[Plugin] GlobalMaterialChange v1.4 20110525

JClements

Excellent!

Something like this has been on my wishlist for quite a while. I have tons of nested groups in my models and I initially color code geometry by their structure or mechanical function as I develop a model. The colors are bright and contrasting to make identification and discussion of the model with colleagues or clients (especially those in remote locations) easier; however, for final rendering the colors are usually changed; that is drudgery.

This script will allow me to use colors in a manor more like styles. If I prefix a functional discription to the color name at the start of making a model, then that will make the script even easier to use.

AcesHigh

TIG, very nice plugin... I was just needing it.

Some suggestions... I have a LOT of materials. When the list of materials appear (when selecting one with your plugin) the list doesnt fit on the screen... and there is no option to scroll up or down... nor to see the materials.

I wonder if you could make it just like the materials screen... where you can SEE the materials, and also scroll up and down the list.

If thats not possible, would it be possible to be able to use the eyedropper tool while in your plugin? So I can just select the materials (the one replaced and the one that will replace) instead of having to remember the name of each material.

thanks

TIG

This tools uses the standard input-box. It would need to be rewritten with a web-dialog - which is at the end of a v_e_r_y long list... as is any 'eye-dropper' solution...
Foe any standard input-box, to get at things not shown on screen, type the first letter of the material, e.g. w and the list will jump to the first item starting with w, e.g. 'Wheat', then use the up/down arrows to move to the required material e.g. 'WhiteStuff'... best fix currently available, sorry - but it is 'free'...

ledisnomad

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to bring it back... I work on a team and our models get messy. We work on individual pieces, then reload the component in a base model. Even if materials are named the same thing, we get duplicates. After awhile, nobody knows what is what.

The GlobalMaterialChange script works well to a certain point, but with our heavy model, doing a single swap can take 5 minutes. With over 70 materials, that's half a day's work. Anybody have a way to do this in batches? We could just delete all the materials and start again, but that's not a viable, reusable solution.

Any thoughts?

bagatelo

@ledisnomad said:

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to bring it back... I work on a team and our models get messy. We work on individual pieces, then reload the component in a base model. Even if materials are named the same thing, we get duplicates. After awhile, nobody knows what is what.

The GlobalMaterialChange script works well to a certain point, but with our heavy model, doing a single swap can take 5 minutes. With over 70 materials, that's half a day's work. Anybody have a way to do this in batches? We could just delete all the materials and start again, but that's not a viable, reusable solution.

Any thoughts?

I think this is very useful:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=26013
If someone can consider my suggestion in last thread can be very better.

dlong

I can't tell who impresses me more: Google for letting the free Sketchup use these Ruby scripts, or TIG for coming up with EXACTLY what I needed for today. Thank you a million for a script that works exactly as advertised.

I'm on a Mac and running the just-released 8.0.4810 and this script made it a snap to swap out a material. Thanks again.

jster

Thanks for the very useful tool!!

TIG

Here's an update http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=96863#p96863
If you run it without anything selected it will now change the materials of everything in the model, including inside ALL groups or definitions - even if they are unused [i.e no instances placed]...

irwanwr

i just downloaded this plugin. i hope i know how to use it.
thank you very much for this one. i've been looking for something like this quite a while.
it might help me reduce file size significantly to save.

TIG

Also look for MaterialConsolidator and similar tools...

irwanwr

@tig said:

Also look for MaterialConsolidator and similar tools...

yes, of course. certainly. thank you

Dimethil

I love this plugin, thanks.
(it saved my life ^^)

DDrock

Sir let me know how to install it.. do i simply paste it sketchup folder?? dont have exact idea.. thank you

TIG

@ric

Find and read the several tutorials on how to install various kinds of Plugins.
http://sketchucation.com/resources/tutorials/37-beginner/108-installing-sketchup-plugins
There are other useful guides in that section too...

In synopsis...
A simple .rb [like this one] just needs to be put into the Plugins folder and SketchUp restarted.
Then you use it as instructed...
You will need to set your Plugins folder's security permissions to FULL [Properties>Security>Edit>FULL>Apply/OK] - by default Windows sets restricted permissions [for everyone, including admins] for all such folders with the Program Files folder.

FYI...
ZIPs need the files/subfolders extracting and moving into the folder keeping them in the same relative relationships...
RBZs need installing using >=v8 Preferences>Extensions>Install... button - if you don't have that button update your v8 to the newest release, OR get v2013?
You can rename a RBZ with a final .ZIP and treat it like a ZIP archive - IF you are a masochist !

OR even easier...
Nearly all of the Plugins with threads on SketchUcation are available in the SketchUcation PluginStore - open its page through the Resources menu above... Get the RBZ and manually install it...
You can even install the SketchUcation Plugin Store Toolset from there [or from its own dedicated link] - this displays all of the available Plugins in a dialog within SketchUp and AutoInstalls them for you without you ever having to worry about where the Plugins folder is etc... [provided of course that you have set permissions to FULL!]

pilou

A little Question

When you apply a Texture to the "external" faces of a component the instances are not changed!

When you apply a Texture "inside" a component (or an instance) all faces of Components are changed!

How automate the process when you Pick the texture of the "external" face of the component for have the second result ?

mprose7

Is there chance to add auto function which would change all 'mat1', 'mat2', 'mat3' to 'mat', since sketchup automaticly add number to 'mat' if i import models with identical named mats but changed color. example: i copy window from other model, it has material named glass, but it is a bit more blue than glass from scene and now i have material glass and glass1 in scene...

TIG

If you run this code snippet in the Ruby Console, then all matching materials are equalized 'by name'.
So in the example patt='glass' - it then resets the RGBA/texture of 'glass1', 'glass2' etc.
Then you can use my MaterialConsolidator plugin to compact all of the model's materials which have exact matching RGBA/texture into just one material...
http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=materialconsolidator

# !!! Use with care - all materials starting with 'patt' take its color/transparency/texture/size etc.
patt='glass' #change as desired
model=Sketchup.active_model
mats=model.materials
mat=mats[patt]
unless mat; puts "NO material named '#{patt}'"; return nil; end
col=mat.color
r=col.red
g=col.green
b=col.blue
c=Sketchup;;Color.new(r,g,b)
a=mat.alpha
t=mat.texture
model.start_operation('mat_equalizer',true)
if t; f=File.join(Sketchup.temp_dir,File.basename(t.filename)); t.write(f); h=t.height;w=t.width ;end
mats.each{|m|p m.name; next unless m.name=~/^#{patt}/; m.color=c;m.alpha=a; if t; m.texture=f; m.texture.size=[w,h]; end }
model.commit_operation
#use material consolidator to get just one material after this...

mprose7

Is there any option to automate this process - can script automaticaly search materials like glass, glass1, glass2; chrome, chrome1, plastic, plastic1, etc
And then consolidate with consolidate plugin??

JClements

November 20,2022
It has been a while since the last posting and SU2022 is the current version.

Any reason this should not work or is there anything in the current ruby version that could improve the performance of the plugin?

I have found that it does not seem to work properly if the selection of objects contains copies of groups or components. This behavior occurred in tests with both SU2017 and SU2022.

Please see the attached example which I used for testing.

test (Su 2017).skp

TIG

Copies of groups are pretty much like copies of component-instances, BUT if you edit [open] a copy of a group then SketchUp always automatically makes it unique [even if you do nothing in the edit-context] - this is unlike a component-edit operation... with components you must choose to 'make unique' which will then limit any changes you make to only that new definition's instances' entities.
Any materials edited inside an edit-context are shown in all of the instances of that component - so if you only want to change one of them you must choose 'make unique' from that instance's context-menu before choosing to edit it...
This is unlike if you add materials to the 'container' itself [i.e. group or component-instance] then these are only applied to just those specific 'containers', however, unlike textured materials on faces, you cannot 'adjust' textured materials on 'containers' using the native context-menu item. But solid colors work fine... This limits the usefulness of this approach as with roof tiles or sidings etc you probably want to adjust the textures location of orientation etc...