Sketchup Materials

[MattMoore]

Hi all.
Im just planning a kitchen for a customer in Sketchup.
They want an oak shaker style door.
But, I cant find oak in the colours chart?
Am I missing something??

CHeers,
Matt

 

[matt]

Am I missing something??

Yes - you are...

You're missing Oak in the colours chart.

I'll get me coat...

 

[LyNx]

lol

 

[MattMoore]

Matt, thanks for letting me know, I thought something wasnt quite right...

Problm solved anyhow, it seems you have to add in Jpegs to the materials file in the program.

CHeers all
Matt

 

[Steve Maskery]

Hi Matt
I forget the details, but someone here had a load of timber textures on offer. I seem to recall that it was a great idea, but it didn't scale up very well. Perhaps it has been perfected and someone recalls better than I do.
:?
If so, I'm interested!

Cheers
Steve

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Matt, you aren't missing an oak texture because it wasn't included in SU however here is a quartersawn oak material for you. I've already made a vertical and horizontal version. These cover most applications for the textures and save you the time adjusting in each model. You might have to try them to see which one is needed on a piece. You can edit for color as desired.

Save them into your Materials folder and then search for them in the Materials Editor to add them. Make sure to adjust the texture name at the top of the editor.

 

[Sean the amateur]

OK. I just have to ask. What is sketchup?


If it is a cheap CAD or drawing program then I am interested.

Sean

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Sean, cheap is a relative term. CAD it isn't. SketchUp is a 3D drawing program that was dreamt up by an architect who was frustrated by the complexity of the CAD software available and who wanted to be able to do an electronic version of sketching on a napkin.

Edited to add: it is less expensive than many of the 3D CAD applications out there and I think it has saved me money and time in wood not wasted.

Even though it is not CAD it is an extremely useful tool for woodworking related stuff. You can draw to specific dimensions and create drawings which you could take to the shop to work from.

Your drawing can start out very loose and sketchy and you can tighten it up later as needed. It is great for communicating ideas. You can quickly make changes as needed and because it can display in 3D you can show your client, even if that is SWMBO, what you have in mind before you start hacking up your precious pile of wood.

BTW, here are some examples of SketchUp drawings I've done.

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Dave

Your skill with Sketchup is just awesome.

Is the final drawing your own design for a Legacy mill?

Cheers
Neil

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Thank you Neil. As to the last one, no, I have the Mill and just took measurements from it. Someday I'm planning to build a cabinet or something to go under it and I was thinking about a torsion box base to stiffen it up. I've not yet built the cabinet, though.

 

[Neomorph]

After looking at the cost of the package I was dead set against buying it... that is until I started playing with the demo.

Now it's on my list as a "must have" as it's an excellent program which is not over complicated.

Only thing now is get the cash together to buy the sucker and at the moment I'm stoney broke.

 

[engineer one]

having tried many of the cad programmes,i have found that design cad is good, and inexpensive for a full programme.

what you will find is that as you get used to programmes you want more and more features, depends upon how much time you want to spend on learning it, and not on making things in wood. :lol:

but of the programmes that convert quickly into 3d, su seems to have some advantages over the others. its rendering seems heaps better, but i think for a material and cutting list i'll stick with dcad.

paul :wink:

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Fortunately, Paul, SU doesn't take very long to learn and you can make a cutlist from a SU drawing if you want.

 

[Nick W]

I have to agree with those who think that SketchUp is a Good Thing. Try the demo and you won't be able to resist buying. As for the price it is not as expensive as many CAD/Drafting packages. My only problem with it is the lack of good timber textures.

If, on the other hand, you want to go down the full CAD route then there is a family of AutoCAD-alikes that go under the generic name of Intellicad, with several developers offering their own versions of it. It is pretty much fully compatible with AutoCAD but much cheaper.

At the end of the day though, since discovering SU I have stopped using IntelliCAD in favour of the sheer speed and flexibility of SU, and I speak as someone who used to write heavy-weight CAD systems for the architectural/civil engineering market.

 

[Sean the amateur]

Dave,

Thanks for the info. I need to look into this


Sean

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Sean, glad it helped. If you have questions let me know.

 

[LyNx]

Using two sets of materials is not a good idea. It's best to use a single map and suit to UV mapping on the object to suit. This will come clear when you have a library of 3000 materials. Create the material once, with a vertical grain direction. This will help you out no end when it comes to amending visuals

Andy

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Using two sets of materials is not a good idea. It's best to use a single map and suit to UV mapping on the object to suit. This will come clear when you have a library of 3000 materials. Create the material once, with a vertical grain direction. This will help you out no end when it comes to amending visuals

Andy

Andy, I agree if you're going to have a gazillion different textures. I just use about three or four wood grain textures so it isn't so bad.

 

[Nick W]

Does anyone have any sources of decent tile-able wood textures, the locations of which they would be willing to share?

 

[syntec4]

Nick,
I've not figured it out yet, but I would like to create some of my own(textures not licenses). Do you know how this is done? I'm a newish user of version 5. Finding it a bit of a learning curve

Cheers
Lee.