You can make curved shapes and spheres, but this isn’t enough to easily make a realistic 3D human face.

You’ll also find out that it’s difficult to create rounded, organic shapes (such as human faces) with SketchUp.

In order for 3D printers to be able to print SketchUp models, they need some preparation first.

STL format (but has other popular export formats, like.

Coloring and texturing items (you can use premade textures or upload your own.)īut it’s not super easy to 3D print with SketchUp:.

Rendering (via add-ons) and creating designs that render well.

Creating miniature scale houses, trains, and cars.

SketchUp is a great 3D modeling program good for:

You Will Need: A mouse with a click-wheel.

Price: Free (for the Basic Version, used in this tutorial).

Download Link: Via the official SketchUp website.

SketchUp also has useful 2D capabilities, such as creating blueprints from multiple angles and creating photo-realistic preview renders of your designs. It’s internal measurement system is precise and easy to use, making it a good choice for creating tightly fitted pieces (such as wheels, lids, hinges, swivel ball joints, and some types of action figure jointing.) SketchUp is a rather user-friendly 3D modeling software that is easy to learn.

The print comes out in full color, it is not hand-painted. Houses made by Sergey Vasenkov on Google Sketchup, printed in multicolor by i.materialise.

Trimble sketchup 3d