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. Staircases, spiral staircase, windows, doors, walls, customised openings on walls, automatic generation of hip roofs, rafters and purlins 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. This tool is very useful for creating volumetric solids, curved-in multiple axes, or building elements extruded along walls. Making faces from 2d cad drawing is frustrating, but what if you could make them just by one click. 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. 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 object should be a group or a component. 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. 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. 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. But regardless still an amazing plugin! Overall, is an to have if you are designing complex curves and works great to design aerodynamic projects such as cars.
