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What’s New in SketchUp?

All new tools to help you collaborate, iterate and deliver.

The latest release of SketchUp takes collaboration to the next level, making it easier to centralise design discussions across your team. Updates also enhance 2D drafting, allow you to place models in more detailed real-world contexts, and give you greater control over visual styles. 

These improvements streamline your workflow, making it faster and simpler to document designs, share feedback, and bring your projects to life with clarity and confidence. 

Feedback is now built into SketchUp

new in-app commenting feature

The new in-app commenting feature, shown in a window on the right side of the screen, allows comments, image uploads, and emoji reactions

Great designs don’t happen in isolation, they evolve through conversation, iteration, and shared insight. Forget juggling email threads, handwritten mark-ups, or third-party tools. SketchUp now lets you capture feedback directly within the model, both on Desktop and through the Web Viewer, with in-app commenting and real-time viewing. 

Comments are tied to specific 3D geometry, so feedback always relates to the relevant part of the model. Much like commenting in a Google Doc, you can hold threaded discussions, tag collaborators, attach images or camera views, and even add emoji to illustrate your point. By centralising feedback in SketchUp, teams can make quicker, more informed decisions without leaving the design environment. 

new in-app commenting feature

The bar in the top right corner and the live icons moving throughout the model show who’s viewing a design in real time. Simply click someone’s icon to jump to the same view as them instantly.

With real-time viewing, invited stakeholders can watch updates to the model as they happen. When working together in a model, everyone can see each other’s cursors and follow cameras, ensuring all participants stay aligned during design presentations and view exactly what you intend. This live interaction makes it easy to explore options, discuss ideas, and make decisions on the spot. 

You also have full control over viewing and commenting permissions, creating a safe environment for design iterations. A standout feature is View Scenes—a slideshow mode that lets you share curated views of your design rather than giving access to the entire model. By controlling permissions and views, you can guide stakeholders to exactly what needs reviewing while keeping unfinished areas private. 

Give it a go in your next client design review and see the difference it makes. 

More flexible and professional documentation tools

powerful drafting tools and scrapbook collections

Four new powerful drafting tools and scrapbook collections elevate LayOut documents. 

SketchUp and LayOut now offer greater versatility for your documentation workflow. Four new drafting tools make common illustration tasks faster and more precise, while updated scrapbook collections give quick access to standard architectural graphics in LayOut. 

Not yet using LayOut? These updates make it worth exploring. Whether you’re working in 2D, turning 2D plans into a 3D model, or creating construction documents from your SketchUp model, the new tools help you produce professional, scaled, and annotated drawings and presentations with ease. 

Enhanced DWG export provides greater control when moving 2D documents in and out of LayOut, ensuring drawings open correctly in SketchUp or other CAD software. SketchUp tags now translate directly to DWG layers, improving interoperability and helping you get jobs done efficiently across your workflow. 

Check out the release notes to explore all the new tools in detail. 

 

Add real-world context to your model

new Texture Projection feature

Bring models to life with the new Texture Projection feature. 

Enhanced point cloud capabilities make it easier than ever to bring existing conditions into your SketchUp models. Updates to Scan Essentials help you model, visualise, and document scan data efficiently in both SketchUp and LayOut. 

The new Texture Projection tool boosts visual realism by allowing you to project RGB data, set resolution, and turn projected textures into reusable SketchUp materials. The Surface Mesh tool simplifies extracting SketchUp geometry directly from point clouds, saving time on complex modelling tasks. 

Add Location now includes a 3D Buildings feature for all users, letting you import surrounding 3D buildings into your terrain natively—no plug-ins required. This makes it easier to incorporate real-world context into your designs, improving visualisation, shadow studies, and site planning. 

More control over your visual style

image with half diffusion and half normal sketchup

The latest updates to Diffusion offer more control to help you create your most realistic renders yet. 

SketchUp’s most popular visualisation tools have been refined to give you greater control over your design’s look. Updates include enhanced settings such as Color Ambient Occlusion, Ambient Occlusion Scaling, and Invert Roughness, as well as a new version of Diffusion [LABS] for higher-fidelity AI-generated imagery. These tools let you generate images that better reflect your vision, explore design options, and communicate intent clearly, earlier in your workflow. 

Color Ambient Occlusion (AO) allows you to tint shadows to suit your design, while AO Scale Multiplier gives you more control over shadow depth and intensity. Invert Roughness in Photoreal Materials reverses the roughness map, expanding your options from glossy to textured finishes. 

Keep your projects moving forward

This release marks a major step forward for collaboration in SketchUp. Check out the “What’s New” notes for full details and update your software to start using these tools today. 

Not yet using SketchUp? Sign up for a free 7-day trial or explore subscription plans to start creating with confidence and bringing your designs to life. 

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