- Should you be using SketchUp extensions? You've probably heard they
can speed up your workflow and make otherwise complicated
modeling tasks, much easier. But how do you know which
extensions are right for you? And which ones will just be a
waste of your time and money? We've helped thousands of
architects answer questions like these. And in this video, we'll share what we've learned with you. I'm Alex Oliver, lead
instructor at SketchUp School. The place where professionals
go when they're serious about learning SketchUp. And today, I'm gonna share with you 10 SketchUp Extensions
Every Architect Should Know. Keep watching. (bright music) Sometimes known as Ruby
Scripts or Plugins, Extensions are tools that
you can add-on to SketchUp that solve time-consuming
or difficult problems. Some are free, and some you pay for, but each is designed with
a specific function or goal to streamline your workflow and speed up the modeling process. And you'll find a majority
of them on websites like the Extension Warehouse and SketchUcation. All told, there are close
to a thousand extensions to choose from. But while it's great to have
access to all these extensions, how do you choose the right ones for you? Not all extensions are created equal. And while some are exactly what you need, others might lead you down the wrong path. Over the years, we've helped
countless professionals integrate extensions into
their SketchUp workflow. In the process, we've seen firsthand which extensions are the
most useful for architects and related design professionals. Now I should quickly mention. For this video, I've decided
to focus on the paid extensions that solve the biggest
and most common issues you run into on the job. There are great free extensions out there, and we cover many of them in
the courses on our website. But in general, free extensions
solve more narrow problems. Also, to further whittle down this list, I prioritized extensions that
solve more time-consuming, difficult, or nearly impossible
3D modeling problems. In the end, I came up with
10 SketchUp Extensions, Every Architect Should Know that are a huge help with
some of the most common, time-consuming roadblocks that you'll hit on almost every design project. But before I jump into
the list, a warning. If you're new to SketchUp, or you're self-taught and a little worried you might have missed a few
fundamentals along the way, I do not recommend jumping
straight into using Extensions. That'd be like trying to run
before you learn to walk. You'd be setting yourself
up for a hard fall. At a minimum, I recommend
you pause this video and review our Watch This Before You Get
Started with SketchUp video. And once you're comfortable
with the concepts covered there, also take a look at our How to Model Hard Things
in SketchUp video, which covers some more
advanced SketchUp material. You're back from watching those? Great. Now you're ready to take
your SketchUp skills to the next level with Extensions. Let's bring up the list,
and go over each extension and the design challenge in SketchUp that it will help you solve. Starting with, number one, Instant Roof Nui. It's helpful to know how to
use SketchUp's native tools like Follow Me and commands
like Intersect Faces to model a roof by hand. But many a greater
SketchUp modeler than you has been brought to their knees by having to model a
particularly difficult roof. Fortunately, Chuck Vali
was one of those designers and he's since taken it upon
himself to automate roof-making with the Instant Roof Nui extension. With Instant Roof, you
simply select a face and its edges, then run the extension to create a complex roof
in just a few seconds. You can choose from dozens
of styles such as Craftsman, Dutch Gable, Tudor, and more. Plus you can add Dormers
where you need them. You have the option to
draw just the Rafter, Beam, and Hip tail ends that are
visible from the exterior, or draw them full length so all of the framing
is there on the inside. You can also decide whether
you need to add details like Rain Gutters, Bird
Blocks, and Corbels. Plus there are tools to easily texture all of the elements of the roof, and even tools to show 3D shingle shape, rather than having a
2D only representation. You can get a standalone
license of Instant Roof or you can subscribe to
the Instant Architecture bundle of extensions which
includes Instant Roof, as well as a few other
extensions on this list. Either way, if you
build roofs in SketchUp, it's a no-brainer. This is one of those
tools that pays for itself the very first time you use it. Next up we'll talk about
an extension that helps you with a problem you'll face more than once in the same project. Number two, FlexTools. When it comes to adding doors and windows manually in SketchUp, there are a few things
you have to keep in mind. If you're working from a plan, you need to get the openings
set-up in the right spot first. Then you need to either
draw your own components or find suitable ones on the 3D Warehouse. As you develop the design, this may involve swapping
out basic representations for more detailed, accurate options. Finally, when it comes time to create plans and other
construction documentation, you often need to do additional work to display the components properly. For example, adding a door
swing symbol in a 2D floor plan. Again, these are valuable
skills to have in SketchUp. But once you have them, you should know there's a quicker way to go
about this whole process. One great option is the
FlexTools extension. With FlexTools, you select from a preconfigured library
of doors and windows and add them to an existing wall. They will automatically
cut an opening in the wall. If you need to move the component, the opening will move too. Now if you already have your
window and door openings cut, you can still add doors
and windows using FlexTools and then use the scale tool
to fit them to the openings. Because the components are built on top of SketchUp's Dynamic
Components technology, they will redraw themselves, meaning that they will
often add-in new geometry and the parts and pieces
won't become warped. Plus you have a menu of options that can help you quickly
configure doors and windows to match the specifications
of your design. And when it comes time
to create plan views, a single click gives you
the 2D symbols you need. In my experience, the FlexTools Extension is particularly useful
earlier in the design process, when you're not completely sure yet what the exact specifications
for the size or style of your doors and windows will be. You can just drop something in and play around with
configurations on the fly, allowing you to test options without getting hung up on the details. Also, doors and windows
that you add with FlexTools start off with default white faces and SketchUp glass colors. If you need wood or other textures, you'll need to edit the
components to add them yourself. The good news though is that
once you have done that, you can use FlexTools
Component Finder feature to save that version to more easily use it on future projects. FlexTools comes with some
other tools and features worth checking out. And the team behind the
extension is very responsive to user feedback, adding new tools and
functionality frequently in response to customer requests. When you go to their website,
just look for FlexPackPro which comes with all the
features you'll need. Now, it is worth mentioning
that there is another extension I also recommend for
doors and windows called Instant Door & Window. If you plan to try any of
the other Instant extensions on this list, and decide to get them via the Instant Architecture
bundle I mentioned earlier, you'll have access to
Instant Door & Window. It's a popular alternative to FlexTools, very powerful and certainly
worth checking out. All right, let's move
on to another extension that solves a particularly
frustrating problem. Number three, Instant Stairs. Building stairs in SketchUp is another one of those foundational skill
sets you should learn. In its most simplified form, you learn to think spatially
by drawing a rise and a run, or setting up a 3D step
with the proper dimensions. And then using the Move
tool to copy an array and using SketchUp's tools from there to refine the stairs further. But there are so many more
details to account for. Not to mention, more
complicated styles of stairs that present a challenge to even the most
experienced SketchUp user. That's where the Instant Stairs extension can be a real life-saver. With Instant Stairs, you
start out by determining whether you wanna build your
stairs in one of three ways. By starting from a Standard Shape, by starting from the
Alignment you'll need, or by starting from a Plan
drawing of the stairs. Having this flexibility upfront allows you to adapt the tool to your workflow, rather than the other way around. From there, there is a big
catalog of common styles to choose from, as well as all of the dimensions and settings
you'll need to configure to ensure your stairs are accurate. And you can take any materials
already in your model and use the tool to add
them to your stairs. You'll notice that the tool takes care of aligning the textures properly, such as switching the wood
grain direction properly around the different
elements of the stairs. Now of course, most stairs aren't complete without a railing. And while Instant Stairs
doesn't create the railing, it does have a setting to create
your railing lines for you. These lines can then be
used by another extension from the same developer. Number four, Instant Fence & Railing. Adding railing to the
staircase manually in SketchUp would require you use the Follow Me tool to extrude profiles such as the handrail combined with copying and
placing arrays of components along the way. Not only is this tedious
and time-consuming, but for more difficult scenarios,
such as a spiral staircase it can be nearly impossible. That's where Instant Fence
& Railing comes into play. Following along with the Stairs example, with the Instant Fence &
Railing extension installed, you simply select the Railing Lines in
your Stairs component, then select a Railing style to quickly create the
railing for your stairs. But this is just one problem that Instant Fence &
Railing helps you solve. As the name suggests, you can use the tool for all of your fence and railing needs. So long as you have a path, you can choose from the library
of fence and railing styles, and you have control over
a bunch of parameters to help you configure the
result to your exact needs. Now whereas Instant
Fence & Railing helps you create fences and railings, there are other design challenges with similarly repetitive elements that are perfectly suited
for our next extension. Number five, Profile Builder. On every project, you'll need to extrude
profiles along paths. And while SketchUp's
Follow Me tool is helpful, it can be tedious and time-consuming to set-up each profile and extrusion. And when it comes to
more complicated paths, the tool just fails altogether. Combine that with the
fact that you might need multiple profiles extruded
along the same path, and that you might also need to repeat any number of components
along the path as well, and you have the perfect
set-up for an extension like Profile Builder. With Profile Builder,
you can create Assemblies that consist of Components
that can repeat along a path and Profiles that can
follow along the same path. When you combine this functionality, and you pair it with a good imagination, it's truly impressive
what you can come up with. While there's a lot of overlap between some of the things you can do in Profile Builder versus the
Instant Fence & Railing extension that I just mentioned, Profile Builder offers more flexibility to create and add custom,
repeating elements to your model. Of course, you can tackle
railing, fencing and barrier walls of any imaginable design. But you can also tackle
construction detail assemblies for walls, repetitive
seating, paths and roadways, and so much more. And without using the Assemblies feature, you can still take advantage of using the Profile along a path feature to build out things like base and crown molding or steel trusses. Now once you've created
a Profile or Assembly, you can save it to use again
and again on all your projects. Plus, there's a growing library of pre-made Profiles and Assemblies
you can download and use. Head over to the Profile Builder website to learn more and give it a try. Next up. Let's switch gears to
talk about an extension that helps you establish
the context for your model. Number six, Placemaker. In SketchUp, you can geolocate your model using the Add Location feature. It will bring in a flat 2D
satellite image and 3D terrain that you can use as the
basis for a project. But one of the first
problems you'll notice is that the resolution of the
satellite imagery isn't great. In the latest version of SketchUp, you now have the option to purchase higher resolution satellite imagery through a data provider called Nearmap. But what if you want a
more comprehensive solution for building out the
area around your model? Enter Placemaker. It's an extension that comes
with an assortment of tools for enhancing your site. First, Placemaker allows you to import high resolution aerials. Just open the Placemaker Dialogue and click on the Imagery tab. You'll see the aerial imports default to a data provider called Mapbox, which gives you higher resolution imagery than the default satellite images you get from SketchUp's
Add Location feature. You can preview the
area you've geolocated, and purchase with credits
to import directly into your model. If you need even higher
resolution imagery, you can switch to importing
aerials from NearMap. Just note that NearMap aerials
will cost more credits. Credits for Placemaker can be
purchased as you need them, or you can subscribe to the
Extension for discounts. Here's the other cool part. For many locations, you
can also use Placemaker to import 3D buildings,
roads and walking paths, bodies of water, trees, and 3D terrain, allowing you to quickly
model your site's context. It will save you hours,
if not days, of work. All right, next up, let's talk about one of
my personal favorites. Number seven, Artisan. One of the most common obstacles professionals face in SketchUp is needing to model organic shapes such as terrain and landscape features, as well complex, inorganic surfaces for buildings and furniture. We cover the fundamentals of this process in our How To Model Hard
Things In SketchUp video. Once you feel like you
understand those fundamentals, I highly recommend you check out Artisan for modeling anything that has free-form, organic or complex surfaces. Artisan comes with subdivision
and sculpting tools that will blow your mind as you use them to create anything from contemporary architectural elements, to the terrain and landscape
features around your project, to any number of hard-to-model
objects in your model. To harness Artisan's power, it's really important that you understand the core principles of how it works. Underneath the hood, Artisan
helps you effortlessly subdivide surfaces into
a mesh of polygons, change the size, position and
orientation of those polygons, and soften smooth the edges. All with the aim of helping
you create less boxy, and more realistic designs. If you're serious about adding
Artisan to your toolset, we have have an entire course
for Artisan on our website. Let's move on to talk
about the next extension on our list. Number eight, Instant Site Grader. One of the most difficult
problems to tackle in SketchUp is taking your design and integrating it with your site's terrain. The Sandbox tools come with a
few basic tools to help you. But as a professional, you'll quickly find you
need far more control to get the results you need. For example, if you need to
integrate a house into terrain, you can use the Instant
Site Grader extension. It will help you define the graded area, the cut and fill slopes, and even the materials
for the graded area. Plus there are tools to
fine tune the results to your exact needs. Instant Site Grader also works
for retaining walls, roads, walkways, basically anything
that would require grading in the real world. Again, just add the object to the terrain. Make sure it's either
a group or a component, and select both the object
and the terrain surface and use Instant Site Grader's tools to integrate into the landscape. Okay, just two more extensions to cover. Number nine, Instant Road. One of the problems I see
architects often give up on is figuring out how to build 3D walkways, sidewalks, and roads. There really aren't any
native SketchUp tools for handling this, so most fall back on
using the Sandbox Drape and Paint Bucket tools to
outline and paint 2D paths on a surface. But many designs require you to visualize how the walkways and roads
will follow the contours of the terrain around your design. And that's where the Instant
Road extension can help. With Instant Road, you can
generate 3D walkways and roadways based on centerlines
only, or profile faces, on a pre-existing terrain. They can be raised or depressed and you can add curbs,
medians and islands. Plus you can add road striping, arrows, and other common markings. The Instant Road extension will also perform some grading
around the road for you. You can even use Instant
Road to make waterways. Basically, it helps you
integrate any pathway you need into the terrain. All right, time for one more extension. Last, but certainly not least. Number 10, PlusSpec. So far, we've talked about extensions that each solve pretty
complicated problems. And if you combine a
few of these extensions, along with some fundamental
SketchUp modeling skills, you can put together a solution that's tailored to your specific needs. But what if you'd rather find an extension that's more like a one-stop-shop where it handles most of your
needs in a single package? If this sounds like you, I recommend you take a look at PlusSpec. It's an extension that aims to automate nearly every aspect of SketchUp for design and construction industry professionals. Inside the extension, there are tools for creating
foundations, floors, walls, windows, doors, and roofs, each including all of
their construction details and materials. And that barely scratches the
surface of what it can do. There are many other features that help with creating
construction documentation, cost estimation, and
other BIM functionality. Compared to the other
extensions I've mentioned, PlusSpec is the most expensive. However, it is geared towards
helping professionals produce end-to-end design packages faster and is well worth the investment for the right types of projects. If it sounds interesting,
take advantage of their 7-day free trial to
test drive it yourself. And that's it. Congratulations. You've made it through all 10 Extensions. Did you learn something new in this video? Do me a quick favor and tell us which extension you liked the most in the comments below right now. Or, just let us know you liked the video by giving it a like. Just by watching this video, you've already learned what tools can help you tackle some of the most
complicated modeling tasks you'll face in SketchUp. Integrating any one of
these into your workflow will pay huge dividends in the future. From here, it's definitely
possible to jump in and start using any one
of these extensions. We've provided links to all
of them in the description. However, if you want to
avoid wasting time and money on an extension that isn't right for you, then I recommend you head over
to this page on our website. You can tell us about your situation and we'll tell you which extensions will be the biggest help. Oh, and one last thing! If you don't wanna miss our next video, make sure to subscribe to our
YouTube channel right now. Until next time, Happy Sketching! (truck engine roaring) Real life saver. (playful music)
