I thought that it might be useful to write a fairly comprehensive account of how to import custom materials into SketchUp, so that they can be saved as permanent library files. It's a question we often get asked on FormFonts (I'm pushing for a skm slot, so that we can offer ready-to-go materials).
There are several ways to do this, including simply dragging the image off your desktop into the drawing area. However, this requires that you partially minimise SU...so that you can actually see the desktop...which totally screws up the tool bars, so I prefer to introduce the graphic via the Import menu....as an image, not a texture.
Having imported the image, you then need to correctly size it. Obviously, if it's something non-critical like stucco or grass you can probably just scale it by eye to match the existing content. If it is an image of brick or something similar then the scaling will need to be fairly precise, based upon the standard brick size in your part of the world. In the US that is likely to be around 2.25", in the UK it is more like 2.5" (65mm) allow about 10mm/ 0.5" for each mortar course. A quick calculation will give you the necessary height of the image, based upon how many courses of brick it contains.
If you are scaling an image imported into an otherwise empty file, there is no problem in using the tape measure tool to measure up the height of the image, overtype the correct distance into the VCB then hit Enter to rescale the model. If you are importing such an image into a file which already contains content then the rescaling will need to be done inside a group in order to limit the rescaling to just that element, not the entire model. The easiest way to do this is to draw a single line up the side of the image, then group that and the image together...then go inside the group and rescale the line.
Having got the image to the correct scale, you then simply explode it. At which point it will instantly appear on the In Model tab of the Materials browser. If necessary, edit the name of the material at this point. When you are happy with all its properties, you have a few choices...either you can continue to add more materials to your file, to build up a collection, then save the entire tab as a new library, or....
You can open up the secondary pane on the Materials browser, navigate to the appropriate existing library, then simply drag the material from the In Model pane into the secondary pane. If this was, for instance, Bricks and Cladding, then a skm file of the new material would be automatically produced in that sub folder of Materials and would then remain as a permanent addition to that library.
That's it...it takes less time to do than explain. By the way, the new format of skm files in V6 are actually just renamed zip files. That is where the image files themselves are hiding. The old style skms were located in the Library folder and covered an entire library of materials. They were just simple text files, referencing external images that were located in the Materials folder. The new style skms relate to just a single material and contain the image itself plus an xml file that deals with its properties. The Library structure is created simply by arranging these skms in the appropriate folder. V6 will read any sub folder of Materials as a library and will take any skm in that folder as a material in that library.
Alan
poster-Alan Fraser
