1. Hey guyz. Welcome to the All New Phlatforum!



    Sign Up and take a look around. There are so many awesome new features.

    The Phlatforum is a place we can all hang out and

    have fun sharing our RC adventures!

  2. Dismiss Notice

Changing the default material colors

Discussion in 'Sketchup Tutorials' started by Anonymous, Jan 18, 2009.

  1. Anonymous

    Anonymous New Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    1,280
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Is there a way to change the default "white / blue" colors (in the color bucket) to "white / darker blue"? Maybe I'm just going blind (Daddy did warn me!) but I have a really hard time detecting that pale shade of blue on my monitor screen.
     
  2. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    6,311
    Trophy Points:
    13
    Location:
    NJ
    Here is an explanation of something I found that may help, but I am still looking on how to make your own front/back face texture. By reading this is seems you can texture your model and way you like and to make sure that your faces are laying right you just switch to the monochrome mode?

    In SU (and other 3D surface modelers), every face has a front and a
    back. Fronts are meant to be seen; backs are not. Fronts are on the
    outsides of objects; backs are on the inside. Rendering applications
    render fronts, while backs are invisible or neutral. This system
    allows computer resources to be conserved rather than wasted on
    rendering faces that will not be seen.


    In SU, the default color for fronts is white or cream, and the default
    color for backs is light blue or purple. I suppose that on some
    systems (yours for example), backs may appear gray. Even after you
    paint faces with some color or texture, so that the white or blue is
    covered up, the faces are still either fronts or backs. Third party
    rendering applications can tell, and they will not render a back even
    if it has been painted some color or texture over the default. In SU,
    you can see the fronts and backs in their native white or blue even
    after they have been painted with a color or texture by using the
    Monochrome face display attribute, the last button on the Face Display
    toolbar.


    When you create a face, SU attempts to guess from its orientation
    relative to other faces whether it's a front or a back and to assign
    it the correct default color attribute. Sometimes it guesses wrong,
    and a face will be reversed. It is considered good form and good
    practice to make sure that all faces are turned front side out, even
    if you don't plan to use a third party rendering app. When you right-
    click a face, the Reverse Faces and Orient Faces commands appear to
    allow you to keep all faces right side out.


    Orientation of faces and appearance are two separate considerations.
    The default white and blue should be used to orient the faces
    correctly. The extensive palette of colors in the Material browser
    should be used to achieve a pleasing appearance.


    Regrettably, you have taken a fancy to the appearance of the back
    attribute. Nonetheless, you should right-click one of the white faces
    and select the Orient Faces command. That will turn all the blue (or
    gray) faces around, so that all the faces are white. This command
    doesn't always work perfectly, so you may have to turn some faces
    around individually with the Reverse Faces command. If you like gray,
    which is entirely your prerogative, you should select a nice gray from
    the Material browser and paint the fronts that color. Still, when you
    click the Monochrome button, all the exposed faces should be white.


    -Gully
     
  3. 3DMON

    3DMON Moderator Staff Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    2,380
    Trophy Points:
    38
    Location:
    Sebastian, Florida
    Here is an easy way for you.
    Follow directions from the attached pic. Attached files [​IMG]
     
  4. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    6,311
    Trophy Points:
    13
    Location:
    NJ
    3DMON, Nice one! thanks I knew I had seen it before...
    but I could not remember where.
    Thanks for sharing.
    Mark
     
  5. Anonymous

    Anonymous New Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    1,280
    Trophy Points:
    0
    "Windows", "Styles" ????? Who'd a' thunk it?
    Thanks 3DMON

    gully - ?who? - On my laptop, the two default colors are nearly indistinguishable, which makes it VERY difficult to see if the program is showing me the front or back face. I don't care if the back is grey, purple or flashing, polka-dotted puce, as long as it's something I can see on the display screen.
    It's kind of like the word "Smilies" above the emoticons to the right of the posting page and this entire section also under the Emoticons:
    BBCode is ON
    is ON
    [flash] is OFF
    [url] is ON
    Smilies are ON
    - whatever color that text is, it nearly blends into the background - so I pray nothing important is ever in that color combo.
     
  6. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    6,311
    Trophy Points:
    13
    Location:
    NJ
     

Share This Page