AI for Architecture beyond visualization

Hi everyone,

We’ve all seen the growing use of AI in Architecture. It’s something that makes sense as Architecture is a creative profession though built on top of a lot of rulesets and standard practices, that consume a lot of working time.

I’m not fond of giving up creativity in favor of generative AI workflows, but things have progressed from being almost randomly generated from a mere prompt into a huge degree of control.

We can see that Trimble has taken an interest and a good example is Sketchup Diffusion. I hope this trend grows inside Sketchup and we can automate more in the future.

However, we cannot rely on Trimble to give us every tool in the tool set and there are a lot of developers out there using AI to pursue new workflows.

I’m mostly interested in AI to help us do the repetitive work, but I’m open to anything that helps me explore more and faster and design better, while doing it in Sketchup as that’s what it allows.

After this boring intro, trying to make things conform to the scope of this forum, I’d really like to know what AI tools you see are directed at Architects using Sketchup, but also what tools could be used for any workflow even if they don’t deal directly with Sketchup.

I’ll throw in a few areas I’m interested in:

1. Urban Planning, Pre-Design, Analysis and Massing Studies

Autodesk Forma | Forma Login | Software Price & Buy
This pre design AI app is used for urban planning and massing studies as well as sustainable design analysis, that uses AI to help users generate metrics, reports and constrains to their designs. It’s in the autodesk eco system which probably isn’t popular around here, but it seems very interesting and has some relation with software like Sefaira.

TestFit Real-Time AI
This AI driven predesign tool seems to comply with very complex tasks in architecture like checking zoning, volumetric and distance constraints, while allowing for fast massing tools and uses or parking space distributions, while generating reports, cost estimations and quantity take-offs. There’s no relation with sketchup whatsoever, but this kind of work should be able to be carried on to Sketchup.

2. Floorplans

Skema for SketchUp
A floorplan generator that uses library of favourite solutions and adapts them to floorplans with the added benefit of exporting to Revit and convert them into a full BIM model. Work isn’t exclusively developed inside Sketchup, but Sketchup becomes an important part of the proposed workflow.
I haven’t tried it as it links to Revit, but the approach of having a simple model being created with the help of AI that is the basis of a auto created complex design, seems very interesting.

Finch – Optimizing Architecture
At the time limited to Rhino+Grasshoper and Revit, it seems that there will be developments in the Sketchup front, but I’m not sure. It seems to be able to generate speedy iterations on floorplans, that show some promise.

3. IFC Classification, Construction Documentation

Artificial Intelligence in BricsCAD® BIM
BricsCAD BIM claims that it can auto classify objects in a model into IFC, it can propagate details to several areas in the project and it use pointclouds to create models with the help of the AI. If anybody tried this one, I’d be really happy to know if it works as expected.

Loci AI
Analyses models to find out what they are and then attempts to organize them, by tagging, classifying, labelling and create some kind of meaning in the model. IFC classification is one such classification and there are examples that deal with it.

NOTE: I know that most of these are not ready for Sketchup, but they might be worth investigating nonetheless. If you know more info about some of these apps, if you know some more that are better integrated with Sketchup workflow, or if you know of apps in other areas that might be interesting for Architecture, please throw them in and I’ll add them to the list.

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We’ve been waiting for them to add the mirror tool to SU for years, but you want to discuss AI development in SU, lol
All jokes aside, after many years of waiting, I was pleasantly surprised after watching the 3D Basecamp keynote. At the very least, I’m looking forward to the SU team implementing the AI ​​ideas described in this video. Once I see SU moving forward, it will be worth discussing AI in more detail.
I’m attaching the link below for those who missed it.

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Isn’t AI a valid discussion? I have a plugin for mirror… that one is solved.

I also don’t need the answer to AI to come from Trimble, or exclusively from them. It can come from many directions.

I’m posting interesting finds in the post above.

Yes, of course, it is worth discussing. I probably didn’t express myself correctly, sorry for that. I’ve been disappointed for a long time that SU doesn’t develop some trivial tools, and now, bam, how to implement AI?! (just a personal thing) :slight_smile:

Now regarding the topic. This post could also include external software that could work with SU as an ecosystem. It would be interesting if someone used AI software to automate a process and describe its workflow.

E.g.: About a year ago I came across a site that declares itself to be an AI site for analysis: https://cove.inc/
When I tried it, it seemed to me that it was still in the development stage, and many tools were not responding. Recently I saw a few videos on YT about this site and I was pleasantly surprised.
I’d be interested if someone used it for building performance and design efficiency.

Edit: Ahh, you already added some external sites, thanks for that

I heard about Cove tool a while ago and it did seem to be an app, now they seem to be more a company that provides this kind of services of sustainable analysis services and other reports. There is an Ai service, called Vitras.ai but I didn’t login nor did I understand exactly what it did.

I think I could add it to the predesign and analysis software list, but I’m not sure if it is a tool or a service.

EDIT: @bmaxim

I signed up for their Vitras.ai service, there are a few options that are meant to generate specific Predesign reports with the help of AI, that seem very useful.

However it only works in the US for now.

This also gets you to a menu for choosing from a lot of consultancy services. It seems their software is now being used for that, so it’s not widely available. If you find something else and feel I should include it in the list, just say so.

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I looked for some more info. I see they have an extension for SU. I’ll dig into it in the next few days.

You were right, cove.tool until now is only accessible in the US
The site itself offers personalized consulting in the field of building performance and design efficiency. The prices are high.
But it has a subcategory Vitras.Ai with a few AI-powered tools:


I went through all 4, It asked me to choose some general info
(There are some advanced options, where you can put more info):

This site also offers an SU extension:


It works in the same way as Sefaira. The extension allows you to arrange the building on tags. However, the Export button seems unresponsive.

The site looks promising, maybe for the US you can extract useful information, for the rest of the world the access is limited
I hope this information will be helpful to someone and they won’t lose their Sunday evening as I lost mine:)

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From a post here in the forum by @MikeWayzovski I’ve read that there has been a challenge made by Sketchup for developers to integrate their apps in the SU extension eco system.

Here’s the list:

Sketchup 0-60 Challenge

Loci and Skema participated in it. I’ll investigate more.

Alex Schreyer has posted his AI extension to the forum: Yes, You Can Use OpenAI’s GPT AI to Create Geometry in SketchUp (With Ruby Snippet) | SketchUp for Design

@CraigTrickett may know something more about the 0-60 sec challenge ( I was not at Dimensions).

I find this also interesting:

It is no secret that all big companies are looking for way’s to implement AI,
I was curious if I could create an extension with the help of AI, just based on something I needed to be done within SketchUp:

Morning eveyone,
Yes the 0-60 challenge was something that Trimble ran for SketchUp last year. We invited a number of start ups to provide solutions to AECO challenges and we had a great turnout. It finalised in Vegas last November with Scaffplan winning first place. As mentioned above Skema were also involved as were other start-ups such as Loci and Spacely.

On the subject of AI we are seeing a growing number of extensions / tools being AI powered. Identic joined us at DevCamp to show their image to 3D model capabilities. Expanse4D were also in attendance demonstrating their 2d floor plan to 3d model extension.

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