SketchUp UK Blog

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? 

About Elmtec

Elmtec have been the UK distribution partner for SketchUp since 2010, and service a network of UK and Irish resellers. We have over 22 years’ experience within the digital design community.

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