can save in a component collection for future use if you need.
A quickie example using Pic2Shape. Original image on the ground plane.
Dave, thanks for taking the time to help me out. I’ve downloaded both extensions and will try them out in the morning as it’s almost 1am here. I think this is what will fix this issue…as long as I can generate the resulting shape into a texture, I’m good to go.
Basically, I need to make the image (as a sign e.g. ‘Welcome to Heathrow’) to a texture so I can then make a .LM file from that in MCX which then lights up the letters at night. The end product is in FSX flight sim. I’ve been working on this project since lockdown and this is the very last thing to do. I’ll report back.
Dave, Fredo6 Pic2Shape did the trick. I don’t think it can allow me to Push/Pull the image once the plugin has finished, I could only get the shape to make a copy of itself when trying to extrude. Still, I managed to get the textures from the image so just a big thanks for jumping in to help.
uhh, I haven’t tried it yet with Pic2Shape, but try exploding the image.
images are imported as images, something similar to a group, but not completely.
exploding an image makes it a simple face (with a texture), meaning you can extrude it.
It did for me. I showed that. You have to open the group for editing before you can use Push/Pull on the faces. Same as with any other group.
Thanks, managed to get Push Pull on it but for some strange reason, only after I’d put a paint texture on the face. Wouldn’t PP as a solid without the colour applied, only as two faces without edges. Anyway, all good and thanks again.
That’s strange. There must be something else about it that you’re missing because textures have no impact on the use of the Push/Pull tool.