Just an idea...
Tech Smith gave away version 7 of their Snag-It program (still available here and there). It seems to be quicker using it to grab a texture, save as a jpeg, then import into SU instead of using using Photoshop. It's built-in pop-up window makes precision selections very easy.

Other screen capture programs with an area selection option should work as well.

For what it's worth.

m

LOL!
That's a good one Boofredlay.

I was creating a 4' cube and applying the textures to it, two of the faces were correct but the others were not, and this bugged me. It would seem logical to for a texture to have a default corner to start from (for each face), but as you say that doesn't appear to be the case.

So for those textures that need to be perfect at least the adjustment can be made.

Thanks once more.

m

Ok, What doesn't work now is the origin point of the texture.
When I import the texture and apply it to a face it does so correctly; I pick the lower left corner, drag horizontally then tpye in the scale number in the VCB. All is well.
Then I right click on the material icon in the materials in model window, then click save as and save the texture as a skm file. Then I refresh the materials browser and the new material shows up.

Here is the problem: If I now pick that newly created material and apply it to another face, the origin point is not the same, it's kicked over several inches. I can right click the texture, select position and see the correct end point and then move the texture.

But why is it screwing up? Is there another subtle key I'm missing?

This texture stuff is too freakin' difficult!

m

Boofredlay,
That one did it! The missing key was "drag along the bottom". I was dragging diagonally.

Now the scale works!

Thank-you for your perseverance.

m

Boofredlay,
The scale thing isn't working. I count the bricks in a horizontal course, multiply that times 8" and enter the resulting number in the VCB. Then I pull a guideline from the corner 8" and they do not match. The brick are twice as long as they should be. So I check the dimension vertically by pilling a guideline up from the bottom and the scale is wrong vertically also.
So evidently the scale of the image is wrong or something else is wrong. Maybe the Acme brick aren't standard brick.
The bottom line: 'it don't work'.

m

Thank-you much for your kind help.
There is something going on with the scale. When I set the import as a multiple of 8" it's way off, much too large. The brick are twice the correct size.
It seems to have something to do with the image size reduction in PS because when I use different numbers for the width it seems to change the scale of the import. My units in PS are set to inches, does this affect it? What width should be used? Is it based on the number of brick or is it a "pick from the sky" number?
In SU I end up having to set guidelines and stretch the import until it matches up with a guildeline. This gives all kinds of numbers in the VCB.

Also the origin point isn't consistent. If I draw a 4'x4'x4' cube and apply the texture it seems to default to a center point for the texture. For masonry this is wrong, the corners are not right. The texture needs to start from a corner, not the middle. Can this be done without having to right click the texture and moving it for every face?

And then when I select the image in the materials box, right-click on it and select save-as to make the skm file it doesn't save it at the same scale it was applied as. The scale is different on subsequent surfaces when the new texture is applied. How to correct this?

So 3 questions:

1. How to get the correct scale/image size for the import, and
2. how to set a relevant origin point, and
3. how to create the skm file so the scale of the import is retained.

In todays software world this really ought to be a drag-n-drop onto a template that can be resized if needed. Save it as a new name and go to the next one.

Thanks for your help on this.

m

Wow, thanks for the tutorial.
I assume that out of PS I'm saving the texture as a jpeg?
Does that import into SU?
I thought SU had to have a skm file for textures...where is the conversion step/how is it made?
There are too many questions regarding this stuff and the answers seem to be scattered throughout cyberspace. The SU help files are mind-numbing.
There needs to be a good video tutorial about how to create textures.

So, how does one "import" the texture into sketchup?

Thank-you, again.
mg

Hi Boofredlay,
Stomach is fine until I try to do stuff like this in sketchup(6)...
Ok I tried your method and got stuck, here are the questions of the moment:

1. When you crop the image do you go center of mortar joint to center of mortar joint?
2. How precise are we trying to be here with the crop selection?
3. How do you "reduce the pixel size"?

My image is 10.5 brick wide by 16 brick high. I tried to crop center of mortar joints but Photoshop 7 will not make an exact selection, even if I use snap to guides. Then I lose consciousness at the "reduce pixel size" part.
Can you provide additional information at your leisure?

Thanks much,

m

Boofredlay, I'm curious, how do you use the Acme brick design program in/with SketchUp?
I'm not satisfied with the brick patterns supplied with SU but don't know how to supplant them with others. Any guidance is appreciated.
SU6,Win XP.
Thanks,
m

Thank-you all for taking the time to post a reply.

I tried the ACAD R14 export, and I tried saving to SU5 then exporting to ACAD R14 out of SU5, a little better but still lines were lost. I don't mind adding them back it's just suddenly noticing another one that was missed after it's all been plotted out. Arrrgh!

Very nice looking forum by the way.

m

poster-maalox