Exporting SketchUp Files TO BLENDER! Everything You Need to Know!

In this video, learn how to set up your SketchUp files so that they can be imported into Blender!
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Exporting your model from SketchUp to Blender for Rendering!
In this video, we’re going to talk about how to take a model or a design from SketchUp and import it into Blender.
Note - these are pro exporters - however, I will talk about a way to do this with a free extension as well
This can be useful for a lot of things, including UV mapping, rendering, and more!
Different kinds of files give you different results.
OBJ
Exporting as OBJ - Single Individual File - can’t edit individual objects
Look at the folder it creates
Notice - textures are separate
FREE OPTION - TT Quad Face Tools has an OBJ exporter!
Collada
Export as Collada - Maintains individual objects - useful if you’re going to be doing texture editing
Explode group first - otherwise you just get a dotted line
Making dotted lines go away - clear parent relationship, or just turn off relationship lines
Note - texture mapping gets weird if your SketchUp model isn’t quad mapped
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[@Thesketchupessentials]

Hi everyone! Super excited to continue this series with you guys. Leave a comment below and let me know what else you'd like to see in this series! :)

[@randomnessetc5600]

When I try to download a NS loco, the black white and logo details don't show up in OBJ or COLLADA mode just a grey 3d blank block loco how do I fix that?

[@ethancubed]

can you help when i imported my model the textures had black behind them

[@justicemagagane5737]

This was amazing. Please make video on cleaning the mesh once you import it to blender. Like this kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJnJamiaj56kg9E but for free if possible. Thank you

[@whansen101]

I’m excited too. I want to be able to texture and light sketch up models in blender for architectural clients. So far not having luck but want to get a solid work flow- will try the last method you mentioned!

[@Judahlayne389]

how do i download the extension into the online version

[@victorssamuel4697]

To get accurately scaled models right from import... For metric units, go to model info and change your units to metre before exporting from sketch up . It comes in perfectly scaled. Very handy when importing architectural models

[@ArchitectVirendraChhatria]

Thanks a lot @victor s samuel

[@DavidKohout]

this should be the video, and also how to import the wrongly scaled models, otherwise I don't personally find that one that usefull

[@aryanthakkar2965]

Please do a exterior house rendering in blender which is imported in blender from sketchup 🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@dannorris1406]

Good Video. .DAE is definitely the way to go for exporting/importing to Blender. It definitely has it's issues, like splitting some faces away from the mesh as separate objects but I've been using this method my work for a few years now and find it the most reliable format. .dae files are also humanly readable, so easy to edit if there are issues. I mentioned in a previous comment a DAECleaner addon for Blender, which fixes the majority of import issues. I would definitely recommend a look at that.

This is a helpful video, as always. Thank you . As a sketchup user (stuck in the 2017 pro version), one of my first main tries with blender was to import my numerous sketchup models in blender. After import, there are still a lot of optimisation to do : clean the triangulation the import has created in order to get clean quads. Also all the sketchup components are single and unique mesh after import which is memory ineffective and make the modification of components harder to perform. I guess a tutorial on these issues would be very helpfull

[@ignatiusloyolamulti1186]

you saved my career, thank you.

[@MrMwenesi]

Thanks, Justin for this tutorial. I've been transitioning from SketchUp to blender and you get what we go through

[@padminiarts]

Oh my god, thank you so much for this tutorial! I am making a switch from Sketch up to blender for lighting and rendering. This is awesome...

[@Thesketchupessentials]

Glad I could help!

[@francek3892]

@@Thesketchupessentials I don't understand I went to sketchup and when I want to export the model as and fbx or obj it tells me to upgrade and it tooked me to the site where as I was went for the free option and it doesn't let me it just puts me to my project to enter and again same thing tells me to upgrade. I just want a model form 3D warehouse to import to Blender. When am in Blender I go to add-ons and there I can't find to mark the import:sketchup... why is it happening???

[@doumu99]

OMG THIS VIDEO IS ABSOLUTELY WHAT I NEED! thank you so much for creating this sir!! 😭💕

[@SSITM]

Fantastic. Could you make a video about adjusting materials after exporting to Blender? I can see them there, and they're assigned and all, but modifying them doesn't do anything.

[@nielsevenepoel3262]

Same here. The importing works but the materials doesn't want to change.

[@thomasjefferson3552]

I imported a sketch up model from sketcher to blender as an obj file, but when it opens in blender many of the textures get messed up and the house has a bunch of missing components and wrong textures. Is there any way to get an exact replica of the 3D model from sketchup to blender? My goal is to get the Monticello home into giants editor so that I can make a monticello map for farming simulator 19.

[@Thesketchupessentials]

I have a feeling your model had a bunch of different materials on raw faces, sometimes outside of groups, etc, which messed up any mapping of materials

[@maru_chai]

OMG THANK YOUUUUUU!! I've been having a hard time trying to find a way to build in sketchup and add textures to the different components (groups) in blender but I think the .DAE tip might work 🤝

[@pruthviksheth2448]

Exactly looking for such a kind of video!!! But how can we add trees in blender???

[@Thesketchupessentials]

Well that's a different lesson entirely...

[@antonioiozzi291]

In my free version of Sketchup however I don't have the option of exporting OBJ files ..... is it possible only in the PRO version?

[@sarahassan587]

I would like to know if i can import an animation from sketchup into blender to render ?

[@pabloechanove7729]

I started working on an architectural firm (im a visual arts major) last year, and thanks to your sketchup channel i fell in love with 3D modeling. I decided to learn blender and a week in i started to feel overwhelmed. Yesterday i found out you also have a CG Channel

[@aadilkriel2278]

Dude this video helped a ton! Thank you :P

[@josoadavidson9250]

Thanks, it's helpful Could you please show us more about importing a collada file on blender without struggling about the group mode and parenting? :)

[@DanielCostadaSilva]

Dude, i could kiss you right now! I've been fighting this beast of collada importing and you killed it! Thank you so much

[@Thesketchupessentials]

Glad it helped!

[@VasanthC]

Great that's helpful, can u export a house which has severe complexity as this and solve it in blender and can u make that to a decent render

[@romain129]

thank youu it's help me so much, now i can fix calloada problems !

[@cekuhnen]

The Collada export import is seriously frustrating. The group / component nesting is problematic. nice video - good tip about quad export and tools. Too bad Blender cannot just import SketchUp.

[@ArchitectVirendraChhatria]

Agree

[@1RacerXer]

FYI, I notice this video is 3 years old but anyway, for anyone else watching this in 2024, there is now a free .skp import addon for blender. 👍I'm using Blender 4.0 and it works great!

[@vojtechkotrc7260]

what a stylish cap

[@luisachadinha4465]

Hello! I have a question that i cant find the answer to and i am ripping my hair out trying to figure it out. I find it easier for me to model in Sketchup 2017 then in Blender ( i like Blender). When I import my Sketchup image into Blender as a Coll. file how do i bake the textures and lighting into my model (UV) all together. I either get one texture on everything or a black texture. Can anyone help? I did follow some videos on YT but to no travail. Thank you!

[@vicarioustube]

Hi I did the collada export but how to keep the names of the SketchUP groups ? I have an entire concept building with now 1200 numbers. to pick the right one is very difficult.

[@captainranker98]

Does it just export the selected objects or the entire model? If it exports the entire model is there a method to export specific objects within a model? Thanks

[@daniel4chizzy]

So, I modeled an interior space on Sketchup 2020 and I exported as obj file and then opened on Blender but I noticed some of the models were missing in blender. What do I do?

[@sutil1010]

THANKS SO MUCH!!!!! WORKS PERFECT!

[@jovenchristophervero5511]

Thank you so much. Been spending 2 days trying to export my sketchup file to blender huhuhuhuhuhu

[@Thesketchupessentials]

Glad I could help!

[@jovenchristophervero5511]

I have a question tho. I modeled a chair in blender and I wanted to import it in sketch up. is it possible? cause everytime I try to export it it always destroy the model in sketchup

[@matthew_brown]

@@jovenchristophervero5511 That's a great question and I beleive there is a Blender addon that will export as a Sketchup file. Check this addon here. github.com/arindam-m/pyslapi/releases/tag/0.20.2

[@akhilvijay8670]

Thank you for the great tutorial. Do you have any idea about why the DAE model getting multiple faces while viewing in blender .

[@francis-bravoairspace2895]

Thank you Justin. Your videos always help. I wonder what would be the process to make just a single texture sheet with all the textures in one model? For 3d gaming use creating 1 texture for the entire model. Thank you.

[@briankistner4331]

As for the model importing to big or small, why not rescale the model in SU before exporting? Lot easier and more precise.

[@pranitajain5589]

please make more lighting and camera setting tutorials for Interior

[@ItzProblox]

Hi ! When I export a SketchUp model to Blender, the image which is on the object is missing...

[@MrJayg2]

Justin, Check out the .glTF exporter for sketchup. It's in Extension warehouse. Older but still works in 2020. It is already an importer for Blender. Needs to be activated in preferances. Brings sketchup model into blender at scale and size. Similar in meshing to obj. Has some grouping. Let me know what you think.

[@Thesketchupessentials]

I'll look at it

[@dal2888859]

How do you have the default tray set up? All my trays float together, but I cannot find a way to make them in one single tray, and have that tray persist across models and new models.

[@gabriellaliemidia]

thankyou for the great tips !!! :)

[@phalhappy8612]

I download sketchup model and try to export as dae, but after I import to Blender, some geometry disapeared.

[@JunosCabinetWorkshop]

Very Nice video! I will try it now ... THanks

[@dansydtv6412]

Thanks but the model I have has numerous textures and I am a beginner and the textures are unassigned once into blender and I have no idea what to do. I was wondering if maybe there’s a way to have blender automatically put the textures on?

[@mr_arc_mrc]

How to export vray material from sketchup to blender/cycles ?

[@sebastian4509]

i have a question. If i have a model that has lots of groups inside with other models, can i export it with any other way? because OBJ packs all the groups and models into 1 model and i cant do this= Sketchup->Blender (edit some things)--> Unity and in unity it just says that there are 1 group with 1 model inside (thats not how it came originally in sketchup)

[@tychobr]

if I want to print my file, there is no unit of measure at the scale, because of this problem it is not possible to print it to scale. could you please help

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

Presumably that is a SketchUp problem.

[@janusvanrhyn6554]

Hi Justin, I manufacture office furniture. I started using sketchup during this lockdown drawing up some of our products, but now I'd like to render some of my models in an office scene. Which plugin would you suggest (quick and easy). I'm struggling with twilight. Thanks in advance for your help

[@rijaaziz366]

There is no option to export in the free version. What should I do?

[@munchlax9715]

This is giving me chills. Its like i attained a cheat code

[@johnfarangoarangoarangoara5667]

Hello, could you make this same video but taking the objects with materials to Rhino? Please

[@DanielThiele]

oh please show how to get rid of all the relationship lines and i also get duplicate geometry and verlapping faces a lot. espiacially complex scenes are terrible to work with.... if you find out more please tell me more.

[@jhimjimmapa7919]

good day Justin, how do you import blender to SketchUp?. I tried .stl file but it doesn't work properly as it should. Thanks

[@lamancuso12]

Hey, when I import my OBJ file into Bender, I get a blank screen with just a single orange point in the middle. Nothing else comes with it. I can move that around, scale it, but nothing seems to have come in.

[@marika4488]

Tonna for it but well when I export the obj file nothing happened. Do you have an idea why ?

[@leonardocapriodi1130]

Hey Justin,as for a beginner do you think that sketchup+ vray is a better option for modeling? Lets say kitchens and house plans.. Greetings

[@antreasdimitriadis2471]

Best tutorial! Thank you!

[@Thesketchupessentials]

Glad it was helpful!

[@adimi87]

TheSketchUpEssentials Justin i have a question. I exported my file with colada export method from a simple building with just few faces but for some reason when i choose a face and change its properties or texture it changes different things. How do i “explode” all faces and control them individually? Nothing was grouped btw. E.g adding a brick wall texture on one side and glossy paint on the opposite side of a wall.

[@joshuaradloff1070]

When I export objects all that gets exported are the textures? not the actual 3d model

[@riady2749]

Hi Justin, Thanks for the tutorial. Just curious, what about exporting the files as Fbx from sketchup?

[@Sir_vAce]

Hi My texture folder remains completely empty after exporting. Any ideas why? I tried multiple 3dwarehouse models

[@van___nhi]

Hello, how can we export scene (camera) from sketchup file and import it in to the blender file? Thank you :) This tutorial help me a lot!! :)

'Catchup Importer' add on for Blender is supposed to handle Sketchup Import issues very well, but not tried it yet myself.

[@SSITM]

It looks good but there's no trial version (I think)

[@Dharmik_Sidd]

Please make a video on how to do rendering on low processing computers like i3

[@Gabiman66]

thank you thank you thank you thank you thanks man thanks

[@Thesketchupessentials]

Glad it helped!

[@casiovadal]

What about the other way around? I have being trying to export a model from Blender and importing into SketchUp and it does not import textures. I find the uv unwrapping in blender really powerful and it would great to be able to model and retexturize complex shapes in blender and import them into SketchUp. I would appreciate if you could make a video on this. Thanks for your hard work!

[@Thesketchupessentials]

This is complicated because depending on the way you export your model, your textures may go in a separate folder. Usually for importing files I like using the add-on Transmutr, but haven't done a lot of testing with Blender exports yet. Usually I don't have a reason to go from Blender to SketchUp

[@casiovadal]

@@Thesketchupessentials thanks for your reply. It seems that a complex texture developed with blender nodes needs to be baked first to create an image file of the texture applied on the object to export. The @GrantAbbitt's tutorials about baking textures explain this nicely: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4a3lXudnstpa8k

[@esnairaangas1169]

Hello sir. Can you please help me if how can I access my 3D warehouse. Someone send me a link for sketch pro 2020 then when I installed it, the 3D warehouse is not working it says that I need to sign in but when I tried to sign in nothings pop up (can't log in) please help sir😢

[@ahmadfadzli490]

Thank you for your information. I get it

[@-MinhazulFerdous]

A small tip i want to give, it might help somebody.. which is, you can workout the Triangulation by adding A "Decimate Modifier" set that to "Planer" and Change the Angle limit, in this case in the video it will work great if you set the angle Limit to 0-1 degree, it will remove all the triangulation in a flat plain.. yes it's a bit time consuming but it will help a lot for those who wants to change the Texture and UV maps ....

[@Thesketchupessentials]

Interesting - will have to mess around with this - thanks!

[@ignatiusloyolamulti1186]

question, I've been having problems on trying to import the obj. everytime i import it, I can't see the entirety of the obj file, and sometimes some of the parts of the 3d object is missing textures. Please help, this is really urgent.

[@Thesketchupessentials]

Are they nested groups in your geometry?

[@ashbinhadivc7650]

tnx sir

[@zhoute91]

You can try 3ds files

[@kreculjkreculj]

For some reason my model isn't shown in Blender, but Blender registers it.

[@yt_bharat]

Part 3 of the house project please

[@Thesketchupessentials]

Later this week

[@estebanjulioricardomontoya5935]

ur so awesome

[@pickles9148]

I cant export it because I need to upgrade 😓

[@ladyqonimvu8604]

lighting from above with emissive material so it can be brought into a unity project. sketchup > blender > unity

[@vzzzk]

Why not FBX?

[@Thesketchupessentials]

Give it a try - let me know how it goes - could work fine

[@matthew_brown]

I am not sure if you were aware of this but there is an addon available for Blender that allows for sketchup files to be imported directly into Blender 2.80 or higher. github.com/arindam-m/pyslapi/releases/tag/0.20.2

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

Unfortunately, that still requires some kind of SketchUp SDK.

[@nandavenkat]

Best

[@Thesketchupessentials]

:)

[@prasatharch1256]

Bro how to render sketchup file exterior and interior in blender...........from India😍Tamil nadu

[@Thesketchupessentials]

It's on the list - trying to figure out a way to make the process simple

[@prasatharch1256]

@@Thesketchupessentials trying your best bro......we are waiting 😍😍😍

[@emperana636]

The more i watch his videos, the more he looks like Mark Zuckerberg

[@georges8408]

the problem with this video is that the vertex mesh is a complete failure... so for example vertex painting is almost impossible.

[@Thesketchupessentials]

I mean, that's not really a problem with the video, but more the reality of bringing models into Blender from SketchUp because most SketchUp modelers aren't modeling with quad workflows...

[@georges8408]

@@Thesketchupessentials yeah... the problem with sketchup models is that it is almost impossible to use them properly in unreal engine since the mesh structure is totally unorganized... for example a rectangular in sketchup (imagine a wall) is only consist from 2 triangles and there is no way to change this.. so vertex painting is impossible... looks like it is time to jump in a another ship, like blender .

[@Thesketchupessentials]

@@georges8408 I think that by using QuadFace tools and something like Artisan or Vertex Tools/SubD, it's possible to get passable quads (though it's not something I've really tried much of). I think the bigger problem is that most models you find in places like the 3D Warehouse were created by people that just don't know anything about topology, and that's always going to cause problems. If you're doing something that requires a lot of vertex painting, etc, it might be best to just do the modeling in Blender if you're capable of that.

[@georges8408]

@@Thesketchupessentials thanks man, you absolutely right. For some reason models from Sketchup is not working well in unreal engine. Probably for the reasons you mention. By the way, your tutorials are very very useful for all of us. Keep doing the good work. :)

[@cslevine]

this is the problem with Blender, wich seems to have no real dimensions. Google Sketchup has ! this is much more interesting to finish works into Google Sketchup for precision

[@Thesketchupessentials]

Well, Blender models can be done to scale with real dimensions, but the precision tools, in my opinion, are not up to SketchUp or other CAD style programs

[@daddada2984]

Noooo! Why you used feet.. hahhhahha.. metric is what the world need.

[@prasatharch1256]

😍😍😍😍😋

[@fm3457]

هههههه يا لعيب ببجي ههههههههههههههه

[@SketchupStyle]

In short, all methods suck 😄

[@Thesketchupessentials]

I don't understand this assessment. What do you mean?

[@SketchupStyle]

@@Thesketchupessentials Sorry, Justin, I meant no disrespect, I just think that importing these type of geometry and UV mapping in blender would hurt my OCD so much, that I would probably end up remodeling everything from scratch in Blender 😄 I appreciate you researching the options though, so thanks.

[@valentincastelo]

sooo nots ketchup friendly! sooo sad

[@Thesketchupessentials]

What do you mean?

[@valentincastelo]

@@Thesketchupessentials i mean bringing skp into blender will not work easily. can not be used together. either or.

[@dedetomy3402]

the knowledge you teach is bad. just wasting my time of no use at all for that long duration.

[@Thesketchupessentials]

Ok - bye then