SketchUp - Arkio

Importing models from and to SketchUp requires a Pro or Enterprise license. You can learn more about our paid licenses on our website and can start a free trial from Arkio to try this feature.

The latest Revit, Rhino and Sketchup plugins are included with our Windows installer that can be downloaded for free from our website.

SketchUp to Arkio

The Arkio SketchUp plugin allows you to export models from SketchUp 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 to Arkio and back. We will be adding a plugin for the 2023 version in the next Arkio update.

You can export models from SketchUp using the export button under the Arkio toolbar. If you don't see the Arkio buttons/toolbar you might need to install the Arkio on your PC first or enable the buttons by right-clicking your toolbar. All 3D geometry visible in your view will be exported to Arkio. You can best start with a small scene and turn off layers or hide geometry you don't want to export to Arkio.

On export to Arkio, you can select if you want your model to be exported with double-sided faces or not. Exporting double-sided faces loads double the faces from SketchUp (front and back) to Arkio, this can result in models too large for mobile devices but can help resolve issues with SketchUp models with missing geometry. (more on best practices for SketchUp models at the end of this page)

Once you open Arkio on the same PC, your SketchUp exports can be accessed from the create>import drawer.  You can place the models in your scene and share them with your other devices in a meeting.

You can also upload your exported models directly to your (mobile) devices by uploading the ZIP file (or OBJ, MTL and texture files) to your Arkio Cloud group.

%userprofile%\Documents\Arkio\Import\SketchUp

Use Locked at origin to load the model as a locked reference with the same coordinates (eg. to review and draw designs on).

Or use place as object to place your SketchUp model as a movable object (eg. a piece of furniture that you want to place in the scene multiple times)

Update your models

When a change is made in SketchUp you can overwrite your model with a new version by exporting the same model from SketchUp again. A spinning indicator shows in Arkio when models are loaded again. When the new version of the model is available a yellow update icon will show above the model in the Arkio scene. Clicking this icon with your mouse or laser will update that model to the latest version. 

If you don't want to update your existing model or if you want to switch between various design options you can change the file name of the Sketchup models instead of updating your existing model.

Arkio will keep the old versions of your imported models so you can always revert back when needed. You can access your older imported models in the placement dialog under the date dropdown.

Face direction

Models from SketchUp have two-sided faces. A default white material for the exterior and purple for the interior. Arkio's default to only export the exterior (white) surface direction to optimize performance on mobile devices.

You can also export double-sided faces when you have models with painted backfaces. This will however double the processing time and number of polygons and can impact the performance of your mobile devices like the Quest.

The Sketchup model without correct face orientation will result in faces missing in Arkio. In reality, these faces are still there but only visible from the exterior face. You can fix your model's face direction in Sketchup by switching Face Style to Monochrome and selecting and reversing the incorrect faces to let the white face point to the exterior of the model

Arkio to SketchUp 

To load your models from Arkio back to SketchUp you can best open the Scene overview on a Windows version of Arkio and click the export button. Once the export is made for SketchUp an export confirmation will be shown. You can also export your files from Arkio on your mobile devices via our Arkio Cloud and download the model from cloud.arkio.is 

Back in SketchUp you can open our SketchUp Plugin import and select the file you exported from Arkio (default Windows path is Documents\Arkio\Export\SketchUp) All Arkios geometry, components, sketches and 3D map buildings will then be converted to SketchUp geometry.

Mac OS users

Our Arkio Sketchup plugins are currently only available on Windows and make it faster to convert the active 3D view to a VR-ready file that can directly be loaded to Arkio. When using Sketchup on Mac you can also manually export your models to OBJ or glTF/GLB using Sketchup's build in exporters. After you export your models to OBJ you can make a zip file of the OBJ, MTL and texture files and upload that zip to the Arkio Cloud to load your model to Arkio.

Known issues/limitations:

• Loading heavy SketchUp scenes is not recommended, try to keep your models below 450K polygons to avoid crashes and performance loss when working with mobile devices like the Quest.
• If you experience issues loading your models try to load the OBJ exports in the Windows 3D viewer, Blender or Rhino to see if the files load well there and what geometry might be causing the issue.
  
• Sometimes failing imported models affect the loading of other files. Cleaning your temporary ResourceCache files can solve most issues.

Best practices SketchUp modeling

• You can Inspect your models face orientations and optimize your Sketchup model using View>Face Style>Monochrome and reversing the white faces to the exterior of your model.
• It's best to check the size of your models before you load and optimize them on mobile devices. You can check the number of faces of your model using Window>Model Info.
• The objects visible in your 3D view will be exported to Arkio using the plugin so you can reduce the model size by turning off layers, hiding geometry, and optimizing your components.
• You can optimize your Sketchup models and components and increase performance for Sketchup and Arkio using plugins like Skimp