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g4125's avatar
g4125
Copper Contributor
May 02, 2023

Why do my inserted Sketchup 3D model's textures change colour in Office applications?

Working on Mac using the 'insert 3D model' function I can import sketchup 3D models and rotate them within MS apps.

 

The native SU colours and textures appear correct in Office, but any SU imported raster-based images change colour. Red becomes blue. Blue becomes red. Orange becomes cyan. Green stays green, but not the same green.

 

The textures imported into SU are always RGB. I have tried different formats - jpg, tif, psd and png - but they all give the same result.

 

I have looked for a solution on the SU side of things but have drawn a blank.

 

I've tried this on two different Macs running different versions of Office, two versions of Sketchup and three OSs. Currently running the latest Mac OS and the latest versions of Sketchup and Office. Always the same result.

 

Correct colours shown in Sketchup:

 

Same Sketchup model imported into Powerpoint:

 

Any ideas?

  • g4125's avatar
    g4125
    Copper Contributor

    Further to this, I have now discovered what the problem is, but not why it's happening.

     

    The images imported into Sketchup to be used as textures are RGB.

     

    Office appears to be reading those images as BGR by swapping the red channel information onto the blue channel and vice versa. I have confirmed this in Photoshop by swapping channels.

     

    Fellow SU users have tested this on PC and the problem does not occur. The problem only appears to be on Office for Mac. I've tested it on 2 Macs, 2 versions of Office, 2 versions of Sketchup and 3 OSs.

     

    Can anyone cast any light on this issue?

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