Lauren Donnebaum, Author at Elmtec Sketchup

SketchUp for Absolute Beginners

Posted on September 09, 2022December 12, 2023 by Lauren Donnebaum

Maybe you’ve seen it in action. Perhaps you’ve seen the awe-inspiring results for yourself. You might be a complete newbie. Whatever your situation, you’re keen to learn SketchUp and SketchUp student seems like an excellent way to kick start the journey. Welcome to our SketchUp tutorials for beginners. We hope you find it inspiring. SketchUp is the easiest way to learn 3-D modelling, which explains why some people dive right in. But if things don’t go right straight away, it’s frustrating. We’re taking things right back to the beginning here. By the end of this article you’ll know what you can do with SketchUp, how to set it up, understand the interface, learn the basics and find your way around the many brilliant free learning resources on offer. To make your first SketchUp experience a fantastic one, read on.

What You Can Do with SketchUp

So you’re new to SketchUp. You’re going to love this. Let’s kick off with insight into what can be achieved with SketchUp. For a start, it’s super- easy to learn SketchUp 3D drawing. The software just happens to contain every function you could imagine. Simple to use with an infinity of complex results, this is the ideal tool for drawing in 2D and outputting your work to dramatic 3D.

All you need to do is get a few basic skills behind you to be able to create professional 3D designs. It’s perfect for bringing bright ideas to life quickly and accurately. It won’t take you long to master the art of making accurate, scaled 2D and 3D drawings. Harnessing LayOut to create professional elevations, plans and sections gives you even more flexibility to make magic happen.

You can also use LayOut to generate powerful presentations and influential vector illustrations, and they’re just the tip of the iceberg. SketchUp Pro comes with a wow factor to help you delight your clients and convince colleagues in the shape of realistic walkthroughs, impressive flyovers and animations that explain a thousand words in an instant.

No wonder SketchUp is so widely used by professional architects, interior designers, graphic artists, product designers, game designers and more. Basically if you want to draw it, you can draw it in Sketchup.

Setting up SketchUp

Here’s where you start. First, how to download SketchUp. There are several versions, one of which will be perfect for you. As a total beginner, you’ll probably want to download SketchUp for Higher Education or a free 7 day SketchUp trial. Then there’s SketchUp Free. They all give you everything you need to be inspired, get designing, finish projects and present them the SketchUp way. All for no fee.

SketchUp Free lets you discover basic 3D modeling on the web.
SketchUp Pro is a desktop application you use via your browser, Chromebook or iPad. It gives you access to 4M + pre-built 3D models, an augmented reality mobile viewer, and unlimited cloud storage as well as all the design functionality you can imagine. It provides 2D design documentation, quick insights for design research, XR headset viewing, and access to plugins to extend SketchUp functionality even more.
SketchUp for Higher Education is yours with SketchUp Studio, available in three versions for students, educators, and universities. The student version allows you to make stunning accurate 3D models. The educator version is all about using intuitive, powerful modelling tools in the classroom. And the university version is tailored to using the core modeling suite, designed for your uni.
SketchUp for Schools is a free version for primary or secondary schools signed up to G Suite for Education. It lets youngsters enjoy free, intuitive 3D modeling tools designed to boost kids’ creative expression and develop exciting skills from a young age. It is both highly accessible and easy to experiment with.

Get to Know the Sketchup User Interface

Dive in unprepared and you might get lost. Avoid that by dedicating time to really understand the user interface, one of the best ways to learn SketchUp quickly. It’s lovely to use and won’t take you long to become confident in what it offers, and where everything is. The icons are clear and obvious, and everything is where you expect it to be.

Every version of SketchUp, including SketchUp Student, provides you with an intuitive, easy to learn 3-D drawing tool. But its simplicity hides a complex treasure trove of functionality. It makes a lot of sense to run before you walk, so exercise patience! Plenty of the more complicated and involved functions are hidden from view to keep things visually clear, clean and logical. You’ll quickly learn where they are, and as soon as you do you’ll fly.

Explore the menus in detail. Make it your mission to get familiar with all the amazing features and functions that don’t show up in the toolbars. Treat it like an expedition into the nuts and bolts of SketchUp, an exciting place where everything is possible when you know where to look. Once you’ve done that, it’s a dream to actually use the software. You’ll be so much more fluent from the start.

The SketchUp Quick Reference Card is your best friend. Everyone loves it, from highly experienced users to beginners like you. Print it out if you like, stick it in a frame, tape it to your desk, or bookmark the online versions for instant access to clever shortcuts, hot tips and handy hints. It’s an exciting destination revealing the sheer flexibility of this cool 3D design tool.

Watch SketchUp Video Tutorials

While we all learn in different ways, most of us benefit from digesting information in more than one way. That’s where SketchUp video tutorials come in, an excellent way to know useful stuff quickly in a clear and inspiring visual context. Take a look at the videos presented from the SketchUp Campus, which we cover in the next section. And hook up with SketchUp on YouTube, your source of a multitude of video content covering a huge range of SketchUp essentials, basics, projects, and more.

There are specific YouTube playlists to dive into, including SketchUp Basics for education. Created for K-12 educators and students, it’s all about getting started with making models in SketchUp. It reveals everything you need to know about launching SketchUp, choosing a template, knowing toolsets, and navigating within your model, ideal for absolute beginners. At just under three minutes long it’s a quick win, and there are eight in the set. There’s also a 4-part suite of videos about how to get started in SketchUp. And that’s just for a start.

Learn SketchUp Basics

It’s just like any new skill. You need to learn SketchUp basics before you can get properly creative. Now’s the time to learn the absolute SketchUp basics, and SketchUp Campus is a great destination. The SketchUp Fundamentals course. It gives you the fundamental building blocks for all your SketchUp models, covering the toolset and sharing some excellent tips and tricks for complex and simple functions. Take a look at Part 1 of the course and see how you get on.

There’s more. Loads more. Campus contains a host of fantastic courses, many broken down into digestible chunks you’ll enjoy. Commercial Interiors, for example, contains 22 Lessons and the Layout Design Package contains 18 Lessons. You can explore how to render SketchUp to Photoshop, find out all about Scan Essentials, discover LayOut essentials and more.

Get to Know SketchUp Shortcuts

Everyone loves a shortcut and there are plenty of them to learn in SketchUp, all created to make designing easier. SketchUp Shortcut keys are a series of instant ways to activate tools and commands via your keyboard. Because they speed things up, they support a fester, smoother design workflow.

Here’s an example. Say you’re using the R key to activate the Rectangle tool. You don’t have to move your mouse away from your drawing to a toolbar or menu. And you don’t need to interrupt your thoughts either. Inside SketchUp you can look up and use shortcut keys via the Search tool. For every tool and command, you’ll find a brief description and a reminder of the keyboard shortcut assigned to it. You can also use mouse shortcuts, the most important of which activates the Orbit tool. All you do is hold down the mouse scroll wheel.

If you’re using Chrome or Microsoft Edge you’re in luck. They are the best ways to experience shortcuts in SketchUp for Web.

If there isn’t a shortcut for the tools you use most, you can make your own. It’s all about customising shortcuts. Either add a shortcut to a tool that doesn’t have one, or reassign a default shortcut to any tool or command in Search. To assign a shortcut, find the tool in Search. Then hover over it and click on the shortcut key, or the empty box where you want to put your own shortcut.

Learning and using keyboard shortcuts for SketchUp will save you so much time. Every shortcut you master will mean you can get rid of another toolbar, giving you an even cleaner, simpler interface to enjoy.

It’s good to start by learning shortcuts for tools that you use most. Here are some popular default shortcuts:

Select (Space bar)
Line (L)
Eraser (E)
Arc (A)
Rectangle (R)
Circle (C)
Push/Pull (P)
Paint Bucket (B)
Move (M)
Rotate (Q)
Scale (S)
Tape measure (T)

Join the SketchUp Community

We recommend you join the SketchUp Community Forum to learn SketchUp fast. It’s a friendly and welcoming place where you can either post a question of your own or explore a multitude of existing questions already answered by dedicated lovers of the programme.

There’s more hot community action over at the SketchUp Reddit Community, which has more than 26,000 members and dates back to 2010. More than two decades of expertise awaits you, complete with all sorts of inspiring posts from users all around the world.

The SketchUp Facebook page is a lively place to find inspiration, knowledge, insight, tips and more, frequently updated to keep things interesting. And we’re on LinkedIn as well, the business network where the world’s professionals showcase their wares. Last but not least you can find us here on Twitter UK, home to our latest tweets.

It’s good to know there are so many places you can engage with, connect with and interact with SketchUp pros and community members. Social media give you another key resource to support learning excellence from the get-go.

Use SketchUp Plugins and Extensions

SketchUp plugins and extensions are both the same kind of thing. They’re tools to give you added functionality. The SketchUp extensions collection is categorised into animation, developer tools, energy analysis, import and export, landscape architecture, rendering, scheduling, 3D printing, architecture, drawing tools, film and stage, interior design, productivity, reporting , plus text and labelling. As you can tell, it provides an enormous suite of free resources created for and by the community. You’ll find them here in the Extensions Warehouse.

The SketchUp Plugin Store, Sketchucation, is full of excellent plugins for every imaginable function. Universal Importers and Curve to Arc creation, Crop Selection and Find Gap plugins, urban design plugins, plugins for scale, boundaries, cuisine and more.

Use the SketchUp 3D Warehouse

Whatever version you use – SketchUp Student, Pro or something else – the 3D Warehouse is an enormous resource containing hundreds of free to use, ready-made items. It’s a library of custom third party extensions designed to help optimise your SketchUp workflow. Complete with 600+ extensions and a team of developers who are constantly creating new ways to hack your workflow, it is categorised into ‘industry’ and ‘workflow’. It provides a wealth of useful tools, all of which integrate smoothly with SketchUp Pro. Categorised in the same way as the Extensions Warehouse, it offers users an exciting and very wide choice of imagery.

Take a look at the wonderful animals category for a start. It contains all sorts of artwork to download and use, including wall art, drawings and paintings, wallpaper and textures. Then there’s Building Materials, stuffed full of essentials and creative approaches to the imagery you need. If you need it and don’t fancy drawing it yourself, it’s probably already in the 3D Warehouse.

Shadow an experienced user

Last of all, can you shadow an experienced user? You’ll learn SketchUp faster than ever when sitting next to someone who’s using the programme fast, fluidly and confidently, and it’ll give you an exciting insight into the pleasure of using this top class 3D design tool. Happy learning!

School Yourself in SketchUp

Posted on September 07, 2022February 09, 2024 by Lauren Donnebaum

You’re keen to get cracking with one of the world’s best-loved 3d design tools. But how do you learn SketchUp, and are there any handy SketchUp tutorials to play with? Luckily it’s actually really easy to learn SketchUp, and there are masses of excellent tutorials of every imaginable kind, all designed to help you hit the ground running. Many are created by a huge community of happy SketchUp users, providing intuitive and enjoyable ways to discover the magic of the software and everything it can do for you. In fact it’s such an easy tool to use that it’s perfectly possible to teach yourself SketchUp in no time, supported in every way by an abundance of cool online resources. By the end of this guide you’ll know exactly where to go for help, guidance, information, and inspiration. Here’s your expert guide into how to learn SketchUp online, free!

SketchUp Reseller Resources

Let’s start off with SketchUp Reseller Resources, often overlooked and well worth exploring. Did you know your UK Reseller is a treasure trove of essential insight? An authorised reseller is someone who has partnered with SketchUp and its distributors to make buying and using SketchUp as easy as possible. Our SketchUp Pro resellers are local experts who are delighted to provide consulting, training and support in your language and time zone, wherever you happen to be. Go direct to elmtec-sketchup.co.uk to discover more.

How to learn to use SketchUp in more detail? There’s also a top class support hub to tap into, where you’ll find all sorts of useful information about Getting Started on SketchUp. It covers everything from your SketchUp subscription to setting up your first Trimble account, SketchUp Technical Support, how to become a 3D modelling wizard, using Layout for SketchUp designs, extending into SketchUp plugins, and 3D modelling and rendering. The hub also contains a load of guides and articles into specific challenges, things like SketchUp for interiors, joinery and carpentry, students and much more. There are some FAQs about SketchUp Pro on the page as well, plus links to fast help via the SketchUp Community, SketchUp tutorials, and free trials.

SketchUp Campus

Next, let’s take a look at SketchUp Campus. What is SketchUp Campus? SketchUp Campus is an exciting in-depth learning hub packed with SketchUp-approved courses, all created by SketchUp’s team members to make learning convenient and simple. It’s good to know you can translate the SketchUp tutorials in there into more than 100 different languages.

The courses are a series of short videos and quizzes, designed to make learning easy and fun. Go to Campus to find out about rendering with Photoshop, Layout, and SketchUp Fundamentals. It’s all quick and simple. The quiz answers give you instant feedback, letting you see straight away where you need to improve. Take the courses at your own speed, do them again if you like, whenever you like. Track your progress, resume where you left off, stop and start whenever you feel in the mood or the need arises. It’s all there for you, clearly laid out.

All you do is sign in with your SketchUp login or Google account to choose a track and begin learning. Click here to sign up and get going, and sign in either with your SketchUp login or your Google account. The learning library is still growing, with new items coming on board, so you’ll be able to keep developing your skills. There’s something for everyone, whether you’re a newbie or an advanced user.

YouTube

YouTube is one of our most popular resources, packed with exciting SketchUp tutorials content in a visual format that many of us enjoy best of all. Click your way to the SketchUp YouTube Channel, search for detailed, in-depth guidance in the form of topics and tutorials, or grab yourself a handy Quick Win with a bite-sized video less than 90 seconds long, a pleasure to consume. Many of them will save you hours and hours of work in future. It makes sense since SketchUp is a visual tool – visual tutorials and lessons are unusually powerful in this context.

Take a look at our popular YouTube channel and explore a thrilling collection of video tutorials including Set Design from Netflix’s number one show THE SANDMAN Live!, How To Scale in SketchUp for iPad, Modelling a P-51 Mustang live, How to Push/Pull in SketchUp for iPad, and Woodworker DEFENDS Pocket Hole Design. There’s even a really good, clear video explaining Sketchup Layout.

Aaron from the SketchUp team shows you how to set up Scenes, Styles, and Sections and use Outliner to make it quick and easy to generate drawings in LayOut.

Udemy

There are some really cool SketchUp tutorials available from Udemy, like this one that details all the SketchUp tools used to model the extraordinary Barcelona Pavillion, available for £15.99, reduced from £59.99. It teaches you how to model your architecture, landscape, interior design or industrial design project from scratch to the finished design. It reveals the assignment of materials for subsequent rendering, and shows you how to create technical plans, elevations, sections and 3D images. You even learn how to create beautiful animations in video format, to display your work in an exciting interactive way.
You don’t need any prior knowledge about SketchUp. You get a full 5.5 hours of on-demand video, a downloadable resource, full lifetime access, access on mobile and TV, and a Certificate of Completion. And that’s just one of the SketchUp courses available on the platform.

SketchUp Community Forums

Head to the SketchUp Community Forum, a friendly and approachable place where you can ask a question of your own and get a fast answer. You can also search through a multitude of user questions by topic. All you do is sign up, log in, and take advantage of an enormous collection of forum subjects, from Optimising Cutlist Efficiency to Setting the Clipboard, Scan Essentials snap to section, Object Flickering problems, Clipping Bug functionality and more.

SketchUp Reddit Community

Reddit is another top resource for learning SketchUp. Almost eight thousand subscribers provide awesome tips, tricks, feedback and inspiring examples of designs to fire up your creativity, and there are 25.9K members at the time of writing. Right now the front page of the SketchUp Reddit community contains posts about how to convert an image to CNC design and convert an image to a 3D model in SketchUp, help creating topo surfaces from contour lines, SKP + Enscape, and GPS relative positioning.

SketchUp on social media

Once you’ve nailed the basics, there are loads of wonderful plug-ins and extensions to play with, designed to up your SketchUp game. Our SketchUp UK Facebook and SketchUp UK Twitter accounts are where you’ll find a collection of excellent video tutorials for SketchUp shortcuts, along with our pick of the best extensions, for example PlaceMaker and Profile Builder. This is where you can also tap into inspiring content about people and businesses using SketchUp to boost their workflow and their creativity. Now you know how to find the best SketchUp tutorials and how to learn SketchUp, what will you create first? Why not test drive SketchUp Pro here?

Rendering in SketchUp: 5 of the Best SketchUp Rendering Plugins

Posted on August 31, 2022February 09, 2024 by Lauren Donnebaum

You want a brilliant SketchUp rendering plugin? One that’ll render your work into a stunning image designed to convince, inspire, and clarify your ideas for clients and other stakeholders? No worries! While it’s great that there are so many plugins to choose from, on the other hand it’s handy to have a curated list of the best performers in town. This article reveals five of the very best SketchUp rendering plugins, perfect when you’re busy researching rendering plugins for SketchUp but are short of time. We do the hard work for you. Read on for a shortlist of the best. By the end of this article you’ll know which rendering tools to go and test before making your final choice.

What is Rendering?

First, let’s define what happens with the SketchUp rendering plugin. It’s called Rendering and it involves generating a two or three-dimensional image from a model via an app. It’s usually used in architecture, video games, animated movies, simulators, special effects for TV, and to visualise designs in real-life detail.

The techniques and features of a rendering tool vary depending on the project, but it always increases design efficiency, reduces design costs, and provides the level of clarity and inspiration needed to help stakeholders sign off a project.

There are two kinds of rendering, pre-rendering and real-time rendering. Both kinds of rendering use three main computing techniques: Scanline, Raytracing, and Radiosity. The difference is in the speed your computer can do the job. Real-time rendering is usually used to make super-fast interactive graphics and gaming, in an environment where user interaction is unusually high. Dedicated graphics hardware and pre-compiling of information has made real-time rendering so much more powerful than it used to be.

Pre-rendering is better for projects where speed isn’t a factor. The calculations used to make the image harness multi-core central processing units instead of dedicated graphics kit, making it most useful for animation and visual effects, where top quality photorealism is essential.

Rendering in SketchUp involves using a variety of really good plugins and extensions. Here are five of the most popular, all highly rated by the team at SketchUp and the program’s users.

V-RAY

The V-Ray Sketchup rendering plugin has been transforming SketchUp models into photorealistic renderings and animations for a few years. It has fast gained popularity, partly because it’s so easy to install and get started with, giving users access to the power of the world’s most-used renderer to enhance the speed and flexibility of SketchUp. No wonder V-Ray is among the most widely used Sketchup rendering tools. It comes with all this great functionality:

Real-time rendering – helping you create stunning visual presentations in seconds to convince clients, managers, teams and other stakeholders
Real-world cameras
Animation & virtual reality
Stylized renders to take you beyond photorealism into the thrilling realm of cartoons, illustrations, even watercolour paintings
Light gen: Simulate a range of natural lighting options for interior and exterior scenes with just a few clicks and easily select the right ambiance
Light mix: Create dozens of lighting scenarios from a single render — without re-rendering.
Lighting analysis
Materials library
Texture map
Improved sky model & custom orientation
Frame Buffer

How much is V-Ray for SketchUp? V-Ray for SketchUp costs $350 per year. You can also buy the V-Ray Collection, which includes 15 fantastic products for $699 per year. Where to get it? You can download V-Ray from the ‘My Products’ page in your user Trimble account. Find out more here.

V-Ray in SketchUp, ‘Las Tunusas’ – Author credit: David Santos

V-Ray in SketchUp, ‘Train Pavillion’ – Author credit: Alex Hogrefe

SU Podium

SU Podium is a SketchUp rendering plugin favourite with architects and interior designers. They love the way it’s so easy to generate detailed and life-like architectural visualisations from a detailed SketchUp model fast and easily. The SketchUp Render Plugin SU Podium uses a high-end, biased raytracing engine plus a remarkable physical sky system, along with a set of carefully calibrated presets, all of which make SketchUp rendering straightforward and enjoyable. Because SU Podium runs 100% inside SketchUp itself you get the high quality rendering you want without having to click out of SketchUp. In a world where every minute counts, it matters. It’s very easy to use, too. And it does all this:

Raytracing – a rendering technique that makes incredibly realistic lighting via an algorithm that traces the path of light, then simulates the way it should fall
Global illumination via algorithms designed to create hyper-realistic lighting to 3D scenes
Realistic materials so the final result is as convincing and lifelike as possible
Sun and sky, plus artificial lighting, means anything is possible
Panoramic rendering
HDR image-based rendering

How much is SU Podium? SU Podium costs $259 for a permanent licence, with upgrades ranging from $19 to $59. You can download SU Podium here.

Example of SU Podium for SketchUp from http://supodium.zenfolio.com/

Example SU Podium for SketchUp from http://supodium.zenfolio.com/

Check out more incredible panoramic views here!

Enscape

Enscape is another very popular SketchUp rendering plugin, a great virtual reality and real-time rendering plugin for SketchUp. It takes just one click to start Enscape. Within seconds you’ll be experiencing your project fully rendered, with no uploading to the cloud or exporting to other programmes.

All the changes you’ve made in SketchUp are available instantly for you to evaluate in Enscape, letting you explore different design options fast and present projects to clients in the right kind of inspiring detail. If your client wants to see how something different will look, you can reveal the changes in gorgeous 3D straight away, even in VR. If you want to create stunning fly-bys and walkthroughs, you can also do that from inside the plugin. It comes with these fab features:

Real-time walk-through tours to inspire and delight clients and other stakeholders
Virtual reality presentations so real it’s like seeing the genuine design, built
An asset library
Collaboration tools to help with team-led projects
Varied export functions

How much is Enscape? Enscape costs $67.90 per month for a full version license users can share across multiple machines. It costs $39.90 for a fixed-seat license for a single machine and there’s a 14-day free trial to play with. You can download Enscape here.

Thea

Thea Render for SketchUp is a very popular, highly rated and very fast SketchUp rendering plugin, another of the best Sketchup rendering plugins. It combines powerful Thea rendering engines with the simplicity of SketchUp. It delivers biased, unbiased and interactive render modes – including GPU support – to your fingertips inside SketchUp view, and all this makes rendering in Thea a joy. There’s a built in library and the tool is compatible with handy Sketchup extensions including Skatter.

Thea Render comes with these key features:

Interactive rendering automatically updates rendered image in real time as you make changes, great for transforming objects, changing and creating materials, changing the lights, cameras, and almost any other part of the scene you’ve rendered
Advanced material editor
Light editing tool
Section cuts
Adaptive tracing
Relight Editor for creating infinite images from just one render
Proxy Material editing
Proxy creation
AI Denoising, accurately distinguishing real image details and ‘noise’
Fog and cloud presets for atmospheric realistic lighting effects

How much is Thea Render? Thea Render costs $280 for an annual licence, and $675 for a 3-year licence. You can get the plugin here.

LightUp

LightUp is a really good tool for creating high quality renderings as well as beautiful stills, compelling AVI movies and cool panoramas. A popular choice, it’s also one of the best SketchUp rendering plugins. It comes with all this:

Real-time walkthroughs to inspire colleagues and clients
Light sources to give your design a hyper-real feel
Lux and Insolation analysis – insolation measures the power of the sun’s light over time and surface area, and lux is defined as lumens per square metre
Hi-res renderings, stills, AVI, panoramas

How much does Light Up cost? Light Up costs $189 for an annual licence, and $349 for a perpetual licence. There’s a 7-day free trial available, and you can download the plugin here.

Where to Find Sketchup Extensions and Plugins

This is just a shortlist of the best SketchUp rendering plugins, of course. There are many more rendering tools available, plus many other useful SketchUp extensions for every imaginable design and presentation circumstance. You can find, explore and download Sketchup Extensions in the popular Extension Warehouse, here. You might want to check out a multitude of excellent SketchUp tutorials here, and download SketchUp Pro here.

If you’d like a free trial of any of these products, send us an email (sales@elmtec.co.uk).

SketchUp Quick Reference Cards Crib Sheet

Posted on August 26, 2022December 16, 2022 by Lauren Donnebaum

Are you researching SketchUp pro quick reference cards? Not a problem – we have the info you need, and it’s all in this article. We’re going to take a good look at the SketchUp quick reference card 2022, your go-to resource for the latest version and perfect for printing. Read on to find out where to find SketchUp Quick Reference Cards, and exactly how to use the latest SketchUp pro quick reference card. Now’s when your 3D design life gets even easier, so let’s go. By the end of this article you’ll know the score.

What is the SketchUp Quick Reference Card

On-screen help is always useful. But sometimes, isn’t it just easier to reach for something you can pick up? The SketchUp Quick Reference Card, also called the QRC, is an easy-to-print guide for all the SketchUp tools and their modifier keys. We’ve created a range of them to make your SketchUp life better.

Use the SketchUp pro quick reference card collection to update your existing skills. Keep the relevant SketchUp quick reference card 2022 handy when you start using SketchUp and you’ll learn to model even more quickly and efficiently. Even advanced users find the insight they contain seriously useful. It’s clearly laid out and contains all the facts you need to make the most of the latest version of SketchUp.

What is in a SketchUp QRC?

A clear, attractive at-a-glance key to symbols in the Large Tool Set, Standard Views, and Dynamic Components
An easy-to-navigate list of Tools, Operations, and Instructions for a fast, smooth workflow

The information in the SketchUp pro quick reference card saves you time because you don’t need to click away from your design. It’s an instant reference you can literally put your hands on in a second. Keep things digital with bookmarks or print it out. Pin it up so the knowledge you want is in front of you whenever you need it. You can even frame it in a custom wood picture frame designed in SketchUp. Nice!

Keep this SketchUp cheat sheet handy through 2022

There are versions for Windows and Mac
We have reference cards for all SketchUp Pro versions – and for updates

· You can download QRCs for SketchUp Layout, too

Where to Find SketchUp Quick Reference Cards

You can download a PDF of the SketchUp quick reference card 2022 from this page:

· Another useful source for quick reference cards – including the Layout tool

Using SketchUp Quick Reference Cards

This quick-view crib sheet gives you all sorts of useful insight in seconds. The full-colour Toolset icons make identifying everything easier, and having them in front of you means they’ll sink into your consciousness fast. The sandbox terrain symbols, the standard view icons, and every other icon is clearly represented as it appears on your screen.

Most of us like to consume knowledge in more than one way, so it’s good to have a physical resource to refer to. It’s just as effective on-screen. This is great for learning the SketchUp interface.

If you’re staying digital, use the left of your mouse to Scroll, Click-Drag, Shift+Click-Drag, and Double-Click. And use the right of your mouse to Zoom, Obit, Pan and re-centre your view.

An example from the SketchUp quick reference card 2022

Let’s take the Line Tool as an example.

Alt: locks the current inference direction
Arrow keys: lock direction. up=blue, right=red, left=green, down=parallel/perpendicular
Length: specify the line length by typing a number followed by Enter

Can you see how useful this’ll be to your everyday design life? If you’re new to SketchUp, go here to download SketchUp Pro and here to explore our massive collection of tutorials.

Orbit From Home: 10 at-home learning resources from SketchUp

Posted on August 19, 2022December 16, 2022 by Lauren Donnebaum

SketchUp is one of the most popular 3D modeling and design programs in the world. And while it’s more commonly used by professionals in the architecture and engineering industries, it’s a great tool for anyone who wants to create 3D models and designs.

Want to design mock-ups for a home renovation project? SketchUp is perfect for that. On the other hand, maybe you’re an aspiring furniture designer, or you just love to tinker around with 3D printing. SketchUp can help you with that, too!

Best of all, there are so many ways to learn SketchUp online. Whether you prefer watching video tutorials, listening to podcasts, or taking your time reading case studies and guides, there’s definitely a SketchUp learning resource out there for you.

Read on to discover 10 of the best at-home learning resources from SketchUp.

How to Start Learning Sketchup

In case you’re wondering, “Can I learn SketchUp for free?” The answer is a resounding yes!

Aside from SketchUp’s own tutorials (which are excellent, by the way), the SketchUp user community is also super generous with their time and knowledge.

For instance, YouTube is packed with SketchUp walkthroughs, how-tos, and even whole channels dedicated to the program. Likewise, googling “SketchUp tutorials” will pull up millions of results from every corner of the internet.

What we’re saying is that you can definitely learn SketchUp online without spending a dime!

Learn Sketchup Online

To help you get started, we gathered 10 learning resources from SketchUp you can try right now. We include a bit of everything, from fundamentals to more specialized learning, extensions, and more.

These are all available online, and most of them are for free. Learning SketchUp at home lets you set your own pace. Go as fast or as slow as you want, skip around, and come back to topics later if you need to. We do recommend bookmarking them for easy reference, though.

Ready to get started? Let’s jump in!

1. Learn Sketchup Fundamentals

This SketchUp Fundamentals course is an official and free course from Trimble. It’s a comprehensive introduction to SketchUp, and it covers everything from the interface to modeling techniques.

The course curriculum contains 12 sections, starting with Downloads. This includes the exercise files you’ll need to follow along with the course. You can also jump into the “Quick Start” section, which is a series of short video tutorials covering basic concepts like SketchUp Navigation, Component Bases, Applying Color, and more.

If you’re a total newbie to SketchUp, we suggest following the course in order. But if you’re already familiar with the basics and just need a refresher, feel free to jump around and check out the sections that you want to review.

2. Learn some Sketchup Quick Wins

SketchUp Quick Wins are some of our favorite SketchUp tutorials! In less than 60 seconds, you can learn a new SketchUp skill that will make you a more productive and efficient SketchUp user.

This SketchUp Quick Win video, for instance, will teach you how to use the Push/Pull tool and modifier key to make new geometry. The video is only 0:41 seconds long, complete with an example and walkthrough.

Tip: After watching the Quick Win video, head over to the comments section! It’s usually filled with nuggets of wisdom from the SketchUp community.

3. Develop your Sketchup Skills

You’ll want to save this one if you’re a beginner! SketchUp created an entire YouTube playlist geared toward helping you develop your budding SketchUp skills.The SketchUp Skill Builder playlist contains over 287 videos at more or less 10 minutes each. Watch and learn useful techniques like how to model stair handrails, move walls, peel a cube, rotate with move, and other cool skills.

4. Discover the Sketchup Podcast

This one’s for all the auditory learners out there. The SketchUp Podcast is a great way to keep up with the SketchUp community while you’re on the go.

The podcast features interviews with SketchUp users and community members, as well as discussions about the latest SketchUp news. You can listen to it on your favorite podcasting app or on the SketchUp website. You can also save them for later if you prefer to binge-listen!

5. Learn from Customer Case Studies

Ever wished you had a SketchUp mentor guiding your way? SketchUp’s Street Cred series is close enough!

Street Cred is a series of case studies that feature veteran SketchUp users and how they’re using the software in their workflows. We love the sheer variety of case study topics – they really show you limitless ways you can use SketchUp in your profession.

Some of our favorites include how a comic artist uses SketchUp for his debut, real-life construction projects that used SketchUp for pre-visualization, and an in-depth look at how real companies use SketchUp in their design-build processes.

6. Make the most of the Sketchup Youtube Channel

The SketchUp YouTube channel is a goldmine of SketchUp content, and we highly recommend subscribing to it!

SketchUp’s content creators have a way of making even the most complex topics digestible. Aside from tutorials (Quick Wins, Skill Builder, Square One), there are also other interesting playlists like Success Stories from SketchUp users from around the world.

On top of that, they also host SketchUp Live, a live stream show where SketchUp experts share tips, tricks, and insights about the software.

7. Make the Most of Your Sketchup Pro Subscription

Finally gave in and got a SketchUp Pro subscription? It’s one of the best investments you’ll ever make! Start maximizing your subscription by learning the awesome features that only Pro users have access to, such as Trimble Connect, SketchUp Viewer, and SketchUp LayOut.

Describe other products people have access to as a SketchUp Pro Subscriber!

8. Find the Best Extensions and Plugins

SketchUp already has lots of powerful features, but extensions open up even more ways to customize your experience! From one-click rendering and mirroring to productivity boosters, there’s an extension for just about everything.

Not sure where to start? The Sketchup Extension Inspection YT playlist is a fantastic resource that does all the research for you! The playlist showcases some of the most useful plugins out there, such as the 3D Offset plugin, Material Resizer, Visual Merge, and so many more.

9. Learn how to make and customise 2D components

This basic tutorial is a super fun one! The SketchUp Skill Builder: Drawing a 2D Figure tutorial will teach you how to create and customise 2D components using the Line and Paint Bucket tools.

Of course, you’ll need the perfect subject – and that’s you! Pick a favorite photo of yourself, hit play, and you’ll have your own scale figure before you know it.

10. Excellent Sketchup Youtube Channels for Architects and Designers

Hungry for more SketchUp content? Here’s a giant list of 40 SketchUp YouTube channels for you! This list is loaded with SketchUp users from the US to Asia and beyond, all of whom use SketchUp in their own projects.

The majority of the topics cover interior design and architecture subjects, so if you’re in those industries, you’ll definitely find this list useful.

Final Thoughts

These 10 resources are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to learning SketchUp online. With so many amazing content creators out there, the only limit is your own willingness to learn! So what are you waiting for? Start exploring and level up your SketchUp skills today!

Love for LayOut, SketchUp: An Introduction

Posted on August 05, 2022December 16, 2022 by Lauren Donnebaum

LayOut is one of the most underrated features in SketchUp, and we’ve always wondered why. If you’re not using LayOut, you’re missing out on a lot of potential!

2D drawings do get the job done when it comes to presenting work to clients. However, LayOut can make your design come to life by transforming SketchUp models into impressive diagrams, scaled prints, CD sets, and more.

Better yet, LayOut makes the presentation itself less nerve-wracking. This nifty tool even has intuitive presentation features so you can focus on your material, not on the logistics.

We want more people to see the value in LayOut, so we’re showing it some love in this post! Read on to find out what LayOut is, what it can do, and why it deserves a place in your design workflow.

What is LayOut

SketchUp is one of the best tools out there when it comes to creating 3D models. Still, creating an outstanding design is one thing. Having the collateral to show it off is another.

That’s where LayOut comes in – this brilliant tool was developed to help designers, architects, and other creatives communicate their work through detailed and beautiful 2D architectural documents. In other words, it takes your SketchUp models and turns them into presentation-ready 2D drawings, diagrams, prints, and more.

LayOut is built into SketchUp Pro, so you can’t use it without SketchUp. There’s no separate LayOut app, extension, or plugin.

That’s because they’re a team – SketchUp models and LayOut drawings work together to create stunning, comprehensive design documents.

LayOut Features

Once you start using LayOut in SketchUp, your days of wrestling with 3D models and trying to get them to look right in a 2D document are behind you.

Here are some of the features that make LayOut such an incredible design tool:

1. Automatic and dynamic updating

Every page you create in LayOut is connected in real-time to your SketchUp model.

So, if you make a change to your SketchUp file, it’ll automatically update in LayOut – no need to go in and make changes manually. It’s a massive time-saver, and you don’t have to worry that your LayOut documents are ever out-of-date.

2. Vector drawing tools

LayOut comes with a handy set of vector drawing tools. This means you can add text, dimensions, arrows, and other markups to your LayOut documents – all without having to leave the program.

This is also convenient during a presentation, when clients and other stakeholders might have questions or suggestions about your design.

3. Print and export HD documents

Once you’re done putting together your LayOut document, you can print it out in high resolution or export it as a PDF, image, or CAD file.

Every single detail in your design will be captured, so you can be confident that everyone who sees your documents will be seeing your best work.

4. Annotate and explain in real time

LayOut for SketchUp empowers you to present your work as dynamically as you design it. In addition, you can annotate it with whatever you need – materials, lineweights, dimensions, callouts, and more – to ensure that your designs are clear and easy to understand.

5. Produce construction docs

If you’re an architect or construction professional, LayOut was made for you. With its powerful tools and dynamic updating, you can easily create construction documents at each stage of the design process. No more missed details or out-of-date drawings – just accurate, reliable construction docs that everyone can understand.

As you can see, LayOut doesn’t just complement SketchUp. Instead, it amplifies its capabilities and creates a better experience for both you and your clients.

The LayOut SketchUp Interface

Aside from being helpful, LayOut also happens to be easy on the eyes. The interface is designed for intuitive use, so you can focus on your work and not worry about how to use the program.

Here’s a quick tour of the LayOut interface:

The Menu bar: This is where you’ll find most of LayOut’s available commands, including those for adding and arranging elements, navigating pages, and more.
The Default toolbar: You’ll find the most common design tools here, such as Select, Line, Text, Label, Erase, Style, Join, and Start Presentation.
The Document area: This part is where the magic happens – the Document area is where you SketchUp images and models go. After inserting them, you can then add dimensions, text, shapes, and anything else you need to create your final design.
Tray and Panels: If you look at the right side of LayOut’s screen, you’ll see panels that appear to be stacked on top of each other. These panels are how you access various options for fill, text and dimension styles, etc.
Status bar: At the bottom of LayOut’s window, you’ll see a gray box. This is the Status bar. On the bar’s left side are helpful tips for the tool you’re currently using. On the right, you’ll find the Zoom menu and the Measurements box. We recommend making a habit to glance at the Status bar every so often – it lets you know every time your document is autosaved by LayOut.
The Zoom Menu: Being able to zoom in and out is important when you’re working with detailed designs. The Zoom menu is how you do it in LayOut. Select your preferred zoom value from the menu or use one of the other zoom options, such as Zoom To Page, Zoom Selection, and more.
The Measurements Box: The Measurements box displays the coordinates for the current position of your mouse cursor, as well as the dimensions of any selected entity. You can also use the Measurements box to input specific values for entities, such as lines, rectangles, and polygons.

Those are the basics of the LayOut interface. To give you an even more personalized experience, LayOut developers even made it possible to customize the toolbar based on your workflow and preferences.

You can make the toolbar icons smaller or bigger, add your favorite commands to the LayOut toolbar, establish global preferences for backups, companion applications, startup templates, folder locations, and so much more!

Creating Documents in Layout

Are you ready to start creating in LayOut? Let’s take a quick look at how to create a new document in LayOut and how to insert a SketchUp model into the document you created:

To create a new LayOut document:

First, open LayOut. You’ll see the Welcome dialog box.
In the Welcome dialog box, you’ll be able to select a LayOut template.
Next, adjust document settings like orientation and paper size.
Once you’re happy with your settings, save your LayOut document.

To insert a SketchUp model into your LayOut document:

First, go to the LayOut document where you want to insert the SketchUp model.
Then, from the menu bar, select File > Insert.
After that, an Open dialog box will appear. Navigate to the file for your SketchUp model and click Open.
Next, after inserting the SketchUp model into your LayOut document, you can now start designing it to put the spotlight on the best features of your 3D models.
Need to update or change the SketchUp model? Simply go back to SketchUp, make your changes, and then update the model in LayOut. All your changes will be synced automatically!

Finally, it’s time to show off your work to the world (aka your clients). This is perhaps one of our favorite things about LayOut – it makes giving presentations a breeze!

You can present the design right from LayOut itself. Access this feature by selecting View > Start Presentation. You can also use the default toolbar and click on the Start Presentation icon.

Clicking either of these options will take your LayOut document full screen. Now you’re ready!

Play animations, navigate seamlessly between pages, and change the view of inserted SketchUp models – all with just a few clicks. In addition, you can control every aspect of your design, from the camera angles to the annotations, so you can be sure that your audience is seeing exactly what you want them to see.

Wrapping It Up

We’re excited for you to see how much LayOut can do for you. With its user-friendly interface, brilliant tools, and customisation options, we’re confident that LayOut will help you work smarter and have fun while you’re doing it.

Still have questions about LayOut? Watch our tutorial on Getting Started with LayOut!

SketchUp for Architects

Posted on August 03, 2022December 12, 2023 by Lauren Donnebaum

Are you researching SketchUp for architects? Good move! SketchUp is brilliant for architecture, your logical, simple and highly creative solution to stunning architectural drawings and remarkable designs. Perfect for representing hyper-realistic interiors and exteriors, it’s exactly what you need to impress clients, convince stakeholders, and share your ideas with colleagues and managers. SketchUp architect is a comprehensive, flexible tool set that brings your imagination to life in no time with superb 2D and 3D design. If you work in architectural design it’s an enjoyable way to achieve great things quickly and easily. And it’s rich in resources with masses of tutorials to tap into as well as a multitude of brilliant plugins and extensions. So let’s go on a voyage of discovery into SketchUp architecture. By the end of this article you’ll know exactly why it’s such a good idea to design buildings in SketchUp.

SketchUp Tips for Architects

First of all, as a SketchUp architect you’re never short of cool resources. There’s an abundance of excellent tutorials and guidance for architects, however experienced you are and whatever your skill levels. Take a tour of the SketchUp website to join the latest 3D Basecamp Conference, grab a Bootcamp ticket for top class training, or do both.

You’ll find a free trial to download and test drive for a full 7 days, more than enough time to get to grips with the programme. There’s SketchUp Campus to explore, for in-depth SketchUp training at your own pace. There’s a list of expert SketchUp Trainers who can help you, and a whole load of top class video content to consume on YouTube, including a three part series about learning SketchUp Architecture.

There’s a Help Centre stacked with SketchUp Pro tips, tutorials, and user guides. Plus forums to ask your own questions and find answers to existing questions, release notes to update you on every new version, and – last but not least – SketchUp Quick Reference Cards to make your design life even easier, faster, and more enjoyable.

SketchUp Plugins and Extensions for Architects

SketchUp architect plugins and extensions give you a huge resource supported by an enormous community of keen and creative users. No wonder this is one of the most popular digital design software programmes. Large companies contribute, as do indie developers working on exciting new plugins and extensions, delivering a growing wealth of functionality to users. Harness the right plug-ins for a specific task and you’ll save time and hassle. There’s a vast amount to choose from, easy to narrow down by category or industry, or via reviews from the architectural community.

Plugins and extensions are much the same thing, simple tools that do very specific things for designers in no time at all, often via clever shortcuts. You might want to choose from an abundance of realistic-looking trees to save having to design trees yourself. There’s a free plugin called Architextures, which you use for creating and editing seamless textures, bump maps and hatches. 3D Bazaar gives you high quality render-ready content at your fingertips. ConDoc Tools optimises Layout and SketchUp for architects and interior designers. Instant Roof Nui does exactly what it says on the tin, creating amazing roofs in no time. The 3D Tree Maker is another popular choice for SketchUp architecture, as is Pushline, a super-simple and fast way to click an edge, or preselect and click on it, then push it.

SketchUp 3D Warehouse

The SketchUp 3D Warehouse is a vast library of custom-made third-party extensions created to optimise your SketchUp workflow. It is also packed with handy resources to support architectural design excellence, stashed in the ‘architecture’ category, along with building products and much more. You’ll find a collection of excellent 3D components relevant to architectural design including traditional windows and casements, full architectural design examples, and the same for interior designs.

This is your SketchUp architecture go-to workflow optimisation resource. It contains more than 600 extensions, with a team of developers working full-time to hack your workflow. You can tap into industry and workflow categories. Simply choose a pain point in your modelling or choose your sector to see a list of exciting extensions to ease your workflow. Every extension integrates smoothly and directly into SketchUp Pro. This is how you create beautiful photorealistic renderings in seconds, bringing your work to life in fresh new ways. You can model anything in a few clicks to level up your drawing skills. There are even dozens of extensions to prepare your model for 3D printing, designing and cleaning up solid shapes with ease and flair. That’s the way to do it!

Rendering in SketchUp

Rendering in SketchUp is a dream. As a SketchUp architect all you do is make your way over to the extensions warehouse to discover a wide variety of excellent rendering tools for SketchUp, including the top notch choices V-Ray, SU Podium, and Thea Render. You can integrate useful software into SketchUp simply via the Extension Warehouse then make stunning, fantastically realistic renders.

Combining rendering software with SketchUp is often all you need to deliver outstanding professional results. You can imagine how creating a hyper-real image of your design for clients, colleagues and other stakeholders to examine makes life so much easier. People can see exactly what you intend from the design. The lighting is completely realistic, whether it’s internal lighting or light from the weather outdoors. In a nutshell, rendering makes architectural designs easier to understand, more attractive, more realistic and easier to digest.

3D Architectural Walkthroughs in SketchUp

An architectural walk-through is like magic, an exceptional way to reveal your design in all its realistic glory. So what is a 3D architectural walkthrough? It’s an interactive 3D virtual tour of a property’s interior and exterior, and it’s a remarkably powerful visual tool. This is where SketchUp architecture really comes into its own, and the impact is quite something. All you do is use Sketchup along with rendering extensions from the Extension Warehouse to enable the creation of engaging 3D walkthroughs. As you can imagine they really bring architectural designs to sizzling life – enabling architects like you to showcase their work professionally. When impressive presentations are the name of the game, it’s a winner.

And the tech? Architectural walkthroughs are animations designed to reveal 2D designs, drawings and plans in 3D. It’s a proven way to help architects realise ideas.

Accurate SketchUp Measurement Tools

Obviously, accuracy is key to your SketchUp architect workflow and your success in architectural design. It’s good to know that Sketchup not only aces 3D design, you can also easily convert your work into 2D plans and elevations. There are loads of great measurement tools in SketchUp to ensure 2D drawings and plans are always accurate. And the software lets you change your designs dynamically whenever you like, as often as you want.

We recommend you always use the Measurement Tools provided in Sketchup, simply because the biggest challenge for architects using SketchUp is making sure you align models on the right plane. You have to think about the X, Y, and Z axes at every stage to avoid losing the plot! A change to the model on one axis will cause changes on the others, and the same goes when you want to move the model around. This leads to your lines failing to match up when you switch views.

Your best tools in this situation are the Tape Measure and Protractor tools. They mark out the three main axes so they’re always visible. And that means you can see exactly how your changes affect the overall model. Neat.

Now you know how SketchUp architecture will help you create ‘amazing’ every day. Have you tried it yet? Why not give it a free trial?

Matthew Wilson Garden & Landscapes Experience…

Posted on September 03, 2021July 14, 2023 by Lauren Donnebaum

Matthew Wilson

Today, we are joined by Matthew Wilson, an award-winning garden and landscape designer, writer, radio and television broadcaster and lecturer. He has extensive garden design experience having worked on a wealth of projects – from small urban gardens to master planning estates – and can offer a full range of horticulture design and consultancy services to suit his audiences needs.

Tell us about how you came into a Landscape Architecture career

By accident! Well almost by accident. I started my career in horticulture working in public gardens, which culminated in ten years in senior positions for the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). I ended up taking on a lot of design responsibility in my RHS roles, including some now highly regarded features such as the Dry Garden and Clover Hill at Hyde Hall in Essex, and the Winter Walk and Main Borders at Harlow Carr in Yorkshire. It resulted in me moving into a creative development role with the RHS, and from there as Design Director for York based Landscape Architects The Landscape Agency, and then eventually to setting up my own practice, MWG, based here in rural Rutland.

You're a multi-hypenate extraordinaire! Is there one area of your work you favour over another?

Garden and landscape design is very much the ‘day job’, and I am immensely fortunate to love what I do. But I have always embraced opportunities that have come along, so over the years I’ve presented a TV series for Channel 4 (The Landscape Man in 2010), written three books on gardens and landscapes, contributed to The Financial Times gardening pages and, since 2010 I have been a panellist on BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time. I’m a living example of variety being the spice of life I guess, and I enjoy the variation greatly. But there is nothing quite like designing a garden or landscape from nothing and seeing it come to fruition, and being able to share the thrill of that journey with the client.

In twenty-five years in the garden design and horticulture industry, I’ve been fortunate enough to gain experience in many different areas. The diversity is part of what makes horticulture so interesting! That broad range of knowledge is reflected in the services I can offer clients, be it a full design service, master planning, horticultural advice or planting design.

Matthew Wilson

How does SketchUp fit into your creative process?

Like a lot of designers I have tried different software solutions over the years. I trained in the days when AutoCad was in its infancy, and standing at a drawing board was still a skill worth learning. I love drawing, and I still use it to help me get ideas of the ground, and to be honest I have always found DWG based software a bit of a sterile environment for developing ideas – brilliant for fine detail of course, but not a creative boat floater. I first came across SketchUp 12 years ago, and immediately felt at home with it. It allowed me to express my ideas in a way that felt more akin to pencil and paper. I taught myself how to use it (note to potential users, this is a great testament tot he usability of SketchUp but is NOT the way to get the most out of it) but in the last few years have undertaken regular training through one of the professional bodies I’m a member of, The Society of Garden Designers.

I now build models ‘properly’, and as a consequence SketchUp has become even more integral to how I work as I know that the effort I put in to making the model as accurate as possible is rewarded by the amount of information I can then extract from it, such as volumes of cut and fill for example. Increasingly I find contractors welcome 3D visualisations, especially when tying to express something where the construction has multiple layers. And of course clients respond with far more enthusiasm to three dimensional expression than a flat plan.

Any 'go-to' plug-ins or rendering software you like to use with SketchUp?

My most used extensions are TIG.PointUp, which is a really helpful tool when terrain modelling, 1001 bit tools, which has a lot of stuff on it including real time savers such as a step building feature, various array tools and a hipped roof builder, and Weld, which stiches lines together into a whole making it much easier to then offset or use the push/pull tool.

For quick rendering while I’m still in the model I use Twilight Render, which is a simple but very useable free rendering software. For client presentations I use Lumion 11 and Twinmotion. I have refined my approach to developing my SketchUp model to work with rendering software over the years, as there are some features in SketchUp, particularly items in the 3D warehouse like furniture and some of the 3D plant models, that are better than those in Lumion, for example. In general however I tend to export a ‘clean’ SketchUp model into the rendering software and then add plants and ephemera. My preference is to use live sync where I can.

What are your favourite kind of projects to work on?

I’m fortunate enough to have a wide range of highly variable projects on the go at any one time, from historic properties requiring a light touch intervention to blank canvass sites, to corporate headquarter and luxury hotels. The one thing that elevates projects to ‘favourite’ status is when the clients are really engaged in the process. It makes it an even more enjoyable journey.

What do you think are the most exciting garden design trends coming into view at the moment?

Our collective enforced ‘captivity’ has resulted in a lot of people rethinking how they live. A common thread among new projects is the inclusion of elements that are aimed at making the outdoor space more fun to use, and more integral to the overall living experience. So hot tubs, natural swimming ponds and pools, a lot of emphasis on outdoor dining, gathering around a fire pit on chilly evenings, and growing edible plants, even if its only on quite a small scale. Being unable to holiday abroad for more than 12 months has made us all miss these ‘luxury’ elements of the holiday experience, so if you can have them at home, why not?

Vray Rendering – World-Class Rendering with V-Ray 5 in SketchUp Studio

Posted on April 14, 2021December 12, 2023 by Lauren Donnebaum

Do you need to generate high-quality images from your 3D designs to excite your clients and make better design decisions? SketchUp has teamed up with Chaos to bring you world-class rendering capabilities as part of a single subscription: SketchUp Studio.

V-Ray’s robust rendering engines mean you can take your 3D models from idea to art by adding global illumination and artificial lights, real-life materials and textures, atmospheric effects, and more. With the added benefit of V-Ray Vision, you can render in real-time too! Tweak designs on the fly — without ever leaving SketchUp. Talk about a time saver!

With a SketchUp Studio subscription, you will not only get access to V-Ray Next for SketchUp, but you can also use Chaos Cloud — rapid cloud rendering that frees up your machine for other work! That means you don’t always need high-end hardware to make V-Ray run with SketchUp: it’s all powered in the cloud.

Why V-Ray 5?

V-Ray 5 now offers both real-time and photoreal rendering options and creates a complete visualisation package for architecture, engineering, and construction professionals. The power of rendering lies in its ability to tell a convincing visual story. It removes ambiguity around your design, material, and aesthetic intent, and bridges the communication gap between project stakeholders. There’s no confusion around how your concept sits in context, what materials it’s made of and how it will look bathed in sunlight, or obscured by fog. With V-Ray, you can select appropriate rendering styles for each stage of your project; conceptual, interactive, and real-time renders to get internal buy-in, fast renders for comparing design options, or photorealistic renders when it’s time to ramp up the excitement for the final build. V-Ray can flex to help you get the job done.

Real-time rendering

Save time and modelling energy by taking advantage of V-Ray’s robust, web-based content library called Chaos Cosmos — full of high-quality, smart 3D content that you can download directly into your design (think: people, vegetation, furniture, accessories, and lighting!). These render-ready components can be viewed as low-resolution polygons in the SketchUp viewport to help increase model performance, rasterized objects in V-Ray Vision, and high-resolution ray-traced objects in V-Ray 5 when you’re ready for the final output. This curated library is accessible directly in the V-Ray toolbar and allows you to search, download, and edit the 3D content. Please note that you must use your Trimble ID sign-in credentials to download any content.

Render-ready content library

How to access V-Ray

Your SketchUp Studio subscription gives you unlimited use of V-Ray Next for SketchUp on your CPU or GPU. You also get access to Chaos Cloud which allows you to render your 3D models straight in the cloud, freeing up your computer to do other work. We get you started with 20 Chaos Cloud credits for the first 90 days of your subscription and you can always buy more. How many renderings you get for each Cloud Credit depends on how complex your model is. For example, an interior space with lots of reflective objects and surfaces will take up more credits than a flower.

Who should use it?

We think everyone should give it a try because it’s easy to learn for beginners and super powerful for experts. However, we see the most value for anyone whose work will greatly excel with high quality renders.

Why? V-Ray helps communicate your design story, get buy-in from clients and stakeholders, and make better design decisions upfront. We’re sharing four different use cases to help inspire you and your team to do your best work.

V-Ray User Examples

1. Designing Exteriors

Designing a building, large development or landscape? Communicate your true intent and get buy-in by adding architectural entourage, materials, textures, lighting, atmospheric and volumetric effects. Rendering in V-Ray will add realism and finesse to SketchUp models large and small.

2. Designing Interiors

So, you’re working with a client that wants to understand exactly the look and feel of a space before the build? We’ve got you covered. With V-Ray rendering, you can add natural and artificial light sources to show how daylight and interior lighting will affect the space. Not only that, but you can also add customization with objects (think fixtures, furniture, and fittings), materials, and textures. Your design will look like a final photo of the space…it’s that real!

3. Designing Retail Spaces

Building out a retail space can be costly, with factors such as visual displays, lighting, flow, and spatial configuration leaving little room for error. With rendering, you can visualize, refine, and finalize your concepts before you go to the final build phase. High-quality renders help you catch any issues upfront.

4. Developing Animations and VR experiences

The ability to render animations and fly-throughs can help communicate your design narrative at any phase. Take the opportunity to “wow” potential clients with rendered animations during bids and competitions. Alternatively, generate excitement and interest for commercial properties during the final design phase. Immerse stakeholders in the design using rendered panoramas and 360-degree photorealistic exports for virtual reality viewing.

For active SketchUp Studio subscribers: V-Ray 5 is now included in your current subscription. Not a SketchUp Studio subscriber? We’re excited to offer this plus all of the other powerful design products in Studio at a very accessible price of £549 for your first year — a 40% discount from the retail price! Offer ends July 30, 2021.

Ready to start rendering? Learn more about how V-Ray can fit in your workflow —or try it free for 7 days!

SketchUp Studio is a Windows-only offering and includes only a Windows installer for V-Ray.

V-Ray is not currently available to Higher Education Studio Subscription holders. Please contact your reseller for rendering options.

Welcome to the Studio family, Scan Essentials!

Posted on April 13, 2021January 26, 2024 by Lauren Donnebaum

Who’s ready for some good news? It wasn’t that long ago that we announced the integration of Trimble’s Scan Essentials with SketchUp, and the positive response has been astounding. That’s why we are thrilled to announce that Scan Essentials (a Windows-only extension) is now included in our Studio subscription! This addition comes with a few new features to boot. That’s right, if you’ve already subscribed to SketchUp Studio, bringing point cloud files into SketchUp just got so much easier.

If you’re not familiar with Trimble’s Scan Essentials, let’s get you up to speed. Scan Essentials is an extension that adds a ton of value early on in your workflow because it lets you import, view, and model directly on point cloud data in SketchUp—accurately capturing the “as-built” condition of your project. It equips first-timers and pros to quickly turn rich point cloud data into accurate 3D models with ease through a variety of file formats (E57, RWP, LAZ, TZF, LAS, PLY). You no longer have to waste time painstakingly modelling contextual details—simply import your point cloud, and model directly on it using SketchUp’s native toolbox.

By leveraging Scan Essentials, you’ll see an increase in workflow efficiency, better integration between project stages —from site surveys to design, construction, and post-construction—supporting greater success on complex projects. Here are some of the top features that we’re especially excited about:

Model directly on the point cloud for precise drawings
Adjust colour and transparency with the intuitive Point Cloud Manager
Compare your model against the point cloud to ensure model accuracy with the Inspection tool
Zoom in and focus on specific sections with the Clipping Box
Simultaneously view all your scan data and 3D models in the field
Create section views with the advanced toolbar
Align scan data with your model
Add point clouds with ease using the Rotate and Move Tool
Significantly speed up your modelling process by incorporating configurable 3D Warehouse models onto your point cloud
Document point cloud data in 2D by exporting directly to LayOut

Scan Essentials also plays nice; it is interoperable with a wide range of industry hardware and software including all of Trimble’s 3D laser scanners, other laser scanners, and even photogrammetry datasets from drones!

Don’t have access to laser scanners or drones? No worries. With Scan Essentials, you can import PLY file formats generated from scanning applications on mobile devices (e.g. iPhone 12 and iPad Pro). Scan Essentials truly makes the scan-to-BIM workflow accessible to everyone.

SketchUp + Scan Essentials In Practice

We knew importing point cloud data would facilitate some incredible workflows, but as always, we are so impressed with the level of work produced by our SketchUp community.

We asked Colorado-based SketchUp expert and landscape architect Daniel Tal, to share insights about his work importing scan data from drones right into SketchUp via Scan Essentials.

Daniel is the 3D visualisation and drone manager at Denver-based firm, DHM Design. He’s been in the landscape architecture industry for 22 years, focusing keenly on site design and infrastructure. From modelling in SketchUp to flying drones that retrieve point cloud data, let’s see how Daniel makes this tech combo work for him.

What inefficiencies has Scan Essentials resolved in your workflow?

To me, the workflow is great when everything can be done in SketchUp, and this integration really allows for that to happen. I save anywhere from a couple of hours to days worth of time by not having to jump between platforms to show point cloud data, and I can have models geolocated and geometrically accurate. Ultimately, being able to stay single-sourced throughout the whole project is a huge benefit.

What benefits have you gained from using Scan Essentials in your workflow?

One of the best things about SketchUp is the ability to bring other models in as reference files—it really makes everything worth it. It is the only platform I know that allows you to import essential data and model from it.

When it comes to presenting projects to clients, we are able to do live presentations right in SketchUp which is great. In our work with federal agencies, we can use their lidar files, manipulate them and incorporate them right into the project.

What does your typical workflow look like?

One of my main goals in using Trimble’s technology suite is the ability to leverage ALL the data together to deliver greater value to the client. Using Trimble SiteVision we gather the ground control points we need for the drones.

The drones transverse the site collecting data points, capturing topographic data and precise measurements that enable us to accurately model the terrain. The drone data serves as a viewing and assessment tool which, when incorporated into construction data, enables us to create a full dataset in SketchUp that can be shared with the entire project team. This comprehensive data set allows us to create interpretive graphics, gives us a strong base to kick off design and enables us to showcase the before and after of a project.

How do you make the data valuable and affordable?

Well, without the drone data we would have to rely on satellite imagery or a surveyor for aerials, which can take a long time. Now, we get to fly the drone and get aerial and point cloud data for context almost instantly. We can then take this data and use it in our proposal work, showing clients we are ready to start the process immediately.

With scan information, we don’t have to model the context from scratch, it’s already in there. This means that we can quickly go from design, in 3D model or SiteVision, to construction and administration, to post-construction review.

“Ultimately, the point cloud visual is the richest data of all, but the benefits it brings to the whole workflow are invaluable.”

Thanks for sharing your workflow with us Daniel!

Daniel’s work is just one example of the combined power of Scan Essentials and SketchUp.

We have no doubt that bringing these two platforms together not only increases the value of your Studio subscription but also opens up a world of opportunities within your modelling workflows. We can’t wait to see the incredible designs you create.

Explore Scan Essentials

To learn how to use it, check out our in-depth course in SketchUp Campus.

Ready to start using Scan Essentials? If you’re already a SketchUp Studio subscriber, simply install Scan Essentials on your Windows machine or Bootcamp on iOS by going to your Account Management Portal and navigating to Scan Essentials under “My Products”. Once you click download, you will be directed to Extension Warehouse to complete your download.

After you download Scan Essentials, check out some sample point clouds to practice with in your SketchUp model. (Note that this sample is a large file and it will download automatically once you click the link.)

Not a Studio subscriber? We are super proud to offer this plus all of the other powerful design products in Studio at a very accessible price of £549 for your first year — a 40% discount from the retail price! Offer ends July 30, 2021.

Need to upgrade your subscription to Studio? Follow these steps.

Contact sales

As always, let us know what you think about this product update in our forums.

Please note that Scan Essentials is available for Windows users only, and is not available in a SketchUp Studio for Higher Education subscription.

Terms & Conditions

SketchUp Studio offer valid until July 30, 2021 11:59 PM MST. Discount only applies to one term of a SketchUp Studio subscription. If you are a current SketchUp Studio subscriber, you can renew at this price for one term only. Not valid on subsequent terms. Offer not valid in Mainland China. Does not apply to previously placed orders. May not be combined with other offers. Other restrictions may apply.