SketchUp

Collaboration

Give and receive feedback in the SketchUp environment, linked to specific geometry. You can share your model with all stakeholders and view it in real time. Recognizable icons show you exactly where someone is in the model and what they are doing at that moment. This allows you to move more quickly from various feedback rounds to a final design, without having to leave your design environment!

Environments (Image-Based Lighting – IBL)

Create a realistic sense of place with environment lighting conditions that interact with photoreal materials. 360-degree HDR or EXR images act as light sources and reflect off materials, enhancing realism. These images (skyboxes) can serve as visible backgrounds or purely as light sources.

Photoreal Materials (Physically Based Rendering – PBR)

Achieve richer, more realistic visuals in SketchUp. PBR materials accurately depict texture and light absorption, helping designers make precise material and finish choices.

Ambient Occlusion (AO)

Enhance depth and realism with or without applied materials. This global style highlights edges and corners, adding visual emphasis.

Shadow

With a single click, you can display shadows. Depending on the location, orientation, date, and time you specify, SketchUp will instantly and accurately show the sun’s shadow on your 3D model. Drag the sliders to adjust the shadow in real-time.

Sections

Visualize cross-sections in a simple and beautiful way with SketchUp. Simply define where the section will be placed with a simple plane and then drag it over the model to visualize the section.

3D Warehouse

Access millions of ready-made 3D models, 2D elements, and materials from the world’s largest free 3D library. Minimize the time spent finding that one object with the AI-driven image and material search function in 3D Warehouse.

Styles

Present your design in various styles, such as hand-sketch. Additionally, you can add a watermark and fog.

Animation

You can present your SketchUp model in a video. Select all the views you want and turn them into “scenes”. This allows the camera to smoothly transition from view to view. Export it as .mp4, and you can view it on any computer!

Dynamic Components

Attach various information to your components, such as different colors, dimensions, or rotation. With a single click, you can then modify the properties of your component.

BIM

BIM Classifier: Link standard IFC BIM object types to geometry (e.g., walls, floor slabs, roofs, etc.) to improve compatibility with other BIM tools.
IFC Export: Export an IFC (Industrial Foundation Classes) file of your model, including geometry and valuable metadata, for use in other BIM applications.
IFC Import: Ability to import IFC files from other BIM applications.

Reporting

Generate tabular reports about your SketchUp model. Display the number of used components and their colors, so you know what you need to make your design a reality!

Geo Modeling

If you have a specific location in mind for your project, you can directly open the Google Maps window in SketchUp, select and load the location. Then, you can model your project on the map (with an accurate 3D terrain).

SketchUp for Web

This web version runs entirely in your browser, giving you access to SketchUp’s most popular drawing tools anytime, anywhere.

SketchUp for iPad

Combine the ease of hand-drawn sketches with the power of 3D. Users can intuitively sketch in 3D using the Apple Pencil and quickly create 3D shapes and configurable components with smart drawing tools.

Trimble Connect

Collaborate with clients, designers, contractors, and stakeholders on BIM projects. Besides being integrated into many Trimble products, Trimble Connect also works with files from other developers. This allows the structural engineer, installer, and estimator to work on the same project. All information is stored in the cloud and can be viewed, managed, and shared there. You always work with the latest version. This significantly reduces construction errors and ensures a faster project turnaround.

PreDesign

This tool provides designers of buildings and outdoor spaces with all the information they need to incorporate climate influences correctly into their initial concepts.

LayOut

With LayOut, you can place your model in a template and present it in various views. Customize your model by adding text, images, and other graphic elements like arrows and circles. You can create multiple pages to present your model both on screen and on paper!

V-Ray Rendering

With a SketchUp Studio Subscription, you gain access to the V-Ray rendering module. V-Ray is a fast, high-quality, and comprehensive rendering solution for SketchUp. It provides all the lighting and rendering tools you need to create professional, photorealistic images and animations. It helps you make better design decisions and captivate your (potential) clients with lifelike images of your 3D designs.

Please note: You only get V-Ray for SketchUp—no plugins for other CAD applications are included.

3D Scan Data

Quickly transition from complex scan data to a 3D proposal by importing point clouds from land surveys, mobile mapping, photogrammetry, lidar sensors, and drone recordings. Don’t waste time modeling contextual details; instead, model directly on your point cloud using SketchUp’s own Scan Essentials toolbox.

Please note: Scan Essentials is Windows only

Revit Importer

Seamlessly convert Revit models into SketchUp files to enhance collaboration between project phases and different design teams. Revit families and layers are translated into groups, components, and tags, saving you hours of model cleanup.

AI Render

AI Render is an innovative, AI-driven feature within SketchUp that allows users to quickly generate conceptual images. By combining the geometry of your SketchUp model with a textual description (prompt) and possibly a preset style, AI Render creates multiple visual options in a short time. This helps designers tremendously in the early stages of the design process to explore and visualise ideas, atmospheres, and material options, without requiring immediate detailed modelling or time-consuming render work.