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SketchUp Coming from Sketchup -> Blender. Different approaches

Nordscape

Nordscape

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Hello. I am currently using Sketchup as the main software for scenery design. Due to its limitation, especially in regards to complex modelling (such as making creases to tent hangars and such) and texturing I have decided to give Blender a real try. I need some advice on different approaches to starting Blender based off of some You tube research and tries within the software.
  • I am tempted to do mostly all modelling in Sketchup, import to Blender and do all texturing within Blender.
    • Is it possible to continue modelling within Blender i.e. by using the sculting feature, and if so; what should I consider?
  • Watching different tutorials on Blender I find it somewhat hard to identify what the artists use as reference and how they are able to make exact models. There are no obvious measuring tool which highlights in realtime how big a wall is, as is natively present within Sketchup. Only way to get X-Y-Z values are within the tool window to the right. Is it correct of me to assume that I need to go back and forth to activate the measuring tool within Blender to measure distances of edges which have already been created?
  • In Sketchup there is a feature to save components which can be used in a later project if needed. Am I right to assume this is called "Assets" in Blender. Do they work similarly as components?
  • Any suggestions on how to keep a good workflow in Blender - coming from Sketchup - is greatly appreciated. I would like to avoid coming to the texturing stage and realize that I should have done all previous tasks differently :)
 
Blender has a steep learning curve. There are so many features and capabilities to memorize. Plus there are short cuts to most functions.
Hopefully coming from another 3-D program, you can pick up things easily.

I don't think you will need to go back and forth between Sketch-up and Blender - once you import your mesh/object(s) you should be able to continue in Blender, baring learning the functions to manipulate your mesh.

What artists usually do in blender is to have 3 orthographic views (left, front and top) - scale those views to the proper size - the N panel in Blender shows all the information on the size of the mesh object, orientation, scale etc.
There are measuring tools too. Here you may need to learn a new workflow without dimensions directly displayed.

Components are assets, I believe as you had found.

example
DA40CGDFQ_2025.09.07_16h28m42s.png



EDIT: reviewing a simple table sketchup vid

Groups and components are collections and parenting meshes to each other to make it one entity - so to speak.
Push pull tool - is extrude (short-cut is select edge/face/vertex and "G" to grab - to constrain to x,y,z press x or y or z and move the mouse)

There is a input dialog if you want to type in values

DA40CGDFQ_2025.09.07_16h40m12s.png



I used this guys youtube to learn how to use all the blender functions. It's silly but gives a great start. Did not like the "donut" tutorial

www.youtube.com

Introduction to Blender Series - For Absolute Beginners- Crossmind Studio

Learn blender over the course of 7 days. Beginning with a basic Lego approach and ending with a fully animated scene. Hi This is Ram Singh from Crossmind Stu...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
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Nordscape said:
Hello. I am currently using Sketchup as the main software for scenery design. Due to its limitation, especially in regards to complex modelling (such as making creases to tent hangars and such) and texturing I have decided to give Blender a real try. I need some advice on different approaches to starting Blender based off of some You tube research and tries within the software.
  • I am tempted to do mostly all modelling in Sketchup, import to Blender and do all texturing within Blender.
    • Is it possible to continue modelling within Blender i.e. by using the sculting feature, and if so; what should I consider?
  • Watching different tutorials on Blender I find it somewhat hard to identify what the artists use as reference and how they are able to make exact models. There are no obvious measuring tool which highlights in realtime how big a wall is, as is natively present within Sketchup. Only way to get X-Y-Z values are within the tool window to the right. Is it correct of me to assume that I need to go back and forth to activate the measuring tool within Blender to measure distances of edges which have already been created?
  • In Sketchup there is a feature to save components which can be used in a later project if needed. Am I right to assume this is called "Assets" in Blender. Do they work similarly as components?
  • Any suggestions on how to keep a good workflow in Blender - coming from Sketchup - is greatly appreciated. I would like to avoid coming to the texturing stage and realize that I should have done all previous tasks differently :)
Click to expand...
I've been using both SketchUp and Blender. SketchUp is still a large part of my workflow, and it's specifically designed for architecture so it's a great tool for buildings. The drawback to SketchUp is it isn't meant for game design, and a huge drawback for example is lack of support for UVs. There's been plugins that can add UV ability for example, but it's nowhere near as powerful as using Blender or another application. You can still make fabrics and tents and such in SketchUp using ClothWorks for example. One thing about SketchUp also is the way the models will import to Blender and things like triangulation on faces that has to be cleaned up versus natively modeling the building in Blender. As Ron mentioned, there's similarities with Blender to SketchUp and you can also extrude a face by a certain amount just like in SketchUp. Learning at least basics of modeling in Blender is a really great idea, so you can do some modeling in SketchUp and then make any modifications later in Blender if needed.
 
FlynZSky said:
Learning at least basics of modeling in Blender is a really great idea, so you can do some modeling in SketchUp and then make any modifications later in Blender if needed.
Click to expand...
That approach is very appealing to me by combining Sketchup and Blender. But as you also mentioned; there have been issues where I have tried to import the Sketchup model into Blender, but the UV's are all off... . With that said my lack of knowledge about the software stopped be from understanding what limitations and possibilities there are to correct the issues. I hope to get more knowledge about this issue.
ronh said:
Blender has a steep learning curve. There are so many features and capabilities to memorize. Plus there are short cuts to most functions.
Hopefully coming from another 3-D program, you can pick up things easily.

I don't think you will need to go back and forth between Sketch-up and Blender - once you import your mesh/object(s) you should be able to continue in Blender, baring learning the functions to manipulate your mesh.

What artists usually do in blender is to have 3 orthographic views (left, front and top) - scale those views to the proper size - the N panel in Blender shows all the information on the size of the mesh object, orientation, scale etc.
There are measuring tools too. Here you may need to learn a new workflow without dimensions directly displayed.

Components are assets, I believe as you had found.
Click to expand...
Very nice tips and insights here. Thank you. Great for starting up comparing the work between Sketchup and Blender.

ronh said:
I used this guys youtube to learn how to use all the blender functions. It's silly but gives a great start. Did not like the "donut" tutorial

www.youtube.com

Introduction to Blender Series - For Absolute Beginners- Crossmind Studio

Learn blender over the course of 7 days. Beginning with a basic Lego approach and ending with a fully animated scene. Hi This is Ram Singh from Crossmind Stu...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
Click to expand...
Excellent! Thank you for directing me to that channel.
 
By far the best and even more important, motivating, tutorials IMO are from the Blender Guru

Once you mastered these, hard surface modelling (basically the only important blender part for aircraft design) by Josh Gambrell https://www.youtube.com/@JoshGambrell is highly recommended.
 
I need some input regarding the process. I have experimented a bit with exporting a building with different file-types, .OBJ, .gltf2.0 primarly, and I am struggling a bit with understanding how these work and are supposed to work.

  • Exporting the Sketchup model with .gltf 2.0 gives the most exact model represented as is in Sketchup. Most of the small details (but not all, especially the doors/windows) are imported and also the model hierarchy with Sketchup components. It is however messing up the mesh, so that it - to me - seems to be a lot of fixing up to do to make the model ready for texturing.
Screenshot 2025-10-08 112501.png


Screenshot 2025-10-08 112512.png


Screenshot 2025-10-08 112549.png


  • Using the .obj exporter/import does not include small details with cm precision, but it has a much more cleaner geometry. Where the details are lost are typically where I have +/- 5 cm extrusions, around windows and doors. I am unable to select these faces.
Screenshot 2025-10-08 113229.png


Screenshot 2025-10-08 113254.png
Screenshot 2025-10-08 113246.png


So, to me it seems like I need a solution which gives me a middle-thing between the .obj and .gltf export, or I need to be smacked in the face and shown the correct way of exporting/importing Sketchup models to Blender.

Any advice is greatly appreciated! :)
 
I found an old discussion about precision in Sketchup and obj. Maybe this will help you.

forums.sketchup.com

Export to OBJ Precision?

Since its not in the “OBJ Export Options”, I’m guessing the answer is “no”, but is there any way to get SketchUp to export to obj with more floating point precision? It seems like it outputs 6 digits of precision total, so I get values like “684.274”, but I’d really like significantly more...
forums.sketchup.com forums.sketchup.com

edit:

And this one here in fsdeveloper.

www.fsdeveloper.com

SimLab Objects Importer and Exporter For Sketchup

Hi, It seems that Gary told me about SimLab in a post here but when I put it in the search, it does not find anything on that. Anyway, I'm in the trial period and I wanted to try it out before I purchase both the Sim Lab Importer and Exporter. It seems to work very well and does a much better...
www.fsdeveloper.com www.fsdeveloper.com

edit2:

I used this in dr. Google

sketchup obj exporter resolution
 
Hi Vetle:

As Ron alludes to above, we have choices available for importers / exporters in both Sketchup and Blender; some by design retain more precision.


BTW: I have only tinkered with Blender a few times, but AFAIK, it is possible to import a 3D model from Sketchup into Blender, then quickly restore already mapped texture Material back onto it via a couple of mouse clicks in the Blender GUI.


IMHO, it defeats purposes of saving work already done in Sketchup to perform the universally recommended Blender Material "UVW unwrap".

IMHO, if you already have UVW mapped texture Materials to each Face precisely with the (R-G-B-Y) Pins in Sketchup, you should not need to re-map Materials in Blender.

I would pre-process Sketchup 3D models through MCX to add fully MSFS SDK compliant extensions to glTF file sets before import to Blender, if possible, using the specialized Blender importer which is able to read that file format, regardless of whether it has been compiled via Asobo' MSFS SDK FSPACKAGETOOL.exe.

That would mean an imported / exported glTF would no longer be just a basic Khronos 2.0-only glTF format 3D model.


Remember that 3D previews in neither MCX or Blender can 'precisely' emulate the graphical rendering we will ultimately see for PBR glTF 3D models in MSFS at run time.


IIUC, you do not want Faces triangulated if you already have a 3D model mapped with texture Materials in Sketchup and you import it to Blender ?

We must bear in mind that technically all Faces are "internally" triangulated even if they 'appear' to be Quads (...they actually are "Pseudo-Quads" in Windows' DirectX, and internal Face triangulation edges are normally 'hidden').

Although technically Faces that are triangulated are by default 'hidden' in both Sketchup and Blender except in certain situations where special geometry is used, also by default, *.OBJ and FS SDK compilers will triangulate Faces in a way that is visible- rather than hidden- when viewed in 3D modeling applications.


So, it is not true, AFAIK, Blender and other 3D applications work with 'true' Quads; that is merely an effect of how default triangulated Face geometry is purposely displayed.


IIUC, you may use something other than *.OBJ file format such as *.glTF or Collada *.DAE for your Sketchup export to Blender to avoid triangulation.

If you have already incurred the dreaded triangulation, you can undo most- if not all of it- using Sketchup Ruby plugin scripts by thomthom or TIG.


Do you want original mapped texture names preserved after mapped ...upon export from Sketchup ?

If so, Aerilius has a Sketchup Ruby plugin script to do that during export of Collada DAE files.


Arno's MCX also can add the MDL name to the texture name in Material Editor during conversion / export.

There are many resources available to help get 3D content in / out of just about any 3D application / sim / game.

GaryGB
 
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