Transparent backgrounds

johnjuan · 19 Aug 2008, 14:27

Hello,

I'm using the free downloaded version of SketchUp and when if I export to Photoshop as a 2D Model I don't have 1) the option to make the drawing a tif file (it can be a jpeg though) and 2) I'm not finding the option to export with transparent background. Is there a way around this?
Thanks for your help, Juan

Chris Fullmer · 19 Aug 2008, 14:32

I think that there is no way to do this in SU on a PC, though I kind of think that a Mac will do it. But I'm a PC guy and I have never tried it on a Mac, I've just heard people say it works (I think).

I generally set the sky and ground to solid colors (likw white) and then export my image and use the magic wand to seles out all the white sky and then delete it. That's always worked pretty good for what I need.

Chris

remus · 19 Aug 2008, 14:32

I dont think theres a way to export with a transparent background from within SU, but if you make the background one (particularly lurid) colour, you can then easily select and delete it in photoshop. Oh, and dont forget to turn of the SU sky/ground, depending on which bits you want to replace.

If your looking for a lossless format to export form SU (as i believe tif is) then you could try .png, its always worked pretty well for me.

johnjuan · 19 Aug 2008, 14:46

Thank you so much for the help.
One last question, though, where is the sky/ground setting found?
Gracias amigos, Juan

remus · 19 Aug 2008, 14:58

window->styles->edit, then flick through the options until you get some little checkboxes that say 'sky' and 'ground'

johnjuan · 19 Aug 2008, 15:14

Thanks again Remus and all for your help.
SU is a terrific program and this is a great forum.
Regards, Juan

DavidBoulder · 19 Aug 2008, 15:59

Yes on a mac if you export to PNG and dont' have sky or ground turned on then the background is transparent.

Here is something you may try on PC. On mac if I drop model into Layot witout sky or ground and export as a PDF (which I then open in Photoshop) I get the same results. May be worth a test. Don't see any reason why that won't work on PC. Someone should give it a try.

To be honest even as slow as Layout is in its current state, I use it for my exports to save time (since i often need multiple exports at same time) and to make keep consistant regardles of who is working with the files (export aspect ratio not dependedn upon screen/window aspect ratio)

Chris Fullmer · 19 Aug 2008, 16:24

Ahh, excellent Dave. I tried it and it totally works. I might have to actually use Layout now.

So there you go JohnJuan, take the model into Layout and it exports from their with transparent background. Excellent

Chris

Gaieus · 20 Aug 2008, 02:51

@davidboulder said:

...Here is something you may try on PC. On mac if I drop model into Layot witout sky or ground and export as a PDF (which I then open in Photoshop) I get the same results. May be worth a test. Don't see any reason why that won't work on PC. Someone should give it a try...

Note that you also have to make sure to set the background to white for this to work. Then you can even rename the layout fileto zip and find the transparent png image inside.

@chris fullmer said:

...So there you go JohnJuan, take the model into Layout and it exports from their with transparent background. Excellent

Chris

No Chris, he says he uses the free version (withoutLO).

Chris Fullmer · 20 Aug 2008, 02:59

Ahh, true. If he is using the free version he won't have LO. Oh well. There is always the magic wand in photoshop or whatever photo editor you like. There are good free online photoeditors you can use now too.

I'm still baffled why SU on a PC won't export a transparent png file automatically. I was always under the impression that it was something that the Mac OS facilitated. But now that I know LO does it automatically, it seems like SU should too.

Chris