A Studio worth upgrading to with the ability to convert native Revit project files

SketchUp Studio
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Hey Everyone,

I couldn’t be more excited to share the enhanced interoperability and new common installer that come with this Studio release.

SketchUp 2023 removes barriers to creative exploration with a Revit importer and Windows common installer for Studio, and elevated modeling tools in SketchUp for Desktop. You now hold the power to seamlessly turn heavy RVT project files into an optimized, ready-to-use SketchUp model — no Revit license needed. Yes, you read that correctly.

Shave hours off your Revit-to-SketchUp workflow
The new import application within a Studio subscription allows you to accurately and efficiently convert your Revit models into SketchUp components for deeper collaboration across project phases, teams, and stakeholders. It beats the existing workarounds for exporting Revit models to SketchUp, saving heaps of time, and providing more accurate geometry conversions, leading to much lighter models!

By preserving model structures between Revit and SketchUp – Revit Families translate into SketchUp components, and Revit categories are mapped to SketchUp Tags – you can save hours or even days of model cleanup and progress your project with accuracy.

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Why use it?

  1. Improve collaboration with project stakeholders.
  2. Preserve model structures between software for less cleanup.
  3. Move Revit models into SketchUp to iterate new ideas quickly.
  4. Build efficiencies; the imported Revit file is automatically optimized for easier geometry manipulation in SketchUp and significantly reduces file size.
  5. Create compelling visuals; Revit material colors and transparencies are respected during import to speed up visualization workflows.
  6. Translate Revit levels to SketchUp section planes.

That’s not all…

Discoverable and connected workflows

Studio’s new common installer allows you to discover, download and install all the tools you need for advanced workflows and complex projects. The subscription also includes V-Ray 6 for creating real-time and photorealistic visuals and Scan Essentials for importing point cloud data – both were enriched with new functionality in late 2022. Please note that Studio is a Windows-only subscription. Scan Essentials is English-only, and V-Ray offers English and Chinese versions.

If you are still reading at this point, good news! You have the option to upgrade to Studio from Pro, and you will pay a pro-rated discounted price depending on how many months are left in your Pro subscription. If you purchased your Pro subscription via the SketchUp website, you can follow this Helpcenter article to self-serve the upgrade as it is really a one-click process. If you purchased via sales rep or channel partners (SketchUp distributors or resellers), please contact them directly for the upgrade.

We’ve removed workflow barriers to unleash your creativity in 2023. Dive into the full release notes for all you need to know to create and model in 3D seamlessly. Access the Revit Importer and time-saving improvements by downloading SketchUp 2023 here or via your Trimble Account.

Saving the best for last… we have two new scale figures to celebrate the new design year – Heather and Lily.

Happy sketching,

Olivia, on behalf of the SketchUp team

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Now it’s time to pay more attention to IFC standards in order to really collaborate with structural and mechanical modeling software.

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This is the first major release in years where I am not horribly depressed about missed opportunities. Thank you for that.

I am specifically looking forward to the long requested Layout function of “rotate with reference angle” - Seriously lacking this simple ability has caused so many headaches.

Kudos to the separation of Layout Tag / Dash / Custom line style visibility resets. Add in a “Copy/Past Viewport line styles” and I promise to speak more kindly about what it feels like to switch from the SketchUp environment to the Layout… well, sand box.

Upvoting @rtches’ comment! SketchUp needs better SketchUp export functionality and it seams better IFC is the obvious solution. In my world we typically start projects in SketchUp and then move them into Revit, rarely in reverse. Perhaps that will change now?

Lastly, I think the studio license should offer the choice between V-ray and Enscape (sticking with the Chaos partnership). I pay for two studio seats and two additional enscape seats. I have migrated 99% of my rendering work into Enscape because I need quick quality renderings and the animations are a major bonus. Enscape aligns with the SketchUp mantra; it’s fast, intuitive and renders live as you model.

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Hi, I’m in progress to develope a plugin which will help user auto classify objects into IFC entities by tags. If you’re interested, here’s my short demo video: SketchUp Plugins - IFC Converter - Demo features - YouTube
In the video, plugin help auto naming then auto set IFC Types for Objects.

Full set with LayOut and SketchUp of the house in video can download here: 5D+ Small House - SketchUp & LayOut (will soon update English version)

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Great idea. The ideal would be to join it with the @brewsky Ifc Manager plugin with mine Add Ifc Quantities to Selection to make an Ifc that meets the building smart standard and could be shared with other Bim software

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Including this under the ‘Studio’ subscription, rather than ‘Pro’ with all the other import functionality is a disappointing cash grab. The only saving grace is that you are almost comically transparent about it.

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Is it possible to upgrade from ‘pro’ subscription to ‘studio’?

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Yes, of course. And you will be able to pay a discounted price as the price you pay will be pro-rated based on how many months left in your Pro subscription.

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Are there any plans to release the Revit importer plugin as a standalone purchase? I’m currently using SketchUp Pro and have no intention to upgrade to Studio as no other features would be useful to me.

Thanks

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And us Mac users remain red headed step children…

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The other 2 RVT to SKP products out there don’t work with Mac either, so I would guess
Autodesk don’t make an SDK for Mac, which is required.
or
The demand isn’t great enough vs the cost of developement.

You can convert RVT files to Trimble BIM files in Trimbleconnect - which SketchUp 2023 can open. Not quite the same , but a useful workaround for Mac users.

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“You can convert SKP files to Trimble BIM files in Trimbleconnect”

I suspect you mean rvt files…

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Indeed I did. SKP on the brain

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thank you, I will keep this in mind