How do I open an SKM file on a Mac?
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Hello,
I want to open Rich O'Brien's transparent leaves sample on my Mac, it says to unzip it and add the folder as a collection but all I seem to get are exec files. Any suggestions please ? Thanks, Sally -
@sally said:
...all I seem to get are exec files...
Exec files? If I download it, it is a single zip file and if I unpack it, there are skm files in there. You should copy those skm files under your materials folder (wherever it is on a Mac). They are actually the materials.
If you want to see what's in an skm file, rename the extension to zip and open it.
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Hi Gai,
When I open the downloaded folder (suc-leaf-free) , I get 4 files with .skm, but they have black exec icons. )I think, having looked at a few topics that this is a Mac thing?)
Anyway, I changed the .skm to zip on one of them and it opened to give me a folder, and then put that folder into into the Materials folder in HD/library/app support/SU8/SU/materials, but when I use the paint bucket, the leaf I loaded shows as a material (suc-whiteash-1) but it is plain white in the display bar and paints as white. -
No, you should simply put the skm file (archive) into the material library. This is what SketchUp uses. I do not know why Mac gives it a weird icon - maybe it does not recognize it - but don't worry about it.
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Sally the icon you see is a unix icon, Mac uses this for anything it can't read otherwise. The .zip file should have 28 .skm files with unix icon. You need to make a new folder in Materials and call it transparent leaves and unzip to that folder.You have to Quit SU and restart for it to see them.
Walt
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Hi Walt,
brilliant, that did it, thanks
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Also... Can't .SKM files just be changed to .ZIP files by changing the extension to .zip and then opening them? If you actually wanted inside the file that is.
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To recap...
A SKM file is a Sketchup Material definition file.
A SKM file is a ZIP archive that just has a different file-extension.
Changing its extension to ZIP allows you to see what it contains - but the only thing you might be interested in is the res/Image file, which is there if the Material has a Texture; the rest of the contents are things like the Material's thumbnail used in the Browser and XML files that contain the Material's data - like Image/Size [if any], RGB, Opacity etc...
Placing a SKM file [unchanged] into a subfolder that is within the Materials folder [or any other folder that is in the Material Browser's search paths...] allows the Material that it defines to be displayed in the Materials Browser when that subfolder is chosen [like any other Material]; when applied to objects in the model that Material is added to the Model's internal Materials collection.
If you modify or newly create some Materials in a Model, then the Material Browser's pop-out/context menu options allow you to Save the Material[s] to external SKM files [as a 'collection' etc]: this allows you to 'make' a custom Material in a Model, then make a SKM version of it that is reusable in any other Model later on...
You do not need to 'open' a SKM file, just put it in a subfolder that the Materials Browser can see and it's automatically displayed - like any other Material...
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