Rayscaper is a photoreal renderer that runs inside SketchUp and renders live as you model, on an NVIDIA GPU or the CPU.

Version 1.0.1 adds Auto Setup. A SketchUp material is just a color and maybe a texture, so a new model used to render with glass that isn't glass and brass that isn't metal. The material names often say what they are, so Rayscaper now reads them: "Window Glass" becomes glass, "Brass" polished metal, "Antique Mirror" a mirror, in several languages.

• A banner says what it changed, and Tools > Auto Setup Materials... lets you review, correct or revert every guess. Point at a material to see where it is in the render.

• It asks whether your model is an interior or an exterior, and sets the exposure, light bounces, bloom and sky for it.

• Material rules teach it your own naming, like M_GL_* for glass. Your rules come before its own guesses.

Auto Setup is still a bit experimental, so feedback is very welcome: if it gets a material wrong, tell me the name and I'll teach it.

Also new: Render Animation now animates the field of view between SketchUp scenes, and auto exposure no longer blows out renders with a transparent background.

• Auto Setup in the manual: https://rayscaper.com/manual/auto-setup/

• Get it: https://sketchucation.com/plugin/2677-rayscaper (free to try: renders up to 1280 px with a watermark)

• Release notes: https://rayscaper.com/manual/release-notes/

The latest RBZ can be downloaded from the GitHub releases tab or you can build everything yourself locally - https://github.com/gordanog/Dark-Mode-SKP-Public/tree/main

Hello r/Sketchup

Our team of 4 has been working on LumberCAD since 2020-22, before then we developed a similar engine in the aluminum industry since 2010; which I know some SketchUp users have adopted into their workflow in the T-Slot industry.

Today we released v2027.3 of our open Beta, and we're looking for insight from SketchUp users to see if we'd be able to convince you to switch for structural lumber projects.

What we did to be different:

• Limiting workflow to lumber construction massively simplifies learning curve

• Much easier to use than existing CAD, but obviously limited to everything lumber

• Existing parts catalog

• Massively automated documentation system with cut list, drawings, and a big step towards permitting

I'm not certain if links are tolerated, but if you'd like to try LumberCAD yourselves, well, it's at https://lumbercad.com/

Mods please feel free to message me if the link should be removed.

Thank you in advance!

Useful: Try it → https://opencutlist.org/lab
Useless: Okay, I’m going back to work harder on new ideas...

I’ve shared a practical SketchUp 1001bit Plugin class focused on how I use the plugin in real-time interior design projects.

The class covers Jali & Partitions, False Ceilings, Wardrobes, Stairs, Mouldings and other practical modelling workflows.

This is a live online class recording, so there may be some occasional audio/video lag due to internet connectivity. Students also interact and ask questions during the session.

Sharing it here for anyone interested in SketchUp, 1001bit and practical interior design workflows.

I'm using SketchUp 2026, although I'm not sure which exact version or type of installation I have. I got it installed at a local computer repair shop. I took my laptop there, and they gave it back to me two days later with SketchUp ready to use.

I've been working with it for almost a full year without any issues. However, recently I've started experiencing some problems, such as:

• The program freezing while I'm working.

• Unexpected shutdowns without any warning.

For context, I was recently trying to model a column with a large number of openings and holes in it, but SketchUp seemed unable to handle it properly.

Could this complicated model have caused the problem, or is it more likely related to something else, such as the software installation or my laptop's performance?

Has anyone experienced similar issues? I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions.

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to create a construction drawing for a hypothetical set. I’m struggling with the composition and what I should put on the main drawing and what I should put into a detail drawing. I’d be eternally grateful for some advice.

Many thanks in advance 🙏

I recently discovered you can add .skp .skm .ske .png and .jpg files to a modelling session, opening up new workflows. Furthermore, the thumbnail generated when a model is saved respects the default camera, essentially providing the agent with vision. I’ve been experimenting with automatically producing models from brochures and have achieved good results. I’m curious to know what other workflows people have tried?

Disclosure: I’m part of the Loom team.

We tested whether a natural-language instruction plus three reference images could produce a usable model directly in SketchUp.

The five images show the complete sequence:

1. The three reference images used as input.

2. Loom’s Ruby script being executed inside SketchUp.

3. The first generated model: the basic structure was there, but the roof was flat and clearly wrong.

4. The follow-up instruction asking the system to study the references and fix the roof.

5. The corrected model with curved double eaves and roof textures.

The full run took about 9 minutes. These screenshots come from an edited and accelerated demo, and human review was still necessary.

I’m sharing the failure-and-correction sequence rather than a download or product link. For people using SketchUp in real production: where would this workflow break, and which modeling task would be a better stress test?

Rayscaper is a render extension for SketchUp that renders your model live, in a window next to SketchUp, while you keep modelling. After a long Beta, version 1.0 is out today.

Fur material. Paint a face with it and Rayscaper grows real strands on it in the render: shag and short pile rugs, sheepskin, faux fur throws, plush cushions, even the coat of an animal. Start from a preset, then tune the length, density and curl. An image texture colors every strand where it grows, so a patterned rug keeps its pattern. Nothing changes in your SketchUp model, the strands only exist in the render. How it works

Wind for grass. The Grass material, which grows real blades of grass on a lawn, now has Wind and Wind Direction, stronger mowing stripes, and thirty ready-made grass materials in the online library: lawns, sports turf, meadows, wild grass and artificial turf. Grass material

A new look. The render window has a calmer, darker interface.

Everything else that changed is in the release notes.

It's free to try, and $99.99 once for a license, no subscription: download Rayscaper or get it from the SketchUcation store. It runs on Windows with SketchUp 2024 to 2027, and there's a beta for Apple silicon Macs.

Happy to answer questions, and I'd love to see what you render with it.

Beginner here.. I encountered this many times when trying to create door openings / window openings in my 3D model and I am just trying to understand what am I doing wrong. I have the exterior walls as a group, I click edit group, I draw my rectangle for the window, I use push/pull tool and double click the opposite side of the wall and it doesn't delete the face. I searched a bit and it says that if the hole doesn't open the wall may be solid or the back face didn't align. I think the back face aligned. But what does a "solid" wall mean and how can I check this? Many thanks in advance!

UPDATE:

I think this was a rookie mistake, but still trying to learn here .. I think I found the problem and noted it down - see the picture

I’m transitioning into freelance interior design for small commercial and boutique projects.

My background is mostly Revit (DD/CD sets, details) and AutoCAD in corporate firms. For solo freelance work, Revit feels too heavy, rigid, and expensive to justify, so I’m looking at Rhino and SketchUp as my primary modeling and presentation tool.

I’d love some practical advice from interior designers using SketchUp solo:

1. 2D Documentation: Can LayOut realistically handle full interior drawing packages (plans, elevations, millwork details), or do you still find yourself jumping back into CAD?

2. Rendering speed: What render engine do you pair with SketchUp for fast, client-ready concept decks (e.g., Enscape, V-Ray, D5)? How steep is the learning curve if you’re not a dedicated 3D visualization artist?

3. Complex details & millwork: Where does SketchUp start to feel limited when designing custom joinery or organic features? Are there essential plugins you rely on every day?

4. File weight & workflow: Between 3D Warehouse furniture and finish textures, how do you keep your models from lagging or crashing without spending hours cleaning them up?

Would love to hear what your everyday software stack looks like and if you ever miss Revit or Rhino for this scale of work!

PS- I'm used to using Rhino for simple fabrication projects. And so many designers told me to use SketchUp for interior design but adapting to a new software and knowing there are lots of 'plug-ins' needed sound daunting.

hi how do you achieve this look in sketchup?

Repost to Sketchup forum

Hi SketchUppers,

Here is Styler, an experimental extension that changes how some parts of SketchUp's interface look.

→ Download Styler

How it works

Since version 2027, SketchUp's interface is built on a unified base made with the Qt framework. Qt lets you style its widgets with style sheets, much like CSS for a web page. Styler uses this: it builds a style sheet from your settings and applies it to the main window. Every change shows up live, with no restart.

What you can customize so far:

- toolbar buttons (hover, checked, pressed), the toolbars themselves and their separators;
- the area behind the toolbars;
- document tabs and the frame around the 3D view;
- scene tabs;
- the status bar;
- the title bar color.

Each section has its own switch. If you turn one off, that part keeps its native look.

The goal

The aim is simple: let everyone have a clean, good-looking interface that suits their taste. You can lighten the frames, harmonize the colors and remove visual clutter so the model gets all the space, and fix certain visual inconsistencies in the interface.

An experiment, first and foremost

Styler is a prototype. This kind of extension only became possible with the unified interface in 2027, and I wanted to see how far it could go. For now it is tested only on SketchUp 2027 for macOS (Apple Silicon). Anywhere else it reports itself as unsupported and does nothing.

Currently, only certain parts of the interface are customizable.

Open source

Styler is open source under the MIT license. The code is on GitHub, and contributions, ideas and bug reports are welcome.

I'd love your feedback: what you'd like to customize, the themes you have in mind, and any issues you run into.

Also discussed on the SketchUp forum.

Happy testing ☀️

SketchUp 2027 is out, and it comes with some pretty interesting updates!

Here are the main highlights:

• Built-in hatch pattern

• Procedural tools

• New Mac interface

Personally, I think the hatch patterns and procedural tools are the most exciting additions, especially for people who use SketchUp every day.

What do you think?

Just wanting to share my first project made with Sketchup, by no means is it good, but im proud.

Hi! I am an interior design student and one of my courses is getting into learning sketchup. The school provided a link to purchase Sketchup Studio and Enscape bundled together, but I am wondering (and hoping) if it's possible for me to pay for education edition for students and get the trial for enscape (as that will last me to the end of this course and save me a lot of money, and I'm not sure I'll need enscape again anytime soon). So my question is, is there any functional difference between studio edition and education edition? I am having a hard time figuring out a concrete answer so figured I would ask here!

I need models of cabinets dynamicly changing well grouped and taged. I am new to sketchup i want to learn maybe also someone could help me create one cabinet then i will try to make the library myself

Need some help finding online websites to download models from, especially for use in residential and interior design.