X-Ray mode > Amount of Opacity > Can it be adjusted?

[JClements]

Anyone know if there is a way to modify the amount of opacity used in the X-Ray mode?

John

[viperit]

I'm not sure in sketchup... but I have in the past done it by exporting a xrayed jpeg to photoshop and layered with a non xray jpeg and adjusted blending there.

[JClements]

Thanks for the reply, but I needed to adjust the opacity while drawing in SketchUp, not for output.

I am photomatching and the current opacity hides too much of the photo.

J

[pmiller]

About all you can do is to make sure that your transparency setting (in display style) is set to "nicer"

[Alan Fraser]

Another solution would be to fall back on the old trick used in the pre-photomatching days, before SU was capable of displaying a static background image. Do a Google search for Vitrite. It is a small, free Windows app that enables you to finely control the opacity of any window.
What you'd do is open the photo in something like the Picture and Fax viewer...maximised. Then open the SU model on top of that, reduce the opacity of SU until you can see the image clearly through it, align the two, make your changes, then add a scene to capture the orientation of the model.
If you then return SU to normal opacity and import the photo, the two should still line up pretty well, apart from a slight adjustment to the zoom factor to compensate for the different sizes of the two original windows.
Macs can do this natively, without the need for Vitrite.

[JClements]

Thanks for the tip, Alan.

Think being able to adjust the opacity would be worthy for the SU7 Wishlist?

[Howard leslie]

John,
See attached *.skp file
(Open Materials pallette once model is opened).
...
Another approach might be to define some new materials with various opacities.
The nice thing about this, is that different geometry can have different colours and different opacities and they can all be easily adjusted with the opacity slider for each material until you get the effect you want.
You can also leave some items solid if required (unlike using X-Ray)
...
Hope this helps
Howard L'

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opacity_various.skp

[Didier Bur]

Hi all,

@unknownuser said:

The nice thing about this, is that different geometry can have different colours and different opacities and they can all be easily adjusted with the opacity slider for each material

The trick could be to assign to each layer a transparent material (with the desired transparency) in the "color by layer" mode. Then you can toggle from "color by layer" to textured mode, faking X-ray mode...

[JClements]

Ah, Didier, that is even a more efficient way to assign tranparency.

Also, I use groups on just about everything and once you are inside a group the the display of bitmaps "behind" may not be viewable.