AI Archives | SketchUp for Design

Free, Private, & (Potentially) Fast: Using Local AI (LLM) Models inside SketchUp

May 28, 2026May 25, 2026 by Alex SchreyerNo Comments

The recently-released 3.3 version of my SketchUp AI Explorer (Experimental) extension now allows for an interesting and potentially (depending on your hardware) useful way to work with AI in SketchUp: You can now use local LLMs on your computer via a software like LM Studio as the AI provider for this extension. This approach is 100% free and only depends on the hardware capabilities of your local computer. This means you don't have to pay for tokens and you can even choose among a fairly large number of AI LLM models (including GPT-OSS, QWEN, GEMMA, DEEPSEEK,…). And nobody will ever train their AI systems on your prompts. One word of caution, though: This is largely an experimental approach and its effectiveness is very much dependent on your hardware (especially your GPU). But if you tweak this setup to your liking, it may open up new avenues. How Does This Work? To be able to do this, you will need two things: The Ai Explorer (Experimental) extension,...

AI Rendering with SketchUp’s Built-In (v. 2026.1) AI Render Tool

December 20, 2025December 20, 2025 by Alex SchreyerNo Comments

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...

Having Some Fun with AI: The Snarky Architecture Critic

June 12, 2024June 12, 2024 by Alex SchreyerNo Comments

In case you are in need of an opinionated architectural critique, look no further. You can now employ AI for that! With the recently introduced vision capabilities in OpenAI's services and therefore my OpenAI Explorer SketchUp extension, you can now ask questions about what is in your SketchUp model. But that's not all: For a little bit more bite in that critique, you can even give the AI response a specific personality, e.g. the snarky critic in my video below. You can do that via the System Message option in its settings. Just add a line like the one shown in the image below and then that instruction will apply to the entire conversation between you and the AI. As you likely know by now, you can download the OpenAI Explorer SketchUp extension and learn more about how it works here. Got any other fun and/or useful ways to employ this new tool in SketchUp? Let me know in the comments below. Video https://youtu.be/Nv4jzMoY7y4...

Now You Can Have an AI ‘Copilot’ (Assistant) for Ruby Coding in SketchUp

May 30, 2024May 30, 2024 by Alex SchreyerNo Comments

In this tutorial I cover one specific use case for my OpenAI Explorer SketchUp extension: A coding 'copilot' (assistant) for Ruby code. This is one of several use cases for this extension and it has the potential to at least save you from a ton of web browsing. When I write SketchUp Ruby code, I frequently need to look up code snippets. With the approach presented here, I can use AI to provide such snippets for me instead. This works well with my Ruby Code Editor extension where you can then past, edit, and run that code. But it will also work with the built-in Ruby Console. Tutorial Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwhD5reOkoo Links OpenAI Explorer SketchUp extension Ruby Code Editor extension...

Adding AI Vision to SketchUp with OpenAI’s gpt-4o Model (Ruby Snippet)

May 16, 2024May 21, 2024 by Alex SchreyerNo Comments

Response to the prompt: "Is there anything wrong with this building?" Earlier this week, OpenAI released its new gpt-4o model. This model not only improves and updates its current AI models, but it also adds vision ability. As a result, a user can upload images and then the AI can identify things in the image based on a user prompt. There are some great examples of the new capability on OpenAI's website. Since I previously implemented the OpenAI connection with SketchUp using both plain Ruby code and a handy extension, I had to try out whether we can connect the two using these new capabilities, too. One use case for this could then be the ability to ask questions like "What may be missing in my model?" or "Is there a cat in the model?" (Not sure why you would ask the latter but it leads to a correct answer!) As it turns out, giving SketchUp this AI capability is not too hard...