🎨 Open the Texturic web editor
The SketchUp material plugins worth a look are Architextures and Texturic when you want a material built from a laying pattern with joints, Tilelook for real tile products, and Texture Randomizer or Eneroth’s positioning tools when you only need to fix the material you already have. This post compares thirteen tools: ten that make a material or its maps, three that reposition one, with Texturic and Architextures head to head. Every competitor fact comes from a page opened on 28 October 2026 and is linked; where a page says nothing, the table says “not stated”. This post does not judge the quality of anyone’s output, only what each tool lets you control.
Which tool for which job
- You want a floor, wall or roof laid in a pattern, with joints: Texturic or Architextures (a layout editor). Tilelook and the Mosa generator do this for real tile products from their catalogues.
- You have a photo and want PBR maps from it: Substance 3D Sampler, or SketchUp’s Generate Textures when a material already exists and only the maps are missing.
- The material exists but repeats visibly or sits wrong on the face: a positioning plugin, not a generator. Texture Randomizer varies the mapping per face, Eneroth’s tools align it, ThruPaint paints it across faces.
- You want a material with no source image: Material Maker (node graph), or the prompt tools Mixos, 3D AI Studio and AI Texture.
The ten material and texture tools side by side
| Tool | Runs in SketchUp | What it makes | Layout and joints | PBR maps | How it is paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texturic | Extension (SketchUp 2022+) and a web editor | A seamless rectangular repeat of pattern + material + joints | Pattern library where every pattern is a unit cell and two lattice vectors; joint width, joint material, depth and shade | Five: colour, normal, roughness, metalness, ambient occlusion | Web editor and SketchUp extension: 3 free uses per UTC day in total, then Texturic Pro |
| Architextures | Extension and a web editor | Seamless textures, PBR maps and CAD hatches | Fixed pattern library with a few parameters per pattern; joint widths, joint material, recess | Five: displacement, bump, normal, roughness, metalness (marked Pro) | Free tier plus a Pro subscription (source) |
| Generate Textures (built into SketchUp) | Yes, in the Materials panel | Maps for a material that has none | None: it makes maps, not a layout | Four: metalness, roughness, normal, ambient occlusion | The help page states no price (source) |
| Tilelook for SketchUp | Extension (.rbz) | A tile layout texture from a catalogue of real tile products | Fixed layouts; repetitions, grout thickness and grout colour | Not stated | Listed as free; its features need a PRO plan after a 14-day trial (source) |
| Mosa Pattern Generator | No: web tool, the file is dragged in as .skm | A tile pattern texture | A pattern chosen from a list | Not mentioned | Not stated (source) |
| Substance 3D Sampler | Separate app | A PBR material from a photo | Photo and filters, not a tile layout | Yes (albedo, roughness, normal, displacement) | Subscription (source) |
| Material Maker | Separate app | Procedural PBR materials from a node graph | Parametric nodes, not a tile layout | Albedo, metalness, roughness | Open source, name-your-price (source) |
| Mixos | Browser tool | A tiling PBR material from a text prompt | A prompt only | Five: base colour, normal, roughness, metallic, height | Free to start; production exports need a paid plan (source) |
| 3D AI Studio | Browser tool (SketchUp not mentioned) | A material from a prompt or a photo | A prompt or a photo; tiling mode both / horizontal / vertical | Five: base colour, normal, roughness, metalness, height | Credits per generation (source) |
| AI Texture | Browser tool (SketchUp not mentioned) | A seamless texture from a prompt or a photo | A prompt or a photo, a Seamless toggle | Five: base colour, normal, roughness, metalness, height | Starter credits; commercial use on paid tiers (source) |
Prices are not quoted on purpose: they change, and the pricing model is what decides how you can use a tool.
Architextures for SketchUp, and what to use next to it
If you came looking for the Architextures extension: it installs from SketchUp’s Extension Warehouse and is a layout editor with a free tier and a Pro subscription (see the table). Per its terms, the Pro commercial licence ends with the subscription: downloaded content can no longer be used commercially afterwards, so read that clause before delivering a project. Texturic is the other tool in this post that puts pattern, material and joints in one editor inside SketchUp; it also runs in a browser, with 3 free uses a day shared between the two.
Texturic against Architextures
These two are the closest pair: both put the pattern, the material and the joints in one editor, both run inside SketchUp and in a browser, and both end in a seamless image with PBR maps.
| Texturic | Architextures | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | SketchUp extension and a web editor | SketchUp extension and a web editor; the home page also lists Rhino, Revit and Vectorworks plugins (source) |
| What a pattern is | Data: tile outlines in one cell plus two lattice vectors, sizes written as expressions of named parameters | A fixed library in categories (brick bond, paving, parquetry, geometric, organic, random, roofing) with a few settings such as rows, columns, angle (source) |
| Pattern count | 405 laying patterns on the live /textures/ page | The pages opened give no count |
| Materials | 1,469 built-in CC0 materials, your own .jpg or .png, or a solid colour | The home page claims “over 8,000 seamless textures”; uploading your own is a Pro feature (source) |
| Mixing materials | A second material and a rule: random share, checkerboard, stripes, chosen tiles or your own expression over tile, row and column | Per-material placement: random, defined (hit / miss / shift) or manual (source) |
| Joints | Horizontal and vertical width, joint material, depth, concave profile, recess shade | Horizontal and vertical width with a lock, joint material, recess, concave and shadow opacity (source) |
| PBR maps | Five maps, all derived from the colour image and the pattern geometry | Five maps, each with an image source and brightness, contrast, opacity and invert; marked Pro (source) |
| CAD hatches | A separate product, Hatchy, for the .pat file | In the same editor, marked Pro: AutoCAD hatch, Revit model and drafting patterns, DXF, SVG |
| Licence of the output | The built-in materials come from CC0 sources | A Pro commercial licence that ends with the subscription: downloaded content can no longer be used commercially after it ends (terms) |
| How it is paid | Web editor and SketchUp extension share one count: 3 free uses per UTC day, then Texturic Pro | Free tier plus a Pro subscription |
Where Architextures is ahead
Its home page claims a library of over 8,000 seamless textures, against 1,469 built-in materials in Texturic, and it lists plugins for Rhino, Revit and Vectorworks besides SketchUp. Its CAD hatch export sits in the same editor. If you work across several modelling tools, that reach matters.
Where Texturic differs: pattern, material and joints as three independent inputs
The three things a floor texture needs are separate in Texturic, and each one is general rather than a list of presets.
- The pattern is mathematics, not a picture. A pattern is the outlines of the tiles in one cell plus two lattice vectors; copies sit at origin + i·a + j·b. A pattern that fills the plane is checked before it is admitted: its tiles do not overlap and their areas add up to the area of the cell. Sizes are named parameters (length, width, rows) and the outlines are expressions of them, so one definition covers every proportion of herringbone or basketweave instead of one fixed drawing. A new pattern is a data file, not new code.
- The material is a separate choice. A built-in CC0 material, your own photo with its real width in millimetres, or a solid colour, each with brightness, contrast, saturation and hue. Change it and the pattern stays.
- The joints are a third input. Width, a joint material of their own, depth and the recess shade are set apart from both.
- Rotation is exact. Texturic renders one rectangular repeat so the image tiles without a seam. For a rotated pattern it looks for an exact rectangular repeat and, where none exists at that angle, says so instead of drawing a texture that does not tile.
Because the inputs are independent, they multiply: 405 patterns × 1,469 materials is 594,945 pattern and material pairs before any joint width, size, rotation or second material is chosen (plain arithmetic on the two counts above). So the editor stays simple, one pattern, one material, one joint setting, and stays flexible, because none of the three is a preset of the others.
Architextures also separates patterns, materials and joints in its editor; the difference is how a pattern is defined. Its library is fixed with a few settings per pattern, according to the pages above. In Texturic a pattern is a parametric definition checked by the same maths whatever the pattern is.
What Texturic does not do
- It makes a texture, not 3D tiles. Real tiles with thickness and a grout gap are a separate extension, TileUp.
- It needs an internet connection: the dialog loads from 3dshouse servers.
- In SketchUp, the normal, roughness, metalness and ambient-occlusion maps on the applied material need SketchUp 2025 or newer; older versions get the colour texture.
The other tools in a line each
- SketchUp Generate Textures makes four maps for a material that has none; clicking again regenerates them and replaces the current maps (help page).
- Tilelook for SketchUp downloads a tile layout from a catalogue of “150k+” products as a material; grout thickness and colour are set in the extension.
- Mosa Pattern Generator is a manufacturer’s web tool: a pattern from a list, exported as .skm and dragged into SketchUp.
- Substance 3D Sampler turns a photo into a PBR material with filters; it is a separate Adobe app and not a tile layout tool.
- Material Maker builds procedural materials from a node graph and is open source.
- Mixos, 3D AI Studio and AI Texture generate a tiling material from a prompt or a photo in the browser; their pages describe no pattern or joint controls.
Three plugins for a material you already have
A generator is the wrong tool when the material is fine and only its placement is wrong. These three change the mapping or the painting, not the image.
| Plugin | What it changes | What the page says | How it is paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texture Randomizer (TIG) | The mapping of a texture on each selected face | Randomises position, scale, mirroring and rotation per face and changes nothing except the UV mapping; groups work only once made unique (source) | Not stated on the page |
| Eneroth Texture Positioning Tools | Where a texture sits on a face | Align Texture and Align Texture to Edge; a user in the thread reports it works on front-face textures, not on a texture inside a group (source) | Not stated on the page |
| ThruPaint (Fredo6) | Which faces, edges and objects get a material | Paints across the boundaries of groups and components; needs the LibFredo6 library installed first (source) | Paid, with a 30-day trial per the plugin page |
The pages for Texture Randomizer and Eneroth’s tools state no price, so none is given here; check the page before you rely on either. Eneroth’s tools are described in a user thread, not on a product page.
How this was checked
Pages were opened on 28 October 2026 (the ten tools) and 29 October 2026 (the three positioning plugins) and the facts paraphrased; a page that would not open (Poliigon and Tilelook’s own site returned errors) is left out rather than guessed. Texturic’s counts come from its live editor page the same day. Two things were not verified: the Extension Warehouse listing details of Architextures (version, price, reviews) and the content of its Pro-only maps, because no subscription was bought.
Install the Texturic extension from the Texturic for SketchUp guide, or open the browser editor at 3dshouse.com/textures/ (it opens without an account; 3 free uses a day, then Texturic Pro).
FAQ
What is the best SketchUp material plugin?
It depends on the job, and this post names no winner. For a material built from a laying pattern with joints, compare Architextures and Texturic. For a tile layout from real products, Tilelook. For a material that exists but repeats or sits wrong, a positioning plugin such as Texture Randomizer.
Which SketchUp tool makes a seamless texture from a tiling pattern?
Texturic and Architextures both lay a pattern with joints and render a seamless repeat with PBR maps. Tilelook and the Mosa generator do the same for real tile products. The AI tools in this comparison work from a prompt or a photo, not from a layout.
Is SketchUp’s own Generate Textures enough?
It makes metalness, roughness, normal and ambient-occlusion maps for a material that has none (SketchUp help page). It does not lay tiles or joints, so it solves a different problem: giving one material depth, not building the material.
How many patterns and materials does Texturic have?
The live editor page lists 405 laying patterns and 1,469 built-in CC0 materials (checked 2026-10-28). You can also use your own .jpg or .png, or a solid colour.
Does Texturic make 3D tiles?
No. Texturic makes a texture and its maps. Real 3D tiles with thickness and a grout gap are made by TileUp, a separate SketchUp extension.
Is Texturic free?
Three uses a day are free, counted per UTC day; more need Texturic Pro. The count is shared by the web editor at 3dshouse.com/textures/ and the SketchUp extension. One use is one delivered result: Apply as material in SketchUp, or Download maps (.zip) or Download albedo (.jpg) on the web. Both open without an account and browsing, editing and previewing are never counted; a 3dshouse sign-in is asked at the first use.
Which SketchUp versions work?
Texturic needs SketchUp 2022 or newer and an internet connection. The colour texture applies in every supported version; the normal, roughness, metalness and ambient-occlusion maps on the applied material need SketchUp 2025 or newer.
