SketchUV Manual

SketchUV Manual

1 User Guide

1.1 Installation 4

1.2 Spherical Mapping and Basic Workflow 6

1.3 Other Mapping Methods 13

1.4 Tube Mapping Basics 22

1.5 Advanced Tube Mapping 25

1.6 Auxillary Tools - Path Select and Triangulate 30

1.7 Troubleshooting 42
 User Guide

SketchUV Manual - 3
Installation

SketchUp 8 and Above

IMPORTANT: You will need to have Sketchup 8 M2 or greater installed for this procedure to work.

1. Go to Window->Preferences->Extensions
2. Click 'Install Extension...'
3. Browse for the file 'SketchUV.rbz' that you downloaded after purchasing.
4. SketchUV will be installed and loaded into SketchUp ready for your use.

SketchUV Manual - 4
 Older SketchUp Versions

SketchUV should work for SketchUp versions 6 and above

1. Locate the file 'SketchUV.rbz' that you downladed after purchasing.

2. Rename the file to 'SketchUV.zip'
3. Extract or open the zip file. This can usually be accomplished by double-clicking it.
4. Copy the contents of the file zip file to your SketchUp plugins directory.

On Windows, this directory is:

C:\Program Files\Google\Google SketchUp 8\Plugins

On Mac, this directory is:

Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Google Sketchup 8/SketchUp/Plugins

Verify that the files and folder structure are correct according to the above image.

Close SketchUp if it is currently open and then restart.

SketchUV Manual - 5
Spherical Mapping and Basic Workflow

UV mapping is the process of positioning a texture on a surface. UVs are the names given to the
texture coordinate space, U being the horizontal axis, and V being the vertical axis of the image.
SketchUp has historically been severely lacking in the tools available for UV mapping. With
practice, it is possible to create good UV maps of almost any type of geometry just by using the
tools included within this plugin.

Spherical Mapping

Begin with a sphere or an object that is roughly the shape of a sphere such as a balloon.

SketchUV Manual - 6
1. Select all of the faces of the mesh that you wish to UV map
2. Then, click the toolbar icon. If you cannot see the toolbar, go to View->Toolbars->SketchUp to
make sure that it is enabled.

You can also access SketchUV though the Plugins menu item.

SketchUV Manual - 7
Spherical mapping is a view-based mapping method. The orientation of the mapping depends
on your current camera view. The axis of the sphere projection will be parallel to your camera's
'up' direction.
1. Click on the 'Front' view icon to choose a front view
2. Right click on the mesh and choose 'Spherical Map'

If you do not have a textured material applied to the selected faces, the default UV texture will be
applied to the faces. This texture is located in the SketchUV subfolder within your SketchUp
plugins folder. You can use a different default texture by replacing this texture with another image
with the same filename.

TIP: You can spin your camera view (i.e. change the 'up' direction) by click-dragging anywhere on
the screen.
TIP: You can instantly orient your camera to a face or vertex by double-clicking it. Note that the face
must be in the current editing context (currently active group or component)

SketchUV Manual - 8
 Transforming UVs

1. Click on a vertex to set the anchor point for the UV map

2. At this point, you can transform the UVs of the selected faces by entering a variety of input:

Try the following:

- type '45 <enter>' or '-45 <enter>' to rotate the UVs 45 degrees
- type '*2 <enter>' to uniformly scale the UVs by 2
- type '/2u <enter>' to scale the UVs by 0.5 in the U direction only
- type '*2v <enter>' to scale the UVs by 2.0 in the V direction only

SketchUV Manual - 9
You can also use the arrow keys combined with the SHIFT and CTRL modifier keys to transform
the UVs.

Hover your mouse over the selected faces and try the following:
1. Press the left, right, up, or down arrow keys to offset the UVs
2. Hold down the CTRL key and press an arrow key to rotate the UVs
3. Hold down the SHIFT key and press an arrow key to scale the UVs non-uniformly
4. Click on a different vertex to reset the UV anchor point. Then, repeat the steps above to see the
result.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Hovering your mouse over the faces helps SketchUV to determine the
amount that the UVs will be transformed with each arrow key-press. If you zoom your camera in
close to the faces you are mapping, you will have finer control over the UV transformation.

SketchUV Manual - 10
 Saving UVs

1. Once you are happy with the UVs, it is recommended to save them using the right-click context
menu.

SketchUV Manual - 11
 Loading UVs

You can switch materials and maintain the UVs by doing the following:

1. Select a material with a texture in the SketchUp materials window.

2. Apply the material to the faces of the mesh.
3. Ensure you have selected the faces of the mesh.
4. Choose the toolbar icon.
5. Right-click and select 'Load UVs' to reapply the textures position that was saved previously.

SketchUV Manual - 12
Other Mapping Methods

SketchUV contains several mapping methods including:

• Planar (view)
• Spherical (view)
• Cylindrical (view)
• Box
• Tube
• Quad Face

SketchUV Manual - 13
 Planar Map

1. Select the faces you wish to map

2. Click the toolbar icon
3. Double-click a face to align your camera view to that face. Adjust view if necessary using the
SketchUp camera tools
4. Press the 'tab' key to show the alignment grid and click-drag to spin your view if you wish to
adjust your view orientation.
5. Right-click and select planar map to create a planar UV projection oriented the same direction
as the camera view.

SketchUV Manual - 14
 Cylindrical Map

Cylindrical mapping is best used on objects that approximate the shape of a cylinder. For
example, you can use it to map the torso or limbs of a character.
1. Select the faces you wish to map
2. Click the toolbar icon
3. Double-click a face to align your camera view to that face. Adjust view if necessary using the
SketchUp camera tools
4. Press the 'tab' key to show the alignment grid and click-drag to spin your view if you wish to
adjust your view orientation.
5. Right-click and select cylindrical map to create a cylindrical UV projection oriented the same
direction as the camera view.

SketchUV Manual - 15
 Box Map

Box mapping is not a view-based method. The UVs will be projected from a box that would
enclose all of the selected faces. This box is aligned with the world axis of the model. This
method is best used on objects that are roughly the shape of a box and do not have many
rounded cornes or cuving surfaces. Rounded corners will tend to show bad seams, or
discontinuities in the UV mapping.

1. Select the faces you wish to map.

2. Click the toolbar icon
3. Right-click and select box map to create a box projection for the selected faces.

SketchUV Manual - 16
 Quad Face Map

Quad face mapping will fit the texture to the corners of each selected quad. Faces that are not
quads are ignored.

1. Select the faces you wish to map

2. Click the toolbar icon
3. Right-click and select Quad Face Map

SketchUV Manual - 17
 Exporting to External UV Mapping Software

You can perform your UV mapping using specialized UV mapping software for cases where the
tools included in SketchUV are not adequate to meet your needs.

1. Select the faces that you wish to map. Ensure that a textured material is applied to all of the
faces.
2. Click the toolbar icon
3. Right-click and select 'Export UVs'
4. You will be prompted to choose the path to export the UVs. This path can be changed later by
going to Plugins->SketchUV->Set UV OBJ path. An OBJ file will be exported of the selected
geometry. Most external applications can load the OBJ file format.

SketchUV Manual - 18
Here, the exported OBJ file was loaded into the free UV mapping application 'Roadkill'. Another
free application that you can use for external UV mapping is 'Blender'. For a highly specialized
fully featured UV mapping application, Ultimate Unwrap 3D Pro is recommended and works well
with SketchUV. Several other UV mapping applications are known to work as well with SketchUV
but the three mentioned above have been tested more thoroughly by the author.

Refer to the documentation of the specific software for instructions on how to perform UV
mapping.

After completing the UV mapping, be sure to save the file in OBJ format using the same filename
and path that you used when exporting the UVs from SketchUp.

SketchUV Manual - 19
 Importing the UVs from External Software

To import the UVs:

1. Ensure that the faces that you exported are still selected. If not, reselect them.
2. Click the toolbar icon.
3. Right-click and select 'Import UVs'

SketchUV Manual - 20
The result of the UV import is shown above. Using SketchUV, you can now save the UVs,
transform the UVs, or edit the UV mapping inside the external application and then re-import.

SketchUV Manual - 21
Tube Mapping Basics

Tube Mapping

The most important thing to remember for tube mapping is that you can only use it on a clean
quad-based mesh. In other words, all faces should have only four edges. However, there are
some exceptions to this rule as you will see later. Basically, almost any object that was created
using the follow-me tool can use tube mapping as long as the mesh is 'clean'. For example, if the
mesh has holes or is self-intersecting, you may have problems when using tube mapping.

The mesh should have a constant cross section along the length of the tube. Otherwise, the tube
mapping will likely fail.

Another thing to remember is that tube mapping works on all connected faces, NOT the selected
faces. You can control the extent of the faces that are 'tube mapped' by selecting them and
making them into a separate group.

SketchUV Manual - 22
1. Triple-click to select all the connected faces
2. Select a textured material
3. Apply it to the mesh. Notice the messy default UV mapping.

1. Zoom into the 'start' of the tube and click the toolbar icon.
2. Click on a vertex to set the start point for the tube mapping.
3. Click on an adjacent edge to set the U direction of the UV map. This edge should normally be

SketchUV Manual - 23
parallel to the longitudinal axis of the tube or 'follow-me path'. However, if the tube mapping is not
successful, try selecting a different origin or U direction.
4. Right click and select 'tube map'

All connected faces will be tube mapped. Notice that the texture width and height correspond to
the values that have been set using the SketchUp materials window.

SketchUV Manual - 24
Advanced Tube Mapping

Advanced Tube Mapping

This sidewalk loop was created with the follow-me tool. The default SketchUp texture position
has been applied.
Note that the top and bottom faces are not quads. However, since this mesh was created with the
follow-me tool, it is possible for the top and bottom face to be split into quads. Recall that tube
mapping can only be performed on a quad-based mesh.

By selecting the proper start point of the tube mapping, the mesh can be automatically split into
quads when the tube mapping is performed.

SketchUV Manual - 25
1. Zoom into the 'start' of the loop and click the toolbar icon.
2. Click a vertex at the start of the loop to set the origin of the tube map.
3. Click on an adjacent edge to set the U direction.
4. Right click and choose 'tube map'

SketchUV Manual - 26
The texture will be wrapped around the mesh as shown. Notice that the top face has been split
into quads.

NOTE: If you were to select a vertex and U edge that was not at the start of the tube, the top face
would not have been properly split and the tube mapping may fail.

SketchUV Manual - 27
 Mapping an Arch

It is not required for tube mapping to be performed on a 'solid'. The geometry can be a set of flat
faces for example as long as they are quads or could be split into quads using the above
technique.
1. Click the toolbar icon.
2. Click the start vertex
3. Click the U edge
4. Right click and choose tube map.

SketchUV Manual - 28
The finished mapping.

SketchUV Manual - 29
Auxillary Tools - Path Select and Triangulate

Path Select Tool

The Path Select Tool is useful for making difficult selections of continous edges that would
normally be very time consuming to make. In the context of SketchUV, the Path Select Tool's
primary function is to divide areas of a complicated mesh into parts in order to make surfaces
easier to select and UV map.

The surface of this chair does not lend itself very well to any of the mapping methods included
within SketchUV. However, if it were to be divided into four semi-planar surfaces, it would become
easier to map.

SketchUV Manual - 30
Ensure that you have hidden geometry enabled. Go to View->Hidden geometry to enable it.
1. Click the toolbar icon for the path select tool.
2. Click the first edge that will form part of the 'seam' (shown in blue)
3. Click on another edge along the path that you wish to select. The middle edges will be
automatically selected by the tool (shown in green)

SketchUV Manual - 31
Continue clicking edges to form a complete loop around the chair.
1. Be careful where the path takes a sudden change in direction.

SketchUV Manual - 32
With the tool active and the edge loop fully selected, press the Enter or Return key. This will
create a hard edge allowing you to easily select the back surface of the chair.

SketchUV Manual - 33
Using the same technique, two more hard edge loops are created.

SketchUV Manual - 34
 Apply the Planar Projections

The four separate surfaces are now mapped using the technique below:
1. Select a surface.
2. Click the toolbar icon
3. Align the camera to the desired plane.

TIP: double click on a face to align the camera to that face.

TIP: click-drag to spin the view
TIP: press the TAB key to show the alignment grid.

4. Apply the planar projection by using the right-click context menu

5. Transform the UVs if necessary to the correct scale, rotation, and to reduce the appearance of
seams. Be sure to click an anchor vertex first for better control of the transformation.

Using these methods, along with some practice, it is possible to create a near seamless UV
mapping of many complex organic shapes.

SketchUV Manual - 35
 Selecting Loops and Rings

If you are working with a quad-based mesh, you can use the Path Select Tool to quickly select
edge loops and rings.
1. To select a loop, double click on an edge.
2. The entire loop will become selected.

SketchUV Manual - 36
You can attempt to use the double-click method on a non-quad mesh as well but the results can
be unpredictable. In the case shown above, the method works.

The double-click method will sometimes fail, even with a quad-based mesh. If this happens, you
will have to click the intermittent edges to help 'guide' the correct path.

SketchUV Manual - 37
 Triangulate

Many external rendering applications may have trouble with certain types of UV projections.
These type of projections can be generated by the mapping methods in SketchUV. If you try to
export your UV mapped SketchUp model to another application using OBJ or DAE format for
example, you might find that SketchUp exports many more materials or textures than you
expected. In fact, SketchUp will export a unique texture for each face in your model that has a
distorted UV projection.

In order to prevent the export of multiple materials or textures when exporting your model, you
must first triangulate the mesh. This will split all of the selected faces into triangles and then
reapply the UV coordinates to remove the distorted projection.

A side effect of this, is that the UVs will appear somewhat skewed. However, the UVs will be
continuous across the edges of the your model.

SketchUV Manual - 38
1. Select the faces that you wish to triangulate.
2. Click the icon on the toolbar
3. Select 'triangulate' from the right-click context menu.

SketchUV Manual - 39
Tube mapping, for example, will usually create distorted texture projections. Tube mapping was
used to map the arch shown above. When exporting this geometry to another file format or to a
render engine, a unique texture might get exported for each face of the arch. This can be avoided
by triangulating.

SketchUV Manual - 40
After triangulating, there is proper continuitiy across the edges. However, the texture position may
appear skewed. This cannot be avoided.

SketchUV Manual - 41
Troubleshooting

Q. I cannot see the SketchUV toolbar or menu item.

• Review the Installation of the manual. Try re-installing.
• Go to Window->Preferences->Extensions and ensure that SketchUV is listed and is checked
• Go to View->Toolbars and ensure that the SketchUV toolbar is checked

Q. Tube mapping keeps failing and I am certain that the mesh is all quads.
• Try mapping a portion of the mesh at a time.
• Check the faces for collinear edges - i.e. two more edges on the same face that form a
straight line - It may look like a quad but it is not
• Select some faces that are quads, make it into a new group, and then apply tube mapping to
the faces inside the new group.
• Once you are finished, you can explode the new group(s) if necessary.

Q. I tried one of the UV mapping methods but nothing appears to have happened.
• Ensure that you preselected the faces you wish to map
• Ensure that your SketchUp view shading style is set to 'Shaded with Textures

Q. When I export my model to another file format, extra textures or materials are exported.
How can this be prevented?
• You need to triangulate your model prior to export.

Q. My model is already triangulated and extra textures or materials are still being exported.
• You might still have distorted textures in your model. Select all of the faces, including the
triangles, and run the triangulation tool to remove the distorted textures.

Q. I am pressing the arrow keys repeatedly and it is taking too long to transform the UVs to
where I want them.
• Zoom your camera view out further while continuing to hover your mouse over the faces.
• This will increase the amount of movement that occurs with each key-press

SketchUV Manual - 42