Alex' collection of SketchUp tutorials and news posts that talk about all SketchUp topics: modeling, rendering, scripting, extensions, fabrication, etc. The five most recent tutorials and news posts are listed below. You can find everything else in the topic category archives:
News Blog,
SketchUp Tutorials,
3D Modeling,
Extensions,
LayOut,
Making,
Rendering,
Scripting,
SketchUp Basics
John W. Olver Design Building under construction (Photo: A. Schreyer)
As you may know, in addition to my SketchUp book, I am the lead author on the book "Fundamentals of Residential Construction" (now in its fifth edition) as well as the co-author of the recently published book "Mass Timber: Materials, Design, and Construction". Both books are published by John Wiley & Sons and are available in print or as e-books wherever books are sold.
I recently created the website buildingfundamentals.com as a place to post companion materials for those books but also blog about the wider construction industry - with a particular emphasis on wood buildings.
If you find those topics as interesting as I do and want to hear more about them, then you can now subscribe to my new site by email. That way, you receive a newsletter as soon as I post something. Follow this link to get started:
Subscribe to buildingfundamentals.com via email
Of course, you can also just visit...
Now that version 2026.1 of SketchUp is rolling out, we are getting a clearer picture of where SketchUp's AI implementation is heading. As you likely know, the SketchUp folks had previously released SketchUp Diffusion, a rendering and visualization solution. At the last Basecamp, they then also teased their AI Assistant, which was implemented as a chatbot that could show help topics, write Ruby code, and do various other things that are implemented within an extensible dialog.
As of the latest version, there is now a single toolbar button (yes, it's YAMDB = yet another magic dust button) that brings up the SketchUp AI interface, which now looks like this:
There are two tools listed in there: AI Assistant and AI Render (the new iteration of SketchUp Diffusion). In addition, they introduced a credit system for the various AI tools where users get some credits as part of their subscription plans, but can also buy additional ones, as needed. This floating toolbar now...
SketchUp's new collaboration features (Image source: Trimble)
With the 2026 release of SketchUp we are now getting hands-on ability to use more of the features that were teased at the 2024 SketchUp Basecamp Keynotes. While the 2025 version of SketchUp introduced PBR materials, the 2026 version now implements all of the cool collaboration features - like live viewing and commenting (illustrated in the image above).
These collaboration features will be very useful for the sweet spot of architectural design where SketchUp shines: Conceptual modeling. With the new features, all members of a project can now engage in a live modeling exercise - complete with a shared visual experience and extensive commenting abilities. This should make it much easier to dial in the perfect design solution.
The other major feature - in my view - is a MUCH BETTER LayOut interface. Both SketchUp and Layout (at least on Windows) now have the same user interface with similar visual elements and functionality. That makes not...
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 some other artifacts. The new materials are in many cases of render-quality while still being quite efficient.
As a result of this change, the size of the entirety of all shipped materials went from 8.9 MB (SketchUp 2024) to 248 MB (SketchUp 2025).
How About SketchUp's Old Materials?
So, what do you do if - for consistency reasons or any other - you want to keep some of the old pre-2025 materials around (in addition to the new ones)? It is actually easy to do that. As long as you haven't uninstalled SketchUp 2024, they are all still on your hard-drive!
Here are the steps:
Step 1: Find...
This image of a wood-veneer tray with a decorative brushed metal ball was exported right from SketchUp - no rendering software needed
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 I discussed in my review of SketchUp 2025, the PBR materials look best when you enable one of the new environments (you can see one in the images below (in the reflection). In addition, you may need to make sure that the "Photoreal Materials" are also enabled for SketchUp's modeling area. You can do that on the Styles toolbar or in the View > Face Style menu.
In this post I will give you a visual overview of the new PBR material parameters. So that the...
