🧩 SceneTextureSwitcher v1.3

Plugin Release & Developer Notes

SceneTextureSwitcher_v1.3_Release.zip

The above .ZIP-file includes .RBZ file, documentation and sample textures/file structure.

ABOUT

I've been using SketchUp professionally for nearly 25 years in set design, working on close to 90 full-scale productions — many of them incorporating projections and, more recently, LED surfaces.

As a designer who visualizes all technical and content aspects directly inside SketchUp, I often need to swap imagery on panels and screens depending on the scene. Until now, I've done this by layering individual images onto surfaces and toggling their visibility with tags and scenes.

That approach worked — until I hit a show with 26 different visual states. At that scale, manually hiding and revealing images becomes unmanageable.

Initial Goal

I was looking for a plugin that could:

• Switch out a texture based on the active scene
• Use a shared index across multiple mapped materials (like Surface01, Surface02, etc.)
• Work with scene change events, not just manual clicks
• Keep the whole system project-folder based and portable
• Require no tagging, object duplication, or visual overlays

And with guidance and iteration from ChatGPT — this tool now exists.

SceneTextureSwitcher v1.3

A lightweight SketchUp plugin for per-scene texture switching — ideal for set designers, media planners, and projection/LED-based designs.

What It Does

SceneTextureSwitcher lets you:

• Assign a scene-specific texture cue number (01–99)
• Automatically update textures on multiple named materials when switching scenes
• Load textures from your project folder, not the plugin directory — fully portable
• Support .png, .jpg, and .jpeg formats (with .png prioritized)
• Retain individual scale and UV mapping per material

Folder Setup

Textures must live relative to your .skp file, in this structure:

MyProject/
├── MyModel.skp
└── textures/
    ├── Surface01/
    │   ├── 01.png
    │   ├── 02.png
    ├── Surface02/
    │   ├── 01.jpg
    │   ├── 02.jpg
    └── ...

You can use any number of Surface## materials (up to 99), each with their own folder. All materials share the same scene-wide cue number.

How To Use

1. Install the plugin .rbz via Extensions > Extension Manager > Install Extension...
2. In your model, name any materials you want controlled as:

   Surface01, Surface02, Surface03, ...
   

3. Assign any texture from your project’s texture folder to each of those materials initially.
4. In SketchUp, open:

   Extensions > Scene Texture Switcher
   

   Choose a cue number from the dropdown and hit OK.
5. Just switch to another scene or create a new one — the cue is saved automatically.
6. Repeat for other scenes — the plugin stores the cue number per scene.
7. Switch scenes: textures update automatically.

Works across projects
Works with external drives
Works with .png transparency
Requires no object duplication, tagging, or overlays

Designed For

• Theater, film, and live performance set designers
• LED-based stage visualization
• Projection cue planning
• Architectural mood setups or material cycles

️ Requirements

• SketchUp 2021 or newer (tested on macOS and Windows)
• Ruby Console recommended during setup (for logs)

Known Limitations

• No GUI for previews (future version may include thumbnails)
• Materials must follow Surface## naming (future: custom mapping via config file)

Future Plans

• Visual thumbnail grid to choose cues
• Cue editor panel with copy/delete/preview options
• Auto-generation of texture folders
• Custom naming and mapping of materials

This plugin was developed in collaboration with [@samtsham2] and ChatGPT through iterative real-world testing in production design contexts. Free to use, adapt, and share with attribution.