Changing UI / Toolbar colours

Aerilius

There are two ways:

The easy way is to use the Windows classic theme (which is vector-based, and in advanced appearance settings you can redefine background/border colors).
The alternative is to jailbreak Windows, install a system file (uxtheme.dll) that allows unsigned themes and install a theme from here (Win7 | XP).
This is system-wide and not application-specific (I don't know whether/how that would be possible, maybe Dan knows how).

For OS X, maybe driven knows how.

Dan Rathbun

@aerilius said:

This is system-wide and not application-specific (I don't know whether/how that would be possible, maybe Dan knows how).

UI interface elements are supposed to be styled on a system-wide basis.

Applications are supposed to rely upon the system to style the UI elements.

Why would application developers want to waste the time and money programming custom UI styling per user settings into their applications, when this is already a feature of most operating systems?

Why would users in general want to be forced to setup UI styling for each application?

The issues the original poster is dealing with are due to the Windows 6+ default UI theme (which tries to make the native system look like it's all webpages. I hate this myself. This is how malware fools people into doing bad things. I want to know when I'm on the web, and when I'm seeing a native interface window.)

I suggest the OP make complaints somewhere on a Microsoft site, and perhaps MS will get the message.

Aerilius

I absolutely agree with that. Applications should not mess around or fight against the user-prefered system theme. Applications that try to "look good" by overriding the system theme make the overall appearance kludgy, cheapish and confusing.

Some people prefer for some reasons (?) darker colors in photo-editing or multimedia programs. Some operating systems offer a switch so that an application can request a dark/bright variant of the system theme. But that all won't help for SketchUp here...

wenclav

Hello,

I would like to share my settings for GUI for Windows7/Sketchup/Vray/Ps. I feel what you mean and maybe you will find them useful.

As an architect, I'm recently responsible for modeling, rendering and post processing and those are settings born during my practice. First of all my main goal was to eliminate white stark skp glow from two panoramic screens I'm working with. I'm a big fan of dark themes almost in all cases. I wanted to create a perfect combination for OS and those three applications to make my pipeline harmonious and teardrop free.

Start with switching to windows classic theme as was said above. Go to window color panel and change almost everything to dark grey (in my opinion the best option is to take the exact dark grey color from dark photoshop theme). Leave active/inactive window option to black (no irritating gradient), all fonts and hyperlinks to whites or creamy whites, selections to oranges (somehow modo inspired). Tips set to white on black. You may also want to experiment with font sizes and types, I left them default. The only flaw I found is in vray frame buffers color panel. Grid for curves is invisible, they are set to dark grey by default and is not OS variable. But you can live with that once you learn them.

Second step is working on dark styles in Sketchup. I recommend  slightly modified Generic Cad style built in skp. Switch off the ground and make background dark grey (slightly brighter than toolbars), change the front color of faces to white and back color to any bright color you like (I use light blue). Change the lines for all model to black (white is sometimes disturbing imho) I also changed locked object styles to red. Grids for oranges. Thats all, everything works really great for me. You feel like working on one big application :smile: Hope you will like it.

Cheers

example

noro

@wenclav said:

Hello,

I would like to share my settings for GUI for Windows7/Sketchup/Vray/Ps. I feel what you mean and maybe you will find them useful.

As an architect, I'm recently responsible for modeling, rendering and post processing and those are settings born during my practice. First of all my main goal was to eliminate white stark skp glow from two panoramic screens I'm working with. I'm a big fan of dark themes almost in all cases. I wanted to create a perfect combination for OS and those three applications to make my pipeline harmonious and teardrop free.

Start with switching to windows classic theme as was said above. Go to window color panel and change almost everything to dark grey (in my opinion the best option is to take the exact dark grey color from dark photoshop theme). Leave active/inactive window option to black (no irritating gradient), all fonts and hyperlinks to whites or creamy whites, selections to oranges (somehow modo inspired). Tips set to white on black. You may also want to experiment with font sizes and types, I left them default. The only flaw I found is in vray frame buffers color panel. Grid for curves is invisible, they are set to dark grey by default and is not OS variable. But you can live with that once you learn them.

Second step is working on dark styles in Sketchup. I recommend  slightly modified Generic Cad style built in skp. Switch off the ground and make background dark grey (slightly brighter than toolbars), change the front color of faces to white and back color to any bright color you like (I use light blue). Change the lines for all model to black (white is sometimes disturbing imho) I also changed locked object styles to red. Grids for oranges. Thats all, everything works really great for me. You feel like working on one big application :smile: Hope you will like it.

Cheers

Very nice, but I have no idea where to change it . Could u explain it step by step plz?

noro

Could u share your settings?

noro

Ok, I got it - sorry, I thought it's somewhere inside SU code

Bob James

How did you get the SU toolbars to change?

jenujacob

@bob james said:

How did you get the SU toolbars to change?

yea... how u do that?????

Box

You have to change the style of your Operating System, it can't be done in Sketchup.

Vicspa

Can you guide us through it? let's say Windows 7

Box

Wenclav's post above explains how to do it.

You are simply changing the settings in a windows theme.

Right click on your screen and select personalize to get to the themes settings.

You can create a specific SU theme that you can save and switch to when you want it.

Vicspa

OK, I got it, thanks.

Bob James

@box said:

You have to change the style of your Operating System, it can't be done in Sketchup.

I did that, but nothing I did changed the toolbars. What did I miss?

Dave R

Bob, the toolbar buttons won't change with the themes because they are PNG files. They are like any other PNG file you might have on your computer and would be unaffected by the change to the background. If you want the buttons to match your chosen background color, you'll have to edit them.

Bob James

Thanks, Dave: Not worth the effort

Dave R

I don't think so, either.

Don't you ever sleep?

Einstein

I know, the thread is oldish but maybe someone will find my little research helpful. I found a theme based on Windows Aero which looks neat and it's quite dark. So dark that you may even find some icons hard to see. But anyways I prefer low contrast brought by this theme. A lot more comfort to the eyes. If you share my love for dark GUIs, check this out and follow their instructions:

https://www.deviantart.com/yorgash/art/Steam-VS-for-Windows-7-449032822