SketchUp 2025: Overview of New Features and Capabilities

Enhanced Visualization Tools

SketchUp 2025 introduces a library of photorealistic materials and environments, enabling users to elevate their projects, visualize bold ideas, and present them effectively to colleagues or clients. These advanced visualization tools are accessible across SketchUp for iPad, Web, Desktop, LayOut, and 3D Warehouse.

"Having Photoreal Materials and Environments natively within SketchUp is a really exciting development! Accessing high-quality, realistic materials directly within the platform has made it much easier to quickly present designs that resonate with clients."

Kate Hatherell, Director, The Interior Designers Hub

Photorealistic Materials

The Photoreal Materials feature in SketchUp 2025 allows users to create more natural and detailed models directly within the application. Users can apply high-quality, realistic materials to their designs, enhancing their projects' visual appeal and accuracy.

Environments

The new Environments feature offers 360-degree HDR or EXR image files that can serve as background images (skydomes) and light sources. These environments interact dynamically with photoreal materials, providing realistic lighting and reflections that enhance the overall visual quality of the model.

Seamless Data Management with Interoperability Updates

SketchUp 2025 enhances data management through improved interoperability. The latest IFC support improvements for Pro subscribers ensure consistent data round-trips and predictable file import and export, preserving building information and minimizing manual rework. Key enhancements include better IFC class recognition, version preservation, geometry optimization, and new dictionaries for components.

"The IFC import feature in the new SketchUp version is incredible; it has greatly improved the coordination of different project models with the architectural design. Plus, the new material editor and HDRI styles in SketchUp 2025 open up countless possibilities for the visual representation of projects. We are truly excited about these updates!"

Lucas Grolla, Architect & Owner, Grolla Arquitetura

Curated Subscriber Content

With the introduction of the SketchUp Content Library in 3D Warehouse, accessing high-quality content is now more straightforward. This curated collection includes configurable models, photoreal materials, and environments developed to support popular workflows, allowing users to kick-start projects efficiently.

Reintroduction of Live Components

Live Components, pre-built configurable objects, have graduated from SketchUp Labs and are now available as a full production feature in 2025. Subscribers can customize parameters such as size, type, and material to create tailored objects quickly, with access to over 200 new and refreshed components via 3D Warehouse.

Improvements in LayOut

In 2025, LayOut became more intuitive, with core tools better matching the behaviour in SketchUp. This alignment facilitates a smoother transition from 3D modelling in SketchUp to 2D documentation in LayOut. LayOut viewports also display Environments and Photoreal Materials alongside Ambient Occlusion, ensuring visual consistency throughout the SketchUp ecosystem.

With these advancements, SketchUp 2025 empowers designers to create more compelling and accurate visual narratives, bridging the gap between concept and reality.

For more information about the updates, new features, and additional capabilities in SketchUp 2025, see the video review on YouTube. We remind you that you can enable subtitles for the video by selecting any language.

Softprom is a distributor of SketchUp in 21 countries.

For orders, consultations or a free trial of SketchUp 2025, please leave a request on our website.

Discover a new level of modelling with SketchUp 2025 - even more realism, accuracy and flexibility in your projects!