SketchUp

Studio reads .skp files saved by SketchUp 2013 and later, with no SketchUp install. It writes .skp only by patching a file it imported: the elements you moved or recoloured change, and every other part of the file stays as SketchUp saved it.

Import a SketchUp model

1. Choose Import SketchUp… (⌥⇧⌘U) and pick a .skp file.
2. Pick the storey it goes on (the plan's storey until you pick another), and click Import.

Each group or component placed at the top of the SketchUp model comes in as one fixed element on that storey, named after the group, with the groups and components inside it as part of its shape. Faces drawn outside any group make one more element, <file> (ungrouped). The model's origin lands on the storey's floor. Lengths come in exactly, converted from SketchUp's inches.

An element takes the colour of the material that covers most of it. The import runs as a job with Cancel, and Undo removes everything it brought in.

When it finishes, a card says how many elements came in and lists what the file held that Studio leaves out:

• other materials on a mixed element (it keeps the main one), and textures (kept as their colour)
• images, and groups with no faces (edges, text and guides only)
• anything hidden in SketchUp, itself or through its tag

Fixed elements keep their shape: you can move them, recolour them and export them, but not edit their faces.

Image

Save back to SketchUp

1. Choose Export… (⌘E) and pick SketchUp in the CAD row.
2. Click Save… and pick where it goes. Saving over the file you imported is fine.

Studio keeps a copy of the file you imported in the project and writes the save from that copy. What is saved:

• an element moved: its group moves by the same distance in the file
• an element's colour changed: the colour of its SketchUp material, so every face painted with that material changes, as editing a material in SketchUp does

What is not saved: deleted elements, elements that did not come from that file (walls, rooms and anything drawn in Studio), the ungrouped faces moved, and a colour on an element that had no material in SketchUp.

Saving needs every SketchUp element in the project to come from one .skp. With elements from two files, the save stops and says so; export IFC instead.

Limit. A saved file has been checked by reading it back, not yet by opening it in every SketchUp version. Keep the original until you have opened the saved copy in SketchUp.

Other ways from SketchUp

From SketchUp	Needs	In Studio
File → Export → 3D Model → IFC	SketchUp Pro or Studio	Import IFC… (⇧⌘I): walls, openings, doors and windows come in as editable elements where their shapes allow
File → Export → 3D Model → OBJ	SketchUp Go, Pro or Studio	Not imported yet; use the .skp

Ask the agent

The agent on the control port can save to SketchUp with project.export and a path ending in .skp. It cannot import a .skp: picking a file is yours.