3 Reasons Why You Need Sketchup Pro – Today, let’s talk about SketchUp Pro and the three biggest reasons design professionals like you choose Pro over other versions of SketchUp. What we’re not gonna do today is dive into a laundry list of all the features of Pro or the nitty gritty differences between the various versions of SketchUp. We actually already have another article that does just that and I’ve added a link to it in the cards.
Table of Contents
3 Reasons Why You Need Sketchup Pro
Instead in this article, we’ll focus on three Sketchup Pro only features that will make it easy to decide whether it is or isn’t worth upgrading from sketchup free to sketchup Pro, starting with number one
Professional-Grade tools.
So what do I mean by Professional-Grade tools when it comes to SketchUp Pro? Well, if you’re using SketchUp on the job, chances are that you’ll run into situations where the right tool would make things so much easier. Like building something in the real world, there might be one version of a tool that can get the job done, but another that would get it done much faster. And the same thing is true in SketchUp. For instance, if you wanna model terrain or organic shapes in SketchUp, you’d have to work really hard to get good results out of the basic drawing tools in SketchUp free.
And for many things it’s nearly impossible, but with Pro you’ll have access to the sandbox tools, which are designed for just this purpose.
Then there are the job-specific tools included in SketchUp Pro that address problems SketchUp free can’t handle at all, such as advanced add location features including the ability to import high-res satellite imagery and site specific terrain. The solid tools which are necessary for creating solid objects out of your geometry for 3D printing applications and the match photo tool for creating 3D models from photographs. But wait, the differences in the tools you can access in SketchUp Pro don’t stop there. That’s because with Pro you’ll have access to SketchUp extensions.
Extensions are like extra tools and utilities for SketchUp that are designed to make everyday SketchUp related challenges easier and more efficient. Some of these include job-specific tools for helping you tackle common design challenges you face when creating furniture, rooms, buildings, landscapes and even entire environments. Tools for tackling hard to model problems like organic shapes and forms, complex assemblies or parametric models and time saving utilities that automate tasks in the background to keep you working quickly and efficiently. If you’re the kind of person who likes to find easier, more efficient ways to work, do yourself a favor and use SketchUp Pro with extensions.
Your future self will definitely thank you.
All right. Now that you know a bit about the tools you’ll only have access to in SketchUp Pro, let’s move on to the next key Pro only feature. Number two
Professional Presentation Options.
SketchUp free comes with some basic styles and options for showcasing your final designs. It will also watermark all your exported images with the SketchUp logo. If you need to go above and beyond that, you’ll need SketchUp Pro. What do I mean exactly?
Well in Pro you can edit the default styles to come up with any number of your own custom looks and you’re not confined to just static 2D images. With Pro you can use scenes and adjust SketchUps animation presets to create 3D walkthrough or fly through animations that tour your client through the model. These can be an amazing way to showcase different aspects of your design, but that’s not it. As we mentioned in the first tip, you can add extensions to SketchUp Pro.
And there are tons of extensions out there for helping you create better presentations.
These can range from simply improving SketchUps built-in style generators to fully featured extensions where you can add lighting and adjust the materials in your SketchUp model to create photo-realistic images and even photo realistic walkthrough animations. Pretty cool, right. And I should also mention that with Pro, you have more options for the type of images you can export including vector formats, such as PDF.
Read : 2 Effective Ways to Install SketchUp Plugins and Extensions
And of course, these exports won’t have the SketchUp logo watermark that you get when exporting from SketchUp free. All right, that brings us to the final key feature. Number three,
Professional-Level Documentation.
When you finish building your 3D model in SketchUp, that usually isn’t the end of the story. You’ll often need to take that model and create things like 2D floor plans, elevations, sections, details, maybe even a full set of construction documents. For these kinds of drawings you’ll need Layout, a 2D documentation tool that comes bundled with SketchUp Pro. With layout, you can bring in specific views of your SketchUp model and then add things like title blocks, dimensions, labels, text, symbols, images, material swatches, basically anything you need to create the same types of 2D presentation documents you’d otherwise make using programs like AutoCAD illustrator or InDesign.
So if you’re a design professional such as an architect, interior designer, landscape architect, urban planner, woodworker, set designer, or event designer, which of these Pro only features is the reason you need SketchUp Pro over SketchUp free.
And that’s it! Congratulations! You’ve established it through the entire schedule! Did you learn something new in this 3 Reasons Why You Need Sketchup Pro article? Do me a speedy spare and tell us which tip you liked “the world’s largest” in the comments below right now.
