Adding Materials. to SketchUp 2016:

Transcription

1 Adding Materials. to SketchUp 2016: How to Batch-Convert jpg image files into SketchUp material (.skm) files. 1. Do not have any SketchUp sessions open when doing the following steps. 2. Create a folder on your desktop called JPG Files. 3. Download and copy the material images files (3) from the MeetUp website and place them in your new JPG Files folder. (You can add any images that you may have also to this directory, see Step 6). 4. Also download the plugin massmaterialimporter.rb from the MeetUp website, and place it in the plugins folder of SketchUp 2016, in the appropriate path for your computer, using the paths below, for your computer (PC or Mac). PC-Windows the default location is: SketchUp 2016: C:\Users\YOUR USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\SketchUp\SketchUp 2016\SketchUp\Plugins Mac OS X the default location is: (Everyone s path may vary, due to restrictions, and password protections.) Version 2013 and newer: Open a new Finder window, press and hold the Option key on your keyboard, the click Go in the menu bar > Library > Application Support > SketchUp 2016 > SketchUp > Plugins Version 8 and older: [YOUR USER NAME]/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp #/SketchUp/plugins 5. After launching a SketchUp session, the material importer tool will be found under the Extensions pull-down menu. (Your SketchUp Plugins pull-down menu on your computer, may look different as you may have other plugins showing). 6. We will be using the JPG Files folder on your desktop that contains the various jpg files that we wish to batch convert into SketchUp 2016 materials (.skm files). Any folder can be located on your hard drive or even a flash drive to do this step. It is preferable that the JPG s be seamless. Seamless textures can be tiled repetitively both horizontally and vertically without producing a noticeable seam where the individual patterns join, although experience shows that a perfect seamless texture is a rare item. There are numerous tutorials on the Internet explaining how to make seamless tiles from non-seamless images. Doing so requires software such as Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop. Sketchup s materials have a.skm extension and are actually zip files. (Every.skm file contains other data such as xml files and images). 1 P a g e L a r r y Z e n t ( l d z e n g m a i l. c o m )

2 7. Now select the Import Materials under the Extensions pull-down menu. 8. Notice the title of this dialog box. It says, To pick this Directory: Pick Any Image File + OK This means to select any single file that is displayed in the dialog box. Navigate to the folder on your desktop called JPG Files on your desktop. Left-click and select an image (only one image is necessary to select), then select the Open button on the dialog box. 9. This action will import every jpg file in the folder into the current SketchUp session only. This may take a little time depending upon how many jpg s you are trying to import. Be patient. The first thing you will notice after importing all the jpg s is.nothing. You will have a blank drawing screen without a single graphic showing. Don t worry; all the activity took place behind the scene. 2 P a g e L a r r y Z e n t ( l d z e n g m a i l. c o m )

3 10. Select the In Model option in the Paint Bucket tool. 11. You should now see all the images of the materials that were imported into this current SketchUp session. At this point these textures are available for painting onto any faces in this opened SketchUp session. (Do not close this SketchUp session). 3 P a g e L a r r y Z e n t ( l d z e n g m a i l. c o m )

4 12. This tutorial is about converting and storing them permanently for use in succeeding projects. The previous steps (1-11), will only import these jpg s into a SketchUp session and that only temporary. It does not put them into SketchUp permanently. In order to retain these jpg s for use as a future SketchUp material permanently, it is necessary to convert and save them as a SketchUp 2016material with a.skm file extension. 13. To do this, left-click the arrow button and a dialog box will appear, Select the Save Collection as 14. A dialog box appears called Browse for Folder, left-click the JPG Files file folder on your desktop. Then, left-click on the OK button. This will save all the imported jpg s into the.skm format in the background. 4 P a g e L a r r y Z e n t ( l d z e n g m a i l. c o m )

5 15. Every newly converted image now resides inside the folder JPG Files as a skm file extension folder. 16. Select all of the skm files and copy them to path below into whichever directory you want them to show up on your computer SketchUp path. You can create and add any directories you would like, for instance Fabric, or Plywood and place the appropriate skm files in their appropriate directories. This will permanently add them to your SketchUp Paint Bucket for future use. C:\Program Files\SketchUp\SketchUp 2016\Materials 5 P a g e L a r r y Z e n t ( l d z e n g m a i l. c o m )