@dan rathbun said: OK. Wait. I just re-read what you wrote in the OP. It seems that you believed that Sketchup.template=() would load a template (dynamically) into the currently loaded model. It should not. It only should set up subsequent calls to open a NEW model, to use the specified template. Sketchup.send_action("newDocument:") or Sketchup.file_new() To load a style dynamically, load a .style file into the styles collection, and set it active by name or index. Good catch, but I didn't believe that, actually. I was calling file_new after setting the new template, but the template style background still wasn't being used when it was outside the default templates directory for some reason.