Top 25 Free SketchUp Plugins for Modeling – Sketchup became one of the world’s most widely used 3D modeling software products. This is thanks to its intuitive toolbar, interdisciplinary use within the creative industry (not just architects) and having a free version that doesn’t use watermarks.
SketchUp is one of the easiest, fastest, and most popular 3D modeling software. Its tools and interface are simple and easy to deal with for the beginners. However, as work starts to get a bit more complicated, these simple tools might become a hindrance. So, you might consider these simple tips to easily improve your SketchUp skills. That is when SketchUp plugins or extensions come into the picture. These plugins are created by users who noticed the shortcomings of the default tools on Sketchup and decided to solve them.
Now, using such plugins is essential for faster and better results. Once you have grasped how they work, you will realize how much time they could save you. Doing basic repetitive tasks like extruding (push/pull) multiple surfaces or creating offsets and multiple copies will be your job no more. Insert your data, and the plugins will do their magic in a blink of an eye.
- Arrow key to move the orientation of the bend. Path: Plugins Chris Fullmer Tools Shape Bender or select it from a Shape Bender Toolbar. To create the Curved Metal Panels, two extensions are needed: 1) Shape Bender, 2) Weld. Note: SketchUp 2019 version doesn?t support Shape Bender extension, so users must do it in SketchUp 2018.
- How do I download shape bender in SketchUp? Choose Plugins Chris Fullmer Tools Shape Bender to activate the tool. How do I download Curviloft in SketchUp? What’s the tutorial? Navigate to Sketchucation.com and either sign up or log in. Download the plugin LibFredo6.
- Download Kumpulan Plugin Sketchup. Clf Shape Bender: Plugin ini digunakan untuk membuat teks atau tulisan 3D melengkung. Plugin ini tersedia secara gratis dan dapat anda install diseluruh versi Sketchup. Klik disini untuk download plugin Clf Shape Bender. JointPushPull: Sesuai namanya, Plugin ini digunakan untuk push/pull dipermukaan objek.
- Bend 3D text around an arc with the CLF Shape Bender extension (plugin).
Top 25 Free SketchUp Plugins for Modeling
We’re going to introduce you to Top 25 Free SketchUp Plugins for Modeling
Sketchup Plugins. Creates helix tubing along a pre-picked curve in SketchUp. Use the dialog to set numerous parameters and options. You can use this extension to create helical shapes as springs, cables, seams, among other. Makes parametric shapes.
Angular Dimension
This free SketchUp plugins seems so basic that it’s surprising this wasn’t already included with Sketchup, but someone actually took the time to program a plugin to fix it. Developed by the user SLBaumgartner, this plugin allows you to calculate and draw angles on the surface of a volume.
Chain Along Path
This free SketchUp plugins Created by 3dalbertsoft, this plugin allows you to create a helical turbine by selecting a curve and a predefined shape in SketchUp. A dialog window lets you choose numerous parameters to create the final shape. We think it is quite useful to define seams, seals, springs, tensioners and cables. And there’s a YouTube tutorial!
Sketchy FFD
This free SketchUp plugins Sketchy FFD adds a “control cage” to an object, allowing you to create complex curved, forms from gridded surfaces. It raises the possibility of creating domes, arches or free-flowing organic shapes constructed from “weaved” elements or mesh.
Memory Copy
This free SketchUp plugins Memory Copy allows you to copy not only geometry, but also transformations such as the resizing or rotation of said geometry — the tool can “remember” your last move and duplicate it. This makes it a breeze to construct a sweeping staircase or a perfect stack of Jenga blocks!
JHS Power Bar
This free SketchUp plugins Among its many functions, this hugely useful plugin enables you to create an array along a path. A series of components can be quickly placed in a predefined arrangement, perfect for balustrades like the one shown above.
Follow Me and Rotate
This free SketchUp plugins Create detailed rope, twine and ornate balusters with Wikii’s amazing plugin, which combines the traditional “Follow Me” tool with a rotating action to produce twisting geometry.
Multiple Offsets
This free SketchUp plugins Sam D Mitch’s add-on gives you the ability to offset many faces of an object at once, making it possible to create complex, coffered forms like the sphere illustrated in this GIF — ideal for your model of the Pantheon dome!
Read also : 7 Step making engraving text in SketchUp
Helix Along Curve
This free SketchUp plugins One of the most ingenious plugins on this list, Helix Along Curve enables you to create helix tubing along a predefined path. When combined with Bezier Spline and Component Stringer add-ons, you can also model a perfect chain with individual links.
Edge Tools²
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This free SketchUp plugins ThomThom’s handy palette of edge-related tools saves you time in multiple ways, enabling quick simplification of imported DWG site plans, the ability to split a face into multiple planes, and — most significantly — highlighting of imperfections so you can clean up your model in a flash.
Section Cut Face
This free SketchUp plugins Simply add a face to your section plane with this useful plugin. The face can be quickly modified, changing its color for presentation purposes, and it can also be set to update automatically as you edit your model.
SubD and QuadFaceTools
This free SketchUp plugins When combined with the QuadFaceTools plugin, SubD can be used to produce curvilinear volumes like the one shown above with clean, rationalized subdivisions. This is helpful when modeling complex domes and parametric shells.
CLF Shape Bender
This free SketchUp plugins Chirs Fullmer’s amazing tool allows you to bend an entire component or group, so you can create bespoke windows, doors and details for curved walls and roofs.
Animator
This free SketchUp plugins Another brilliant extension created by Fredo6, Animator enables you to creating moving parts with your SketchUp model with ease. Simply create the first and last frames of the movement you want, then hit play and watch your dynamic model shift into motion.
LSS Matrix
This free SketchUp plugins Created by Kirill B, LSS Matrix allows you to create a sequence of chained components by simply updating the parent block. As the GIF accompanying this description demonstrates, you can create a spiral staircase by creating a block with two steps and then choosing the number of copies. You can learn how in 2 minutes with this tutorial on Youtube.
Quad Face Tool
This free SketchUp plugins Created by ThomThom, this plugin solves one of Sketchup’s major shortcomings: its trouble working with non-flat quad surfaces. With Quad Face Tool we create figures with continuous edges as topographies or, as we see in the GIF that accompanies this description, give a much more real surface to a helmet that was originally reticulated. Yes, there is a Youtube tutorial!
Location
This free SketchUp plugins In 2012, Google sold Sketchup to Trimble Navigation. Although this case is not a plugin, it is a good example of the positive synergy Sketchup achieved with Google: the “Location” tool allows you to choose the satellite image of the place your project is going to end up by entering an exact address in Google Maps. Then, with a click, you can replicate the actual topography of that location. Very useful.
Components
This free SketchUp plugins Created by Chris Fullmer, this plugin allows you to replicate a component onto a surface. As in previous cases, when editing the base component, the rest are automatically updated. Highly recommended for designing parameterized façades.
Camer Tools
This free SketchUp plugins Another one by ThomThom, this plugin offers a series of new cameras for your projects’ animations.
Curviloft
This free SketchUp plugins Created by Fredo6, this plugin generates parameterized volumes when selecting a series of curves on a 3D model. Once created, it offers nine different possibilities, including the possibility to redefine its final thickness. Very useful for designing furniture.
Purge All
This free SketchUp plugins This plugin, also, rids your model of all the unused components, layers, and materials or whatever you choose it to remove. It, also, shows an optional report, listing the removed items.
Fredo Tools
This free SketchUp plugins This extension by Fredo6 gives a variety of handy options of no specific category. It groups a set of standalone plugins.
Architect Tools
This free SketchUp plugins can be helpful with advanced or urban scale uses. It creates buildings, merges them, and deals with contours and terrains, imported from 2D CAD files.
CleanUp³
This free SketchUp plugins literally cleans up your model, like for example it removes the hidden and duplicated lines, delete lonely edges, and merge surfaces on the same plane.
Bezier Spline
This free SketchUp plugins gives you a wider variety of line drawing options which include Polylines, Bezier and Spline curves. These baselines can be useful to create unique forms.
Weld
This free SketchUp plugins Like the Weld option in 3Ds Max, this plugin makes it possible to turn a set of connected lines and arcs into a single polyline.
Finally, make sure to check out the guidelines and manuals by the developers to understand the full potential of these SketchUp plugins and good luck with your modeling!
So the information we can convey, hopefully useful about Top 25 Free SketchUp Plugins for Modeling above
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Ever since Sketchup (formerly Google Sketchup) debuted in 2000, it has been holding its position as one of the world’s favourite and most used 3d-modeling software systems available. Sketchup, designed by Last Software, is used by both students and professionals in various design fields, including architecture, landscape architecture, animation, and video game development. It has a wide range of tools and scripts to develop various three-dimensional forms that are helpful for modelling and sculpting 3D models
However, there are several design functions that cannot be performed by Sketchup alone. Such operations involve much more complexity. So here are some software plug-ins that are available to download that can be helpful aids in performing those missing actions
1.1001 Bit Tools(free)
1001bit Tools (Freeware) is a collection of various tools useful for fast creation of architectural elements.
Staircases, spiral staircase, windows, doors, walls, customised openings on walls, automatic generation of hip roofs, rafters and purlins etc.
1001bit Tools also include some useful drawing and editing tools such as fillet edges, extend, chamfer etc.
This plugin comes with 39 tools directed at designing architectural elements. Once installed the plugin comes with its own toolbar, the tools are more advanced and helpful in the design process.
Download: https://extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/1001bit-tools-freeware
2. CleanUp3(free)
With this plugin we can “clean” our model from all those segments, hidden geometry, duplicate faces
- Fixes duplicate component definition names ( When in model scope )
- Purge unused items
- Erase hidden geometry
- Erase duplicate faces
- Erase lonely edges ( Except edges on cut plane )
- Remove edge material
- Repair split edges
- Smooth & soft edges
- Put edges and faces to Layer0
- Merge identical materials
- Merge connected co-planar faces
Overall, You can use it to reduce size of your sketchup file
Download: https://extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/cleanup%C2%B3
3.Joint pushpull(free)
Extrude curve surfaces with joint push pull
Sketchup doesn’t support extruding (push/pull) curved surfaces, but with the help of the Joint push/pull tool, multiple surfaces can be “pushed/pulled” simultaneously. This tool is very useful for creating volumetric solids, curved-in multiple axes, or building elements extruded along walls.
Download: http://www.crai.archi.fr/rld/plugin_details.php?id=848
4.Work Plane(free)
Add a series of aligned gridded ‘WorkPlanes’ to aid modelling in a plane Instead of 3d.
Shape Bender Sketchup Download Full
Download: http://rhin.crai.archi.fr/rld/plugin_details.php?id=736
5.s4u Make Face(free)
When you get to making complex shapes, closed shapes sometimes won’t close. This plugin is a good quick way to try to make a face from a complex closed shape that sketchup won’t recognize.
Making faces from 2d cad drawing is frustrating, but what if you could make them just by one click.
Download Plugin Shape Bender Sketchup 2020
Download: https://extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/s4u-make-face
6.Curviloft (free)
This tool is very effective and dedicated to performing loft and skinning through Sketchup. This tool is used to generate surface from contours provided by the user,
Curviloft consist of 3 tools, which are loft by spline, loft along path, and skinning. The first tool, which is loft by spline, creates contours between surfaces based on spline curves. Next is the loft along path, which works just like the follow me tool however this has the capability to join two different shapes. The last tool is the skinning, which produces contours from two or more paths. This plugin is helpful specially in making objects, which have irregular sides and faces.
Download: http://www.crai.archi.fr/rld/plugin_details.php?id=674
7.Shape Bender (free)
This plug-in helps in bending an existing group to match any curved line. For example, it can be used to design serpentine roads
CLF Shape Bender has the ability to generate curved entities with supreme accurateness. The SketchUp users can select any 3D object in their model and curve or stretch it alongside a path/line which is already drawn and selected. The object should be a group or a component.
Download: https://extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/clf-shape-bender
8.Round corner (free)
The Round Corner toolset is very useful for chamfering edges or to reduce smoothing of specified 3D objects in Sketchup, which is not possible with Sketchup alone. It is a well-executed plug-in allowing users to round, sharpen, and bevel edges of any configuration and complexity.
Download: http://www.crai.archi.fr/rld/plugin_details.php?id=605
9.Component stringer(free)
CLF Component Stringer plugin is very useful to set components alongside a path as well as fasten them collectively alongside a curve and wide array of connected lines.
The plugin also facilitates to rotate the components when they are positioned and scaling them directly in SketchUp
Download:
10. Soap Skin and Bubble(free)
It is a plugin that allows you to apply a skin over an object to create complex curved surfaces in just a click of a button.
The amazing part of the plugin is that you see the surface being built in real-time! Makes for a pretty slick animation.
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The user also has the ability to apply a certain pressure to the surface. Adding a positive pressure inflates the surface like a balloon and applying a negative deflates it, as you would expect. The program’s physics does have a limitation based on the fact that it does not take into account the surface tension and environment conditions. But regardless still an amazing plugin!
Overall, the soap skin bubble tool is an essential plugin to have if you are designing complex curves and works great to design aerodynamic projects such as cars. But architects and Frank Lloyd Wright fans, you’re not left out, this is great for designing 22nd century curvy architecture with ease.
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