Collaborative Design Reaches a New Dimension in SketchUp
The latest SketchUp update: collaborate, visualize, and document like never before
Trimble has launched the ‘Next Version of SketchUp‘. With this release, the developer moves away from the traditional, year-based naming convention (for example, SketchUp 2026). This change emphasises the ongoing cycle of innovation and the continuous flow of improvements for you as a user. The first in this new cycle is here, and this release immediately takes a major leap forward in Collaboration.
Feedback in SketchUp: Real-Time Collaboration
This release marks a new step toward a truly interactive design environment. The focus is on streamlining the feedback loop — a crucial part of every design process. The new collaboration features are available right away in SketchUp for Desktop and the Web Viewer, allowing teams to share designs, collect feedback, and iterate more effectively.
Key Features
- In-app Commenting: Receive feedback directly in context, attached to specific 3D geometry. Structured conversations, image uploads, and emoji reactions make it easy to communicate with colleagues or clients — without leaving SketchUp.
- Real Time Viewing & Camera Follow: Share your model and give viewers instant access to the latest changes. With Camera Follow, you can follow a colleague’s camera or bring all collaborators to your current view so everyone stays aligned during live sessions.
- Sharing Permissions & Control: Decide exactly who can access your model and who can comment. This ensures secure collaboration and protection of your intellectual property.
- Slideshow Mode (Scenes): Guide viewers smoothly through your model, scene by scene, helping them stay focused on your prepared views.
Documentation and Workflow: Faster and More Precise
Alongside collaboration, this release focuses on speeding up your daily work in both SketchUp and LayOut.
LayOut and DWG Enhancements
- Unified Interface: LayOut on Windows now matches SketchUp’s interface, creating a seamless workflow from 3D to 2D.
- New Drafting Tools: LayOut expands with standalone 2D tools — Fillet, Chamfer, Trim, and Extend.
- Updated Scrapbook Elements: A richer library of ready-to-use window, door, and furniture components has been added to the LayOut Scrapbook.
- Improved DWG Export: SketchUp Tags now translate to DWG layers, text preservation has been enhanced, and each LayOut page exports as an individual DWG file.
Context: Bringing the Real World into Your Model
With improvements in Scan Essentials and Add Location, you can now place your design right into the real world.
Add Location
- 3D Buildings Import: Add existing buildings to your terrain to instantly understand how your design fits within its surroundings.
Scan Essentials Updates
- Texture Projection: Project textures from point clouds directly onto your 3D model for enhanced realism.
- Surface Mesh Tool: Project accurate quad mesh grids in any direction onto your point clouds — ideal for façades and other complex forms.
- Scene Management: Display point cloud visibility settings across different SketchUp and LayOut scenes for consistent and improved visualisation.
Visualisation: Style and Control
Visualisation gets a major boost with greater control and precision — ideal for creating both realistic and stylised representations.
- Ambient Occlusion (AO): Adjust AO colour (Colour AO) and scale (AO Scale Multiplier) for more artistic control in both models and drawings.
- Roughness Control: Fine-tune the surface roughness of photorealistic materials with a new toggle in the Edit menu.
- Diffusion v2 [LABS]: The advanced AI rendering tool now offers even more control, including negative prompts, colour preservation, reference images, and surface editing (erase, paint, sketch) — delivering more realistic output.
Top 5 New Features in Trimble SketchUp
Ready to Get Started?
The latest SketchUp update is now available for all SketchUp Pro and Studio subscribers. Collaboration features will soon also be available in the SketchUp for Web and iPad editors.
