Applying materials

[dereklillesve]

I am new to the software, I am running a mac and on sketchup. I am having problems with the materials, I have looked over the tutorials and just want to know how to apply materials from online or materials different then the ones in sketchup to my models. Please help.

[Borgleader]

Hi,

I don't have Sketchup/SkIndigo installed as I'm not a sketchup user but I'll try to give you general instructions that hopefully will be helpful anyway.

What you may already know is that when you download a material from the database it is either in *.igm for or *.pigm form (*.pigms is basically a compressed *.igm). Now generally when you need to use a material like this which comes from an external source (in this case the material database) you create a new material inside sketchup and you set it's "type" to external (as opposed to blend, diffuse, specular, ...) and then you specify the path to the *.pigm / *.igm file which you've downloaded.

If the material requires UV mapping (for textures, shaders) information you will have to unwrap your mesh properly or else it won't work. I'm not sure if it's also the case for sketchup but in blender you have to name the uv information set to "default" for it to work properly since most materials are created using this naming convention.

Hopefully this will help you get on your way, if not a sketchup user will probably be passing by to clarify things.

[galinette]

In sketchup, external materials are called "linked igm".

Open the indigo materials in sketchup. Then click on "UI" to change the interface if you do not see the "material type" list box.
Chose or create a material, select "linked igm" as material type, and select your igm or pigm file. It will ask you if you want to "load a texture for UV mapping" : this is not mandatory, it's just to have a texture image for previewing in sketchup, but will not change the indigo render.
Then use the paint bucket tool in sketchup to apply the material to objects or faces.

Sketchup always does a UV mapping by default, so you do not need to change it to see the material working.

Etienne

[Cato]

Hi,
I have the same problem in Blender. There I can't set a material as 'external'. And I coudn't find a way to import or link an igm/pigm-file.
When I try to use an external material I get the following error:

Bild 4.png (11.19 KiB) Viewed 5326 times

What does it mean?


And a question else about unwrapping: Do I have to unwrapp exactly to the material texture like in typical uv mapping procedure?

[Soup]

Have you got the latest version of Blendigo installed?
In the material types, is 'external' listed and you can't select it? Or is it not even there?

I don't think you can import external materials, only link afaik.

As for UVmapping, I expect that yes, the texture map will have to match the UV map. Although if it is a simple tileable texture then as long as the polys are consistent then the UV won't matter.

[Cato]

I have Blendigo 2.44. I tried to install release 2.61 but nothing changed. I removed the blender folder completely but after reinstalling blender all settings and scripts were as before. Where does Blender save settings and pythonscripts?


In Blendigo, of course, I can choose external materials. But inside Blender? Maybe I misunderstanded the previous postings (....you create a new material inside sketchup and you set it's "type" to external...). Did he mean skindigo?

[Soup]

You should post in the Blender forum, and in a new thread. It will get more attention that way

[Cato]

You are right, thanx!