Introduction

Architects are continually seeking ways to streamline their design processes and create stunning, functional buildings. SketchUp, a 3D modeling software, has become a go-to tool for architects worldwide. What makes it even more powerful are its extensions, which can significantly enhance productivity and design capabilities.

SketchUp Extensions: A Brief Overview

Before we delve into the best SketchUp extensions for architects in 2023, let’s briefly understand what extensions are. SketchUp extensions are third-party plugins that add new features and tools to the software. These extensions can range from rendering and analysis tools to advanced modeling capabilities.

Must-Have Extensions for Architects

Sefaira: Sefaira is a game-changer for architects concerned with sustainable design. It provides real-time analysis of energy and daylighting, allowing architects to make informed decisions that reduce a building’s environmental footprint.

Profile Builder 3: Creating complex profiles and assemblies is made easy with Profile Builder 3. Architects can generate intricate moldings, extrusions, and assemblies efficiently, saving valuable time.

Skalp for SketchUp: When it comes to creating detailed construction documents, Skalp is a lifesaver. It simplifies the process of creating 2D drawings from your 3D models, ensuring precision in your architectural plans.

Enhancing Workflow

Fredo6 Collection: The Fredo6 Collection offers a suite of extensions designed to boost your workflow. From parametric modeling with FredoScale to organic modeling with FredoTools, this collection is a treasure trove of time-saving tools.

Enscape: Enscape takes your SketchUp models to the next level with real-time rendering. Architects can explore designs in a virtual environment, making it easier to convey ideas to clients and stakeholders.

Design and Visualization

V-Ray Next for SketchUp: For photorealistic renderings, V-Ray Next for SketchUp is unrivaled. It provides architects with the tools to create stunning visuals that bring their designs to life.

Twilight Render: Twilight Render is a user-friendly rendering extension that ensures your designs look spectacular. It’s perfect for architects who want high-quality renders without a steep learning curve.

Managing Complex Projects

PlusSpec: PlusSpec is a comprehensive toolset for architects working on complex projects. It streamlines the design-to-construction process, allowing for precise estimations and project management.

3skeng Toolset: When it comes to piping and ducting in architectural designs, the 3skeng Toolset is indispensable. It simplifies the creation of complex 3D piping systems, ensuring accuracy in your models.

Sustainability and Energy Analysis

EnergyPlus for SketchUp: EnergyPlus is an energy simulation extension that helps architects optimize building performance. It provides valuable insights into energy consumption, allowing for eco-friendly designs.

SimLab Composer: SimLab Composer offers advanced rendering and simulation capabilities. Architects can create interactive 3D presentations to communicate design concepts effectively.

Detailing and Documentation

SketchUp to Layout: SketchUp to Layout is a vital extension for creating detailed documentation and presentations. It simplifies the process of generating 2D drawings, ensuring clarity in your architectural plans.

Solid Inspector²: To maintain model integrity, Solid Inspector² is essential. It identifies and helps fix issues in your 3D models, ensuring they are ready for construction.

Conclusion

In the ever-evolving world of architecture, SketchUp remains a cornerstone tool for architects. However, it’s the extensions that truly elevate SketchUp to new heights. In 2023, these extensions offer architects the means to create sustainable, visually stunning, and well-documented designs efficiently.

FAQs

Can I use multiple SketchUp extensions simultaneously?

Yes, you can use multiple extensions in SketchUp to enhance your workflow and capabilities.

Are SketchUp extensions compatible with all SketchUp versions?

Compatibility may vary, so it’s essential to check the extension’s compatibility with your SketchUp version before installation.

Are these extensions free to use?

Some extensions offer free versions with limited features, while others require a purchase for full functionality.

How do I install SketchUp extensions?

You can install SketchUp extensions through the Extension Warehouse or by manually placing files in the SketchUp Plugins folder.

Can SketchUp extensions be used for interior design projects as well?

Yes, many SketchUp extensions are versatile and can be used for various design projects, including interior design.

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Solid Inspector 2

Solid Inspector 2 for SketchUp 2014 or later is a plugin or extension that you can use with a registered SketchUp Pro software. It finds and highlights the issues that are preventing your model from being a complete solid.

There are three main kinds of discrepancies that Solid Inspector 2 can detect in a given object: Model not solid, Useless face in model, Inverted face, Hidden lines.

The SI2 will highlight errors in a model and jump from one error to the next, repairing as you go. This gives the extension tremendous usability in confirming and repairing a model’s solid shell. For anyone making solid models or 3D printing, this is an indispensable plugin.

Technical Details

The Solid Inspector 2 (SI2) extension can be found in the Extension Warehouse. The plugin is so popular, that chances are you will see it in the very first screen in the featured or most popular sections; if not, here is the link for the plugin page. The extension is also available in the GitHub repository, you can find it here.

Being an open-source development, you can download and use it for free. The RBZ is fairly small and installs fast. You would have to have Trimble SketchUp 2014 or newer in order to use the plugin. If you are using an older version of SketchUp, you can consider downloading the first version of the tool instead.

Presently the extension comes updated to version 2.4.7, which was released way back in December 2014. It is compatible with both Windows and Mac OS versions of SketchUp, and you can have it in English only.

How to use SI2?

Using the SI2 extension is fairly easy. Just select a group or an object and use any of the above three methods to invoke the plugin. You also have a keyboard shortcut “I” by which you can start using it. A small window will pop up with the list of errors in your model.

In order to check if the model is watertight or not and to ensure that the model can be properly interpreted with a slicer software and 3D printers, SI2 tries to find if your model has any holes in it, if there are any inverted faces, if there are hidden lines in the model, and if there are any useless faces.

In the popup window, you can see the errors concerning the solidity of the object currently selected. You can select each error and fix them, or you can alternatively click “Fix All” at the bottom right corner to correct all the solid shell discrepancies entirely. However, it is not recommended in case of complicated large models since in that case, you should carefully evaluate the impact of each correction on the model.

Note that to use the Solid Inspector 2 plugin properly, you will need to group the faces and vertices into one object first; otherwise, you may get erroneous results.

When invoked, other than the dialog box, the extension will mark your hitherto-unsolid model with red and yellow markers. Red lines mean critical errors that are making the model not watertight, and yellow markers are denoting the “dirtiness” of it. Internal edges and faces will be marked with yellow and holes and inverted faces will go red-marked. With errors appearing on your model, you should use the extension in the x-ray view mode to be able to look inside the model. You can also use the hidden geometry option to view the discrepancies and get an idea of the overall cleanliness of your model.

After all the errors and garbage has been cleaned out of your model, you will get a cheerful smiley message in the SI2 window saying all is cool. You can also select the object and see that it’s saying it is a Solid Group. Don’t panic and remember where your towel is!

About the Creator

Residing in Trondheim, Norway, Mr. Thomas Thomassen is the developer of Solid Inspector 2. More commonly known as Thom Thom to his online patronage, he has been with the Trimble team since 2013. Thom Thom enjoys web designing, 3D modeling and traditional designing and building of objects.

For more information, please watch the video

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It will permit SketchUp to study alongside the capability to generate proxies to your rendering programs.

This SketchUp extension contains some specific capabilities like automated render-ready substances and proxies, geometry simplification. Except, there are a few useful alternatives like scaling, unit conversion, axes/beginning alterations, and plenty others.

Details of the features

Automated render-ready materials

Automatically transform render-ready materials or fine-tune them with some simple mouse clicks.

Automated proxies

With a single click, Transmutr can create proxies for V-Ray, Thea, and Enscape.

Geometry simplification

Streamline high-poly objects with numerous faces down to a few thousands or hundreds.

Direct link with Quixel Megascans Bridge

With a couple of clicks, it is possible to deliver Megascans assets from Quixel Bridge to SketchUp.

Correct units, scale and axes

Scale the model, amend t the origin or modify the Up Axis with just a couple of clicks.

Clean model hierarchy

Transmutr retains the model hierarchy whereas simplifying it to get rid of unnecessary nesting.

To get more details or purchase the extension, go through the LINK

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Lumion Live Sync for SketchUp

Lumion Live Sync is one of the SketchUp Extensions that allows you to establish a live connection, allowing you to model and render at the same time. This will assist you in conveying the sensation of pushing and tugging a real-life structure. When it comes to lower-scale models, it’s a must.

Who can use it? Ranging from intermediate to advanced user

Best for: To visualize your small scale project as you model

System compatibility: Only available for Windows

Pricing: Lumion €1499 | Lumion Pro €2999 | Free educational license in some countries

Free trial duration: 14 days

Unreal Engine

This was made by Epic Games and was previously used for game development. It’s ideal for creating interactive, user-friendly visualizations that can be examined in real-time. The Unreal Datasmith Plugin for SketchUp allows for smooth exports from SketchUp to Unreal Engine.

Who can use it? Ranging from beginner to intermediate user

Best for Fast, real-time rendering

System compatibility: Available for Windows and Mac

Pricing: Free

V-Ray 5

V-Ray 5 has a long history in the arch-viz community as a powerful professional renderer capable of producing polished, photo-real renders for both novices and pros. Such render options are included in V-Ray 5’s current edition of SketchUp Extension, which you should quickly select and adjust to suit your preferences. It has an interactive viewing window that you can utilize while modelling in SketchUp, as well as a premium cloud rendering option that allows you to use your hardware for other things. You can experiment with other inputs or utilize the built-in presets if you’re new to rendering.

Who can use it? It can be used by both beginner and advanced users. It can adapt to suit your rendering knowledge.

Best for Interactive render viewing and also for high-quality professional renders

System compatibility: Windows/Mac

Pricing: It is available as part of SketchUp Studio

Trial: Free for 30 days

Profile Builder 3

By simplifying repetitive operations, this addition cuts modelling time in half. Profiles can be created using simple or sophisticated SketchUp faces and polylines. Simply extend these profiles along pathways to establish a profile member, and then link profile members to create parametrically defined assemblies.

Who can use it? From Intermediate to advanced users all can use

Best for: Creating bespoke and standard profiles for repetitive geometries

System compatibility: Available for Windows and Mac

Pricing: $79 for lifetime access

Free trial duration: 30 days – Download Now

Add Height from Datum

If you need to reference heights during modelling or at a vital stakeholder meeting, you’ll need this plugin. For greater accuracy throughout the design process, just mark and reference the important levels in your design.

Who can use it? From beginner to advanced users all can use it

Best for: Keeping track of key datums within your project

System compatibility: Available for Windows and Mac

Pricing: Free. Register with SketchUcation, an independent SketchUp community forum, to access the download

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Artisan comprises robust subdivision, sculpting, and soft selection tools which can be used for making the followings:-

• Terrain and landscapes
• Furniture
• Characters
• Abstract sculptures and decorative objects
• Fabric, curtains, and pillows
• Rocks, Trees, and Plants

Features

Subdivision Surfaces

• Powerful subdivision algorithm to deal with all types of complicated geometries
• Subdivide and smooth selected faces, groups, or components
• Crease edges or vertices to form hard edges
• Knife subdivide tool for producing loops
• Extrude tool to generate loops devoid of interior faces
• Low-poly, Proxy Mode, automates the process of updating the subsurface geometry as you edit

New Subdivision Features in Artisan

• Accomplish subdivision or smoothing on any selection of faces
• Auto-subdivision of selection boundary faces that leads to cleaner meshes after subdividing
• You may see the subsurface geometry in real-time.
• Proper interpolation of UVs for subdivided geometry
• Quicker subdivision and superior topology

Brush Tools

• Sculpt Brush (sculpt, pinch/spread, flatten, inflate/deflate, smooth/jitter)
• Choose Brush (select faces by performing strokes)
• Paint Brush (paint SketchUp materials on faces with virtual brushstrokes)
• Uniform sculpting mode applying user-defined work plane
• Lock vertices to the user-defined work plane

Vertex Transformation Tools

• Soft Selection
• Soft Move, Rotate, and Scale
• Make Planar (XY, XZ, YZ, or best fit)

Mesh Optimization (Polygon Reduction)

• In comparison to the free Polyreducer plugin, it’s more powerful.

For More information please watch the tutorial

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This SketchUp extension supports SketchUp 2018 and SketchUp 2019.

It is specifically designed for Interior Designers, Architects, Game Developers, Landscape Architects / Civil Design, etc.

Skimp for SketchUp Features

Get rid of slow, bloated models! Skimp retains your model light and prompts by streamlining it to the correct balance of detail and performance.

Choose any object in your SketchUp model, streamline and restore.

Import and decimate models with numerous faces instantly. Skimp can import FBX, OBJ, STL, DAE, 3DS, PLY, and VRML.

Perfect metric-based simplification.

It is possible to truly preview the model prior to importing with the purpose of modifying the scale, orientation as well as minimizing the polygons.

Skimp can significantly lower the size of your SKP file with some simple mouse clicks while retaining the visual appearance of the model.

It is exceptionally rapid and effective for both importing and polygon diminution.

It can sustain model hierarchy.

With skimp, it is possible to identify a metric-based tolerance while simplifying that is useful for CAD / CAM and 3D Printing applications.

Preserve Materials, UVs, and Normals at the time of importing and simplifying.

CLICK HERE to watch the tutorial

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The plugin makes the models smarter and adjustable to design changes.

The new version of the profile builder i.e. version 3 is just been released. It is compatible with SketchUp 2016 and higher versions.

This new version contains 40 new features and the following improvements:-

Span Assembly parts for generating great assemblies.

With the hole tool, parametric holes and openings can be created.

The auto-assemble feature generates quick assemblies with a single mouse click.

• Fix the height of an assembly
• Path Mode
• Build along Multiple Paths
• Smarter Profiles and Paths
• Live Profile Editing
• Build Discontinuous

The users of version 2 can avail of a discount coupon for upgrading to version 3.

To purchase a license, click here profilebuilder4sketchup.com

Go through the following video for the live demonstration of the plugin.

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BoolTools2, an expert module for Trimble SketchUp forms Make or Pro is a marvelous apparatus that sorceries you to supplant the Solid Tools in SketchUp completely. You can make easy strong tasks in your model with only a couple of snaps. This super-simple and the amazing module include some major disadvantages reasonable to most players.

Features of BoolTools2

1. You can play out various strong tasks effectively like Union, Difference, Intersect, Trim, Split, and thus some more!
2. Planned with 3D printing as an objective.
3. Can without much of a stretch work with little, complex items, similar to stray pieces!
4. Can deal with settled solids easily.
5. Not at all like some other strong devices modules, BoolTools2 doesn’t make another article. It just adjusts the first one.
6. BoolTools2 doesn’t change the Layer and the Names of the article it chips away at.
7. New component: single-tick Object Union instrument – you can click a solitary gathering of objects to blend/associate every one of the solids in it. Works with settled solids too!
8. Practically all tasks (with the exception of the undeniable ones) produce 3D printable solids.

Some History: Around 30-40 months before SketchUp Pro 8 discharged the Solid Tools, (route back in Dec 2008!), the first BoolTools module for SketchUp was discharged.

This apparatus gave a reasonable method to play out some fundamental boolean activities and worked with both SketchUp Make (free) and Pro. All things considered, the Pro Solid Tools didn’t exist yet, and nobody even realized that SketchUp was thinking about making this a long time ago.

The first BoolTools module was in reality valuable and helped fill an important need in the SketchUp toolset for a long time (particularly for Make clients). In any case, it unquestionably had a few constraints, particularly when it came to managing littler complex articles.

Success of BoolTools2

Fruitful boolean activities rely upon high-accuracy 3D crossing points, something that the inner SketchUp geometry motor battles with on occasion. Indeed, even Pro Solid Tools battles with this issue.

That is the reason such a large number of Solid Tools clients have embraced the duplicate and ‘scale-up’ work process to keep their Solid Tool activity from falling flat. The Pro Solid Tools has additionally had some other long-standing impediments that the MindSight Studios have enhanced with BoolTools.

This SketchUp extension is available in mind.sight.studios BoolTools2

To get an online demonstration, watch the following video tutorial.

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Trimble SketchUp is famous for its flexibility, which comes from its ability to integrate many extensions or plugins from various sources. Though only SketchUp Pro and above can do this, it is still an awesome way to customize and empower this lovely modeling and rendering software.

One such great extension is SketchOSM by PlaceMaker.

SketchOSM by PlaceMaker

The main functionality of the extension is two-fold. First, it lets you create 3D buildings that add site context to your model. You can do it by establishing a constant, which, in the equation of a curve or surface, can be varied to represent a family of curves or surfaces.

Secondly, you can share these buildings with the world by directly uploading them to OpenStreetMap. Yes, you guessed right, this is how the plugin gets its name, by combining the software and service names.

If you don’t know, OpenStreetMap is an enormous database of geoinformation, available to everybody on earth. It is accessible and editable by anyone.

It’s a completely free service, with no hidden charges or advertisements. Many devices and services already use them like car or phone GPS, websites, apps, and of course, millions of people.

Key features of SketchOSM by PlaceMaker:

A. It is compatible with SketchUp 2017 and above. Yes, the new SketchUp 2020 melds fine with it, we tested.
B. It is active in the Windows version of SketchUp only, at this time. The developers are working on other versions.
C. There is a geolocation tool embedded in the plugin.
D. It is linked to DigitalGlobe, which can provide a reference image of the location for tracing buildings.
E. You can import OpenStreetMap street lines to see existing buildings for reference.
F. You can create simple, single-part buildings, or multipart complex buildings.
G. Latest version out: v1.0.2
H. This plugin is completely free!
I. Only available in English, for now.

This SketchUp extension is available in extension warehouse extensions.sketchup.com

To get an online demonstration of the latest version, watch the following video tutorial.

The post New Horizons in Parametric World Modeling – SketchOSM by PlaceMaker appeared first on SketchUpFamily.

Features

• It places the point clouds into SketchUp to continue rapid modeling.
• This extension is able to work with standardized point clouds and Trimble RealWorks projects.
• It has integrated tool board which can control the visibility and selectability.

Requirements of setting

• It can be used in Microsoft windows 8.1 and 10. 64 bits is required for this.
• The required processor is minimum 2.8 GHz or more than that.
• Minimum 16 GB RAM is needed for this.
• It also has a super feature. Thai is 3 button mouse.
• The required VGA card is OpenGL 3.3 compatible with minimum 1 GB VRAM. OpenGL 4.4 with 3 GB VRAM is recommended for best performance of the extension.

SketchUp license

• Users have to subscribe to SketchUp Pro for using the Trimble scan essentials extension.
• Latest version is required.
• Users also can use the 30 days trial version which is free of cost.

Instruction of trial installation

After downloading the trial version users have to open SketchUp and go to the window menu > extension manager > install the extension. After that users have to select the file from the download list and press open.

Subscription

This extension is not free of cost.

Compatible software

Trimble scan essentials extension is compatible with Trimble RealWorks, Trimble business center, Trimble X7, Trimble SX10, Trimble TX8, and Trimble TX6.

Advantages of Trimble Scan Essentials

• Add models directly to the point clouds and lock on to either the scan data points or SketchUp elements to certain accuracy.
• Integrated model inspection tool activates a point cloud to model comparison for checking the accuracy of modeled elements.
• It also has advanced tools to view the point cloud data like ‘look inside’ features, outline, shading, colorization, and the section cuts.

Improvement of this extension

Trimble announces the Scan Explorer extension for SketchUp users. This extension also allows the users for loading a point cloud. it extracts construction points, and planes into the 3D model. The workflow was a bit speedy. The cloud will never load into the modeling situation but it remains in the viewer dialog.

This extension also works with the point clouds and it is processed with Trimble RealWorks software. It is also able to load clouds in E57, LAS, and LAZ format. These formats help this tool to work with other data sources.

Wrap up

In this article, we discussed Trimble scan essentials for SketchUp professionals, features, settings requirements, SketchUp license, trial installation instruction, subscription, compatible software for Trimble scan essentials, and advantages of this extension.

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