SketchUp

SketchUp is a 3D modeling software primarily for architects, designers, builders, makers and engineers. You can create buildings, furniture, interiors, landscapes, and more. Plus, you can upload to Sketchfab directly from the application.

SketchUp Pro

If you're using the Pro version of SketchUp, you have a lot of options for exporting 3D file formats.

However, the best way to upload your 3D models from SketchUp Pro to Sketchfab is through the Sketchfab Exporter plugin.

If you decide to export and upload your model manually, we recommend using the OBJ format, which you can do from either the Desktop application or the Cloud application.

Before uploading your 3D models from SketchUp Pro to Sketchfab, we recommend you check out this great tutorial from Alex Schreyer on how to prepare and upload your SketchUp models.

Load times and performance

Some SketchUp Pro models fail to process or perform poorly in the Sketchfab viewer due to the way SketchUp Components and Groups are handled. The biggest culprits here are often trees and plants with lots of leaf components.

If you run into performance issues, check out this Sketchfab forum post about "exploding" your model components.

SketchUp Free

SketchUp offers a browser-only version of the software called SketchUp Free.

If you made your model in SketchUp Free, you can only export the model as an STL file. Once you do this, you can upload to Sketchfab.