Rendering in SketchUp

68
Part 2: Textures
Fig. 6.18: 
The SketchUp model with textures (left); the model without textures (right)
Fig. 6.19: 
The file size of the model without textures is considerably smaller.
texture Image Formats
SketchUp supports several file formats for texture images. They include JPEG, PNG, TIFF, 
PSD, TRG, and BMP. JPEG and PNG files are the typical file formats used for textures. JPEGs 
are a common file type. They are compressed or optimized and do not take up excessive file 
space. PNGs are useful because they can be transparent, allowing for various effects when 
rendering. 

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Chapter 7: The Texture Library 
T
o attain the best rendering results, you’ll need to obtain material textures to apply to the 
SketchUp model. After you download your textures, you’ll need to organize them into a 
coherent library (Fig. 7.1) so that they are easily accessible and can be reused. SketchUp can be 
linked to the Texture Library, which will enable you to directly insert custom materials into 
your models.
Fig. 7.1: 
A Texture Library folder on the 
computer’s hard drive
The Texture Library 
ChapTer
7

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70
Part 2: Textures
SketchUp Native Textures
SketchUp comes with preinstalled or native textures. To review these materials, open the 
Paint Bucket tool from the toolbar (or press B, which is the keyboard shortcut). The Paint 
Bucket pull-down menu lists various texture categories, including Brick and Cladding, Colors, 
Fencing, Groundcovers, etc. (Fig. 7.2).
Although SketchUp’s native textures can be used for 
rendering, these materials are low in resolution and 
small in size (256 
n
256 pixels). You’ll learn about tex-
ture size shortly. In general, the native textures are not 
ideal, nor will they produce the best graphic results. The 
exception is when you’re using these textures with the 
Shaderlight IRP. Shaderlight supports these textures in 
a unique fashion, which will be discussed in Chapter 27. 
Native SketchUp textures are stored in a unique file 
format called