SketchUp for Design
Tutorials, News, Book Companion Materials
Tutorials and News
Latest Posts
Want to Keep Some SketchUp Pre-2025 Materials Around?
Now that SketchUp 2025 has been released, SketchUp’s materials have experienced a significant upgrade. All materials that ship with SketchUp are now PBR (physically-based rendering) materials that look much better than the older materials, which at the time were designed with efficiency in mind. However, that efficiency often came with graininess, unpleasant repeating patterns, and […]
PBR Materials Cheat Sheet (for SketchUp 2025)
SketchUp 2025 introduced a new graphics system for materials: PBR (physically-based rendering) photoreal materials. As you can see in the image above, you can now have shiny, glossy, dimpled, and otherwise textured materials right in SketchUp’s model area. You can then use that new appearance while modeling or when you export images or animations. As […]
Realistic Material Reflections for Interiors with SketchUp 2025 (it’s possible with a TRICK!)
SketchUp 2025 introduced some very nice visualization capabilities: PBR (physically-based rendering) materials and environments. While those are great (especially for exteriors), indoor material reflections are a bit trickier since objects cannot be reflected even with the new PBR materials. In this tutorial I’ll show you how you can create some good-looking reflections (in e.g. floors […]
Random Tutorial Selection
Attractor-Based Scaling with Scale By Tools
A new feature of my Scale By (Image/Attractors/Equation) Tools SketchUp extension is the ability to transform (scale/rotate/move) objects by proximity to other objects (“attractors”). Not sure what this means? Check out the tutorial video above that explains the basic functionality.
Designing 3D-Printable Pendants with SketchUp
In this tutorial I cover several approaches and techniques for creating 3D-printable pendants from SketchUp. This includes designs that need to be hanging in the balance (for pendants, earrings, mobile elements, etc.) as well as those with multiple support points (e.g. for name necklaces). Tutorial Video Links The extensions and websites that I mention in […]
Making SketchUp Objects 3D Printable
In this tutorial I show my basic approach for making SketchUp objects (like the revolved vase from my last tutorial) 3D printable. This video just covers some of the techniques – I explain the process in much more detail in Chapter 6 of my book.