Create Your Own Materials in SketchUp Pro

SketchUp Pro provides a wide range out of the box materials for some of the most common uses. However, in some cases you may have a need to create your own. The process is straight forward, all you need is an image file containing the pattern that you would like to repeat in the material.

The following workflow provides step-by-step instructions on how to create your own materials from an image and how to create a custom collection for them in SketchUp Pro:

Click on the highlighted icon to create a new material from the Materials section of the Default tray, as per the follows image.:

Select a name for your material, check the Use texture image option and browse to the image (supported file types below). At this point, take note that you also have the option to select the size of the image in the material. The image will be repeated to fit the entire space i.f it is applied to an area that is larger than these sizes. 

At this point, your newly created material will show in the Materials section of the Default tray, under the In model collection. If you save your model as a template (via File -> Save as template…), you can then use the custom material in any model that is created from that template.

If you want to access your materials from any model, regardless of the template, you can create a custom collection. In order to do this, you need to save your material as a Material file (*.skm).

The Save As dialog will open in the following path
C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Roaming\SketchUp\SketchUp2019\SketchUp\Materials. Create a folder in this particular location with a name of your choosing for the collection and save the material file in that folder.

In order to add the collection, select Open or create a collection… from the Details button and pick the folder that you created for the collection in the previous step.

You can now access the collection from the drop-down menu, with all the materials that you saved in the folder.

If you would like to know more about SketchUp Pro and its full range of capabilities, please call your account manager on 01992 807444 or email marketing@excitech.co.uk.