Google SketchUp watermarks are much easier to understand if you don’t think about them as actual watermarks. They’re not anything like watermarks, in fact — they’re much more useful. Watermarks are graphics that you can apply either behind or in front of your model to produce certain effects.

Eyeing the watermark controls

Here’s a brief introduction to what some of the less-obvious controls do:

  • Add, Remove, and Edit Watermark buttons: The +, -, and gears icons allow you to add, remove, and edit (respectively) watermarks in the style you’re editing.

  • Watermark list: This list shows all your watermarks in relation to Model Space, the space your model occupies.

  • Move Up or Down arrows: Use these buttons to change the stacking order of the watermarks in your model view. Select the watermark you want to move in the list and then click one of these buttons to move it up or down in the order.

Adding a watermark

Watermarks are by no means simple, but working with them, miraculously enough, is. Follow these steps to add a watermark to your model view:

  1. Click the Add Watermark button to begin the process of adding a watermark.

  2. Find the image you want to use as a watermark and then click the Open button to open the first Create Watermark dialog box.

    You can use any of these graphics file formats: TIFF, JPEG, PNG, and GIF.

  3. Type a name for your watermark in the Name box.

  4. Choose whether you want your new watermark to be in the background or in the foreground as an overlay and click the Next button.

  5. Decide whether to use your watermark as a mask.

    Selecting this check box tells SketchUp to make your watermark transparent, which kind of simulates a real watermark. How transparent each part becomes is based on how bright it is.

  6. Adjust the amount that your watermark blends with what’s behind it and then click the Next button.

    In this case, Blend is really just a synonym for Transparency. By sliding the Blend slider back and forth, you can adjust the transparency of your watermark.

  7. Decide how you want your watermark to be displayed and then click the Finish button.

    You have three choices for how SketchUp can display your watermark: stretched to fit the entire window, tiled across the window, and positioned in the window.

Editing a watermark

You can edit any watermark in your SketchUp file at any time.

  1. Select the watermark you want to edit in the Watermark list.

  2. Click the Edit Watermark button (it looks like a couple of tiny gears) to open the Edit Watermark dialog box.

  3. Use the controls in the Edit Watermark dialog box and then click OK when you’re done.