We’re launching a new Labs experiment, Reference Points in the Add Location workflow, and we’d love to invite the community to try it out.
Reference Points are a simple way to add key locations to your model to help with orientation, alignment, and coordination, whether you’re working in architecture or civil/survey workflows.
They can help you:
Define additional points to better position your model
Mark important locations for placement and alignment
Support coordination with survey data or other teams
Double-check that your geolocated model lands in the right spot
*See the GIF below for a quick overview
How to try it?
Open SketchUp for Desktop
Go to Add Location
Accept the Labs Terms & Conditions (if prompted)
Geolocate your model (address, lat/long, or CRS)
Once geolocated, find the “Add Reference Points” button in the left panel
Start adding your points
A couple of notes
This is a Labs feature, and we’re still learning from your feedback
Reference points currently work with lat/long (not Easting/Northing yet)
Points are not yet stored or available for export
If you’re working with coordinate-based workflows (including CRS), this might be a way to start exploring more precise placement in SketchUp.
Sorry, but somehow the picture doesn’t add up, are you an employee at Sketchup or “just” an enthusiastic amateur like me who is interested in how others use the software? You know, this fact is usually revealed from the forum profiles of employees… ( Not that it matters, I’m just curious. )
Hi @rtches that’s good feedback. At the end of the day, workflows related to accuracy should also be done in 2D. I totally agree, we will have a look. Thank you for your feedback again!
Sorry if this is in the wrong spot I didnt see any threads relevant to my issue. I believe I have the latest version of add location in 2026.1.252 It appears the source maps has changed. I dont see any choices and the location I need isnt on the map. It appears to be an out of date map.
Hi @ivanjones yep, probably the wrong spot. It should not be the case. You should have all the details to solve your issue in here: Site Context with Add Location If you provide more details (e.g.screnshots/video), i can help you better
Thank you for the reply. Add Location had two map sources in the past. Right now using SU 2026 it no longer has that. The current Add Location Map is this.
Add Location did not find the street address. Google maps did. as you can see the add location map is out of date. In previous versions between the bing map and I forget the other, one was usually more current. The current version looks years out of date for this area, Prescott Valley AZ.
Extension manager says I have version 1.8.2 of add location.
Hi, yes, I’ve just tried it myself on my machine. Same version you’re using, and I get the 2 providers. I’ve attached an image for reference. Let me know if you manage to try both providers
I found that now. The initial search does not allow a choice of map. and the address took me to somewhere in europe. Try it from scratch 7371 E. True Grit Trl. Prescott Valley AZ
Unless you know where it is it wont find it. I had to search for the town with no address then navigate to it manually then set geo location, then I could finally switch from the out of date bing map to the Digital Global map. It didnt used to be like this.
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