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Sketchup Woodworking Textures

14K views 32 replies 16 participants last post by  jbertelson 
#1 ·
Description and explanation

I have made a number of woodworking Sketchup Textures. Just private message me and I will email you the file. I used to keep a link to a server, but that server is no longer active. I will need your email address, obviously.

The textures I could find were not very realistic, or had limited usability, so I made my own. These are seamlessly tiling textures, so dramatic large grain patterns are avoided. I prefer the type of textures I have made over some that I have seen on the internet, or that can be made using specific programs designed for woodworking textures.

1) Unzip it into your materials folder, it should leave a folder under materials named Woodworking.

2) The textures include vertical and horizontal textures if the material has an orientation, so that you don't have to reposition them just for those changes.

3) There are also Finished wood textures, they start with 'Fin'. There are plywood edge textures that you will probably have to position. The textures without the prefix of 'Fin' are supposed to be raw wood.

And as usual, I accept all suggestions and criticism, so wail away. Also if you would like a particular texture just for your particular need, let me know, and I will create it as time allows. Since I am now retired, I have a lot of allowable time…(-: It is usually not a difficult task for me, since I have done a lot of this in another hobby.
 
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#7 ·
I downloaded the files, but it said I would need a program to open them. Is that Sketchup? I'm not very good with computers. Also, thanks to Dave for the tip on Vert./horiz. orientation. Thanks for making these available Jim.
 
#9 ·
Mike
If you right click a zip file, in Windows XP, Vista, etc you should get a context menu that will include extract, to extract the files. The key is to place the files such that they are in a folder under materials and I named the folder WoodWorking. The address for the folder would be something like this:

C:\Program Files\Google\Google SketchUp 7\Materials\WoodWorking

and inside that folder should be all the material files in that zip file. I have trouble explaining placing files to others, because my computers are set up to look like old Windows 95, because I do so much file manipulation, and do some programming that manipulates files directly. Send me a PM if you are still having difficulty.
 
#10 ·
All
It seems as though you find these useful, so I will maintain this file, and post when I add new textures. I didn't know if others would like these or not. As Dave noted, if you want individual looking boards with unique grain, or a highly figured large surface, for instance, then these will not do that. There are some resources for those out there on the net. These are meant for everyday use, they are small in size, so they won't bog down your computer much, and are easy to use so they invite use in quick and dirty projects.
 
#14 ·
Thanks Dave.

Simultaneously, probably while you were typing your reply, I went to the SketchUp Help site and found the same directions. As soon as I got Jim's "Woodworking" folder into ~/Library/Application Support/SketchUp, the program recognized them. However, I did have to close and then restart SketchUp for that to happen.

This is really cool! Thanks for your due diligence.
 
#15 ·
DaveR
Thanks for your help with the texture files Dave. I am off to Hawaii tomorrow, but I think we have internet at the condo we are renting. It's the same one we rented last year and they had it. I have one project I am diddling around with, and will probably do some Sketchup stuff at odd moments, so you might hear from me. Hope all is well for the New Year….........

JKC
Looks like Dave got you squared away, hope you find the textures useful. If I have time, I may increase the number when I am in Hawaii. I like to do easy computer stuff early in the morning there. Making the textures is something I am used to, and it is kinda fun. Whenever I change the file I will post it with a blog entry.
 
#18 ·
Paul
DaveR always helps out with the Sketchup stuff, which is most appreciated, so it gets a little confusing. Hope you enjoy the textures, I hope to make more over time…...........I'm in Hawaii on holiday….....Happy New Year….......
 
#19 ·
Hope the weather in Hawaii has been good!! I agree, Dave has been a lot of help to me. He and Daltxguy were very helpful in getting the cutlist up and running on my Mac. Great to have such knowledgeable people around to pick their brains when a question arises. Happy New Year.

Paul
 
#21 ·
Bodie
Glad you like them, one of these days I may make some more. If anyone has any special requests let me know. I just picked on a bunch of wood that seems to be commonly used and if nothing else could be used for rough design.
 
#22 ·
bentlyj
What I thought I would do in my spare time this weekend is get take my copy of "World Woods in Color" which my wife gave me many years ago to encourage me to start this hobby, (that's what you call a supportive wife) and make textures for the 275 commercial woods described therein. Would that do….......(-:

Actually I think I could make a lot of unusual woods, but you can't put large or dramatic grain patterns in textures like these because they tile poorly. But there are many I would like including purple heart, birds eye maple, etc. When I made these I used pictures for reference and occasionally as the base texture that I modified. Other times, I built the texture from scratch. I actually had a pile of different wood species in my office while I was doing these to use for reference, and I hope that has made them more realistic.
 
#23 ·
I know I'm late to the party, but I just got into using Sketchup recently and wanted to use the files Jim was so nice in providing. Since I'm a Mac user I had to dig a bit to figure out where to put these files - it's : ~/Library/Application Support/SketchUp. Still trying to figure out how to get to them in the Sketchup program but hopefully I'll have that figured out in a few minutes :)
 
#24 ·
Very nice Jim. I installed it and am VERY happy with more choices now. Thanks for sharing this.

If you do expand it much more, might I suggest you make a way of organizing them? For instance, if you end up someday with a hundred textures, maybe divide them up into separate groups(in your case, materials\folders) such as Plywoods, RoseWoods, DarkWood, LightWood, MediumWood? And then again, maybe not.

The Named-Colors that SU provides does them by shades and it works pretty well. Maybe you could group yours by shades? I like the fact that you've separated the unfinished ones from the finished ones. FWIW, SU sorted their Named-Color pallet by simply numbering them. That would allow you to put the "Fin" designation at the end. When I browse, I like the name of the wood on the left of the name. Just my 2c worth.

Edit: Oh Jim, I had a bit of a time installing it. Using Vista, I saved it to the Materials folder. Then opened up W. Explorer to unzip it. I couldn't find the file. Tried to download the file again, oops, it is already there. Long story short, I can see it from the SaveAs dialog but not through Explorer. I know I was looking in the same folder because I temporarilly renamed one of the other folders and saw that change in Explorer and in the SaveAs. Well, I got it done regardless of that mystery but I'm curious why it happened. Oh well.
 
#25 ·
rance
Glad you find them useful. As noted, they are tiling and "light weight". Someday gotta do some more textures. This portable is Vista (I am at my vacation home), but my home stuff is Windows 7.

When I do something different (don't hold your breath, I will look at the comments here).

Have a good one, check out my latest blog….....

Minibench

.........looking for comments…........
 
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