Trying to import photos or texture - seems like a very simple thing but having a lot of trouble!

SketchUp
1

Hello,

I have been using sketch up pro for just over a year now. I own a solar company and use it to model the houses we build arrays on. I used to work for a different solar company that had all of the solar modules created as components so they can easily be loaded into any model. I have to create all of my own components now, which seems like it should be fairly easy but I have been trying for a few days with no success. I understand how to create a component and save them, but I am getting stuck on importing photos of the modules to use in my models.

All I want to do is create a rectangular shape to represent the module, import a JPEG image of the module, and place it on the face of the model I’ve made so it looks exactly like the module the home owner is getting. I can easily make the shape of the module, but when I go to import the photo, whether I import it as a texture, or an image there is no way to stretch the image so it fits over the model. Ive included a screen shot to help better understand.

So basically I am wondering, how can I import a photo and “stretch” it to fit over the model I’ve created? Is it better to import it as a texture or an image?

Thanks

2

No screen shot shown.

Do you really want stretch the image to fit? Or do you just want to show more solar panels if the roof is larger?

If you only want to use an image instead of 3D components to show the panels, I would use the image as a texture and apply it to a face (not to a component or group). Then right click on the face and choose Texture>Position. You’ll get some pushpins that can be used to resize the texture to make it fit. If you right click on the face a second time, there’ll be an option to turn off Fixed Pins and you can then drag the pins independently to the corners of the region they need to cover.

3

Do you open your component when importing the texture?
Textures can only be aplied on face geometry, so you would need to open the group or component.

4

See this series of videos … Mapping images to faces by Aidan Chopra

Adding Photos to Faces

Moving, Scaling, Rotating and Distorting Textures

Stretching a Photo Over a Face

5

Thanks for the quick responses guys! I was able to figure it out.