888 Sketchup: February 2007

LESSON 7-1 : Examining All Materials in Your Model

Examining All Materials in Your Model

Want to take a look at all the textures in your model at once?

You can do that in SketchUp. To see how, let’s draw a cube, add textures to its various faces, and then take a look at the textures in the drawing all at once. Here’s how it works:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button.
2. Select the Rectangle tool.
3. Draw a horizontal rectangle.
4. Select the Push/Pull tool in the toolbar.
5. Pull the rectangle up into a cube.
6. Select the Paint tool in the toolbar.

Selecting the Paint tool displays the materials browser.

7. Select a texture collection you like. In this example, we’re going to use the first collection in the Texture drop-down list box, the Bricks and Cladding collection.
8. Select a texture by clicking it.
9. Click a face of the cube to give it that texture.
10. Repeat steps 8 and 9 for all visible faces of the cube.
11. Click the Home button in the materials browser. This will display all the textures currently in the drawing, as you can see in Figure 7.10.

TIP: Too Many Textures?
Why are there more textures displayed in the materials browser than you painted on the cube? The answer is that the template we’re using, Engineering–Feet, comes with several built-in plain color textures to create the human figure that originally appears when SketchUp starts.

FIGURE 7.10 The textures in our drawing.

That’s it—now you know how to access all the textures in your drawing.

TIP: More Details for Your Textures
To see the name of the textures in your drawing, hover the mouse over them in the materials browser and the texture’s name will appear in a ToolTip. For solid colors, the RGB values (that is, the red, green, and blue values with a range of 0–255) appear separated by commas in the ToolTip, such as: 96, 96, 96.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 7-2 : Painting Objects

Painting

For example, take a look at Figure 7.1, where you can see a cube of wood.

FIGURE 7.1 A cube

Or is it? It certainly doesn’t look like a cube of wood. Now take a look at Figure 7.2, where we’ve used the Paint tool (the tool with the paint bucket icon) and painted the block with a wood texture—if you can see the grain on the various faces, you can see that it looks a lot more like a block of wood.

FIGURE 7.2 A block of wood created using the Paint tool.

That’s what painting looks like in SketchUp. You don’t usually just paintcolors, you paint textures, too. SketchUp comes with a large selection of textures for you to paint with—everything from wood to brick.

TIP: Texture Aligns with Surfaces
In addition, it’s worth noting that the textures you paint align with the surface. That means, for example, that when you paint a surface to have a wood texture, the grain of the wood aligns with the surface.

Let’s get started.

Using the Paint Tool

In the first task for this lesson, we’ll see how to use the paint bucket at its simplest, just bringing it up and painting some surfaces.

To get started with the Paint tool, follow these steps:

1. Start SketchUp. The Welcome to SketchUp dialog box appears. For this task, we’ll work with the Engineering–Feet template we’ve used in the previous lessons.
2. Click the Start Using SketchUp button.
3. Select the Rectangle tool.
4. Draw a horizontal rectangle.
5. Select the Push/Pull tool in the toolbar.
6. Pull the rectangle up into a cube.
7. Select the Paint tool in the toolbar (refer to Figure 7.2).

Selecting the Paint tool displays the materials browser, as shown in Figure 7.3.

The materials browser lets you select the material you want to paint with. By default, the materials browser will have a texture selected, such as brick.

8. Click all surfaces of the cube. This will paint all surfaces of the cube with the texture selected in the materials browser.

If you like, you can orbit and paint the back surfaces as well.

You can see the results in Figure 7.4, where the cube has been painted with brick texture.

That lets us get started with painting. But the default texture that SketchUp selected is probably not what you had in mind to paint that car or chair you’ve been drawing.

To see how to set your own textures, take a look at the next task.

FIGURE 7.3 The materials browser.

FIGURE 7.4 A brick cube.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 7-3 : Selecting Materials

Selecting Materials

Let’s say you want to draw a tile floor. How would you select that texture to paint it?

Follow these steps:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button.
2. Select the Rectangle tool in the toolbar.
3. Draw a horizontal rectangle.
4. Select the Paint tool in the toolbar.

The materials browser opens. You can select a collection of textures from the drop-down texture list box (next to the button displaying a house). Then you can choose from the following texture collections:

Carpet and textiles
Colors
Colors–Named
Fencing
Groundcover
Markers
Metal
Roofing
Sketchy
Stone
Tile
Translucent
Vegetation
Water
Wood

5. Select the Tile texture collection from the textures drop-down list.
6. Select a tile texture of your liking by clicking it.
7. Click the horizontal rectangle. The rectangle is painted in the texture you’ve requested, as shown in Figure 7.5.

FIGURE 7.5 A tile floor.

There you have it—now you’re drawing with textures.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 7-4 : Eliminating Automatic Shading

Eliminating Automatic Shading

You might have noticed that SketchUp automatically shades the objects it draws. So, for example, the top of the cube in Figure 7.1 appears dark compared to the cube’s sides. However, now that you’re setting your own textures and painting objects, you may prefer that SketchUp not shade objects automatically. For example, that tile floor in Figure 7.5 appears dark because of automatic shading.

To eliminate automatic shading, follow these steps:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button. This opens SketchUp.
2. Select the Window menu’s Shadow item. This opens the Shadow Settings dialog box you see in the upper left of Figure 7.6.

FIGURE 7.6 The Shadow Settings dialog box.

3. Set both the Light and Dark settings to 100.
4. Click the X button at the upper right to close the Shadow Settings dialog box.

Now the tile floor created in the previous task is not automatically shaded, as you can see in Figure 7.6.

TIP: Using the Sun for Shading
You can also simulate the sun for your shading needs. Simply select the Use Sun for Shading check box in the Shadow Settings dialog box.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 7-5 : Drawing in Solid Color

Drawing in Solid Color

Let’s say you wanted a pink circle. That’s it, just a plain pink circle. No texture, just plain color. How would you get it?

Here’s how (note that figures are grayscale only):

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button.
2. Select the Circle tool in the toolbar.
3. Draw a horizontal circle.
4. Select the Paint tool in the toolbar. The materials browser opens.
5. Select the Colors texture collection from the textures drop-down list. The materials browser displays many colors, as you can see in Figure 7.7.

FIGURE 7.7 Plain colors.

6. Scroll up and down through the colors until you find a shade of pink you like.
7. Click the horizontal circle. The circles are painted plain pink, as shown in Figure 7.8.

FIGURE 7.8 A pink circle.

TIP: Selecting Named Colors
Want to choose your colors by name, such as cyan, magenta, coral, and so on? Just select Colors–Named in the textures drop-down list and let the mouse hover over the color rectangles. A ToolTip will appear showing the name of the color you’re hovering over.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 7-6 : Painting Multiple Surfaces at Once

Painting Multiple Surfaces at Once

You can paint multiple surfaces at once, which is great if you’re trying to select from among different textures and want to try them all, but don’t want to have to click every surface each time you select a different texture.

Here’s how it works:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button.
2. Select the Circle tool.
3. Draw three horizontal circles.
4. Select the Select tool in the toolbar.
5. Holding down the Ctrl key (Option key on the Mac), click all three circles to select them.
6. Select the Paint tool in the toolbar.

The materials browser opens.

7. Select the texture collection you want from the textures dropdown list.
8. Select a texture of your liking by clicking it.
9. Click a horizontal circle. When you do, all three circles are painted at the same time, as you see in Figure 7.9.

FIGURE 7.9 Coloring three circles at once.

Now you’re able to paint multiple surfaces at once.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 7-7 : Creating Materials

Creating Materials

What if you can’t find the material you’re looking for in the materials browser? What if your material doesn’t seem to exist yet?

You can create your own. Just follow these steps:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button.
2. Select the Paint tool in the toolbar.

Selecting the Paint tool displays the materials browser.

3. Click the Create Material button in the materials browser. The Create Material button is the second button from the top on the right of the materials browser. Clicking it opens the Create Material dialog box, as shown in Figure 7.11.

FIGURE 7.11 The Create Material dialog box.

In this example, we’ll make a new material from a solid color.

4. Enter a name for your new material. In this example, we’ll leave the name Material1, the default name for the new material.

5. Click a location in the color wheel. The square at the top left in the Create Material dialog box changes to display that color.

6. Click the OK button. The Create Material dialog box closes, and your new material is added to the In Model collection of textures, as shown in Figure 7.12.

FIGURE 7.12 A new material.

Now you can use your new material to paint with as you like.

NOTE: Images as Textures
You can also use any saved image for the texture of the material you want to create. Just click the Use Texture Image check box in the Create Material dialog box, and browse to find the image file you want to use as your new texture.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 7-8 : Editing Materials

Editing Materials

Want to edit a material you’ve created? Just follow these steps:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button.

2. Select the Paint tool in the toolbar. Selecting the Paint tool displays the materials browser.

3. Click the Home button (the button displaying a house) to display the materials in your model.

4. Select a material by clicking it. This opens the materials in your model, as shown in Figure 7.13.

FIGURE 7.13 Editing a material.

5. Click a new location in the color wheel, if desired. The square at the top left in the Create Material dialog box changes to display that color.

6. Click the Use Texture Image check box to change the image for the material’s texture.

7. Browse to the image file that holds the image you want to use for texture and select it; then click Open in the browsing dialog box.

8. Click the Select tab. The edits you made to your material will be saved automatically.

In this way, you can make any changes to materials.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 7-9 : Replacing All of a Material in a Drawing

Replacing All of a Material in a Drawing

Take a look at the cubes in Figure 7.14, all surfaces of which are painted with bricks.

FIGURE 7.14 Two cubes with painted faces.

What if you wanted to change the material used to paint the cubes to, say, wood? Do you have to click each face of each cube individually?

No—you can change all occurrences of a material in a drawing at once with SketchUp. In this task, we’ll draw the two cubes and then change their materials from brick to wood. Here’s how it works:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button.
2. Select the Rectangle tool and draw a horizontal rectangle.
3. Select the Push/Pull tool in the toolbar and pull the rectangle up into a cube.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 to draw the second cube.
5. Select the Paint tool in the toolbar. Selecting the Paint tool displays the materials browser.
6. Select the Bricks and Cladding texture collection in the materials browser.
7. Select the Concrete Block (that is, large gray brick) texture in the Bricks and Cladding collection by clicking it.
8. Click all surfaces of the cubes. This will paint all surfaces of the cube with the concrete blocks.

Now we’ll change the material used in the cubes to wood.

9. Select the Wood texture collection in the materials browser.
10. Select the wood texture you like best by clicking it.
11. Hold down the Shift key.
12. Click one surface of a cube. When you do, all surfaces painted with the same material change to the wood texture you’ve selected.

You can see the results in Figure 7.15, where the cubes have been painted with wood texture.

As you can see, it’s simple to repaint an object.

TIP: Painting Adjacent Surfaces
You can also restrict the repainting to adjacent surfaces if you use
the Ctrl (Option key on the Mac) instead of the Shift key.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 7-10 : Sampling Existing Materials

Sampling Existing Materials

If you open a drawing that has materials unfamiliar to you, you can sample those materials and see if SketchUp can figure out what the name of the textures are.

For example, in this task, we’ll draw a cube with bricks on it, then sample the material used to paint the surface and confirm that it’s brick. Here’s how it works:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button.
2. Select the Rectangle tool and draw a horizontal rectangle.
3. Select the Push/Pull tool in the toolbar and pull the rectangle up into a cube.
4. Select the Paint tool in the toolbar.

Selecting the Paint tool displays the materials browser.

5. Select the Bricks and Cladding texture collection in the materials browser.
6. Select a brick texture that you like by clicking it.
7. Click all surfaces of the cube. This will paint all surfaces of the cube with brick.

Now we’ll sample a cube surface and see if SketchUp can determine what the material is.

8. Select the Dropper button in the materials browser. The mouse cursor changes to a dropper image.
9. Click a surface of the cube. SketchUp will determine which material the dropper has clicked and display that material, as well as its name, in the square at the upper left in the materials browser, as you can see in Figure 7.16.

FIGURE 7.16 Sampling materials.

It can be very useful to sample materials in this way to determine just what materials they are.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 7-11 : Undoing Changes and Canceling Operations

Undoing Changes and Canceling Operations

Paint a surface and then wish you hadn’t? SketchUp can undo the change.

In fact, nearly every operation you perform in SketchUp can be undone; from drawing a line to painting a surface, or even deleting an object.

To undo an operation, select the Edit menu’s Undo item. The operation will be undone and the drawing will be restored to its previous condition. You can also press Ctrl + Backspace (Option + Z on the Mac) to do the same thing.

What if you’ve started an operation and want to cancel it? For example, suppose you started drawing a line and then changed your mind, but the Line tool is still stretching a line from the point you clicked to the present mouse location as you move the mouse.

Just press the Esc key. That cancels any operation that you’ve started and gets you out of it.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes