Render a House

Line drawing of a house, as exported from a SketchUp viewport

Photorealistic render generated from the same SketchUp view

SketchUp rendering software

Render your SketchUp modelin the browser.

Export a GLB, an OBJ, or a PNG of the view. Upload it, describe the scene, and a photorealistic image comes back in seconds. No plugin, no render farm, no graphics card.

Free to start. No card needed.

PNG, JPG, WebP views
GLB, GLTF, OBJ models
Nothing to install

Drag to compare

Your model, not a lookalike.

The engine reads what you drew and keeps it: massing, wall lines, window and door openings, roof pitch, proportions. It fills in only what SketchUp never held — material weathering, real daylight, planting, and the street the building sits on.

Photorealistic render of the same facade

SketchUp viewRender

Drag the line to see the source underneath the render

The same project, drawn and rendered.

Drag any pair. Each is one project shown twice, as a drawing and as a render, so you can line the geometry up yourself across twenty-five of them rather than one.

Drag the line to see the source underneath the render

Drawings and renders produced with Render a House. Drag any pair to compare.

Change the material, keep the building.

Same SketchUp export, four finishes. This is the question a client actually asks, and the one a viewport cannot answer without you rebuilding the material list.

Timber

Material

What to export from SketchUp.

Render a House does not open .skp files. It reads what SketchUp writes out, and three export paths work. The model paths preserve geometry; the image path is faster and works from any edition that can draw the view.

What you export	How to get it out of SketchUp	What it is good for
GLB (GLTF Binary)	File > Export > 3D Model, then pick GLTF Binary File (*.glb) from the format list.	The most complete path. Textures travel with the file in one binary, so the render starts from your materials rather than guessing them.
OBJ	File > Export > 3D Model, then pick OBJ. SketchUp writes a companion .mtl file describing the materials.	Geometry, when you want a plain, widely readable mesh. Keep the .mtl next to the .obj.
PNG or JPEG view	File > Export > 2D Graphic, choose PNG, and set the pixel width. PNG also offers a transparent background.	The fastest route. One clean, tightly cropped view of the building is enough to start a render.

Export steps are Trimble's own, from the SketchUp Help articles on exporting OBJ files, working with glTF files, and exporting image files.

Everything you can do.

Nine things you can do with one SketchUp export, without opening another application.

Render

Photorealistic, from your exported view or model.

Edit and adjust

Change materials, furniture, planting and surroundings without redoing the design.

Enhance and upscale

Raise resolution to 4K and sharpen the file for print or a client presentation.

Video and animate

Turn a still into a clip with a camera move, straight from a render you approved.

3D

Place the camera on the exported model and choose the framing before you render.

Image to 3D object

Generate a 3D model from a single image, for a piece the source file never contained.

360 render

A navigable panorama of the project: the client looks around from inside it.

A direct link for the client to open the project. No account, no software, no file transfer.

Pro model

The maximum-fidelity pass, for the image that goes in the final deliverable.

Everything you need, in one platform.

A SketchUp seat models. Everything after that — rendering, editing, upscaling, video, sharing with a client — usually means another licence, another machine, or another person. All of it is here, working from the export you already make.

3D integration

Where the application exports a mesh, upload it and set the camera in the browser, then render from that view.

Rendering

Photorealism in seconds, not a queued calculation you leave running over lunch.

Video

A camera move across the same project, generated from a finished still. Nothing to animate.

Design

Try materials, light and surroundings until the right version exists, without touching the source file.

Refinement

Fix one part of a render — a facade panel, a tree, a sky — without starting the image again.

Precision

Your geometry is respected: the walls, openings, heights and proportions you drew stay put.

Collaborative

Share a link and take comments on the image itself, so feedback lands on the render.

Mobile and web

Runs in the browser, including on a laptop that would struggle with a local render engine.

4K

Delivery resolution, ready to print or put on a board without a separate upscaling step.

Works with designs from other CAD software too.

Export an image or upload the model. There is no plugin to install and no format to learn, so the same workflow runs from SketchUp and from every other package below.

Trademarks identify the software this works with. Render a House is not affiliated with any of them.

Revit rendering

GLB (via FBX) and more, from Revit.

Archicad rendering

OBJ (WaveFront) and more, from Archicad.

Rhino rendering

GLB (GLTF Binary) and more, from Rhino.

AutoCAD rendering

PNG or JPEG from a 2D view and more, from AutoCAD.

Vectorworks rendering

OBJ and more, from Vectorworks.

Chief Architect rendering

PNG from a 3D camera view and more, from Chief Architect.

Who this is for.

If you model in SketchUp and present to clients, this replaces the slowest and most expensive part of that loop.

Independent architects
Architecture practices
Interior designers
Kitchen and bath designers
Landscape designers
Design-build firms

958,000 renders generated so far.

128,000 architects and designers have an account.

A first render takes about ten seconds.

Available worldwide, in the browser, with nothing to install into SketchUp.

Counts are extrapolated from a measured baseline and tick live.

Pricing.

Try it out, go Pro when it starts paying for itself.

Free

Try it out, no credit card required

Freeforever

3 credits per day
Standard model

Start for free

	Pro 240 credits	Studio 1000 credits
Render Pro 2 credits each	120	500
Render Standard 1 credit each	240	1000
Render Standard 2K 1.5 credits each	160	666
Render Pro 4K 4 credits each	60	250
Render Standard 4K 2 credits each	120	500
Video 0.8 credits/sec	300s	1250s

What this cannot do.

Open a .skp file. Export to GLB, OBJ, or an image first — there is no direct SketchUp import.
Produce construction documents, BIM data, or anything dimensionally reliable.
Guarantee every detail survives. Thin mullions, small hardware and text on signage are the usual casualties.
Inherit the camera you set. The model carries no usable one, so you frame the shot in the 3D view after uploading.
Replace a full manual render when a client is paying for a photoreal hero image with a specified camera.

Common questions about SketchUp rendering.

Can Render a House open a SketchUp .skp file?

No. Export the model first. SketchUp Pro writes GLTF Binary (.glb) and OBJ from File > Export > 3D Model, and File > Export > 2D Graphic writes a PNG or JPEG of the current view. Any of those three uploads fine.

Do I need a plugin or an extension in SketchUp?

No. Nothing is installed into SketchUp. You export a file the way you already would, then upload it in a browser, so the workflow is unaffected by your SketchUp version or extension set.

Is a GLB export better than a screenshot?

Usually. A GLB carries real geometry, so massing and openings hold their proportions, and you can set the camera in the 3D view before rendering. A screenshot only carries the silhouette. Use an image export when you want speed, and a GLB when the geometry has to be right.

Do I need a good graphics card to render a SketchUp model?

No. Rendering runs on hosted hardware, not on your machine. The GPU in your computer affects how well SketchUp itself models and previews, not how fast a render comes back.

Can I use SketchUp renders in client work?

Yes. Renders you generate are yours to use commercially. Review them first — an AI render is a concept image and should be checked against the model before it stands in for a design decision.

Will the render match my SketchUp materials exactly?

Not exactly. A GLB export carries your textures and the render starts from them, but light, reflectance and weathering are interpreted rather than reproduced. Name the material you want in the prompt when it matters.

How is this different from a SketchUp rendering plugin?

A plugin renders your model with a physical light and material setup you configure, and it runs on your hardware. This works from an export, is directed with a written description, and runs in a browser. The plugin gives more control; this gets to a presentable image sooner.

Export the view. Get the render.

Keep SketchUp as the source of truth for the design. Let this handle the picture of it.

Working on something bigger? Talk to us.

Render your SketchUp modelSKP exportmassing studyviewportSketchUp modelin the browser.