SketchUp integration
Turn a SketchUp model into a browser walkthrough.
Upload your .skp, place lights and furniture, share a link. Your client walks the house in any browser — no SketchUp account, no plugin, no downloads.
The workflow
From .skp to a shareable link in five steps.
Brickrat is a desktop app you run alongside SketchUp. The model never leaves your machine until you choose to publish.
Step 01
Open your .skp in the Brickrat desktop app
Drop the SketchUp file you finished modelling into Brickrat on your Mac or PC. Geometry, components, materials and groups come across exactly as you authored them. No re-export, no FBX dance, no clean-up pass.
Step 02
Place lights and a daylight angle
Drag point and area lights into the rooms you modelled. Set the sun angle to match your site orientation. Tune temperature and intensity until the space reads the way you imagined it on plan.
Step 03
Drop in furniture from the library
Pull sofas, beds, dining sets and kitchen modules from the built-in library. Snap to floor, rotate freely, swap pieces. You stay the architect — Brickrat never auto-arranges your space.
Step 04
Bake once, get a browser-ready walkthrough
Hit bake. Brickrat pre-computes lighting and packages the model for the web — optimised geometry, optimised textures, no per-frame render queue. Output is a self-contained walkthrough that runs on a mid-range laptop or a phone.
Step 05
Send your client a link
Publishing creates a single shareable URL. WhatsApp it, email it, paste it in a meeting. Your client clicks once and walks the house — no app store, no plugin, no SketchUp web viewer login. Re-bake after a revision and the same link serves the latest version.
Why not the SketchUp web viewer
A model your client can spin is not a model your client can walk.
Trimble’s SketchUp web viewer renders your file as a 3D object — your client orbits it, pans it, zooms it. That works for design review with another architect. It does not work for the homeowner who just wants to know what the kitchen feels like at 7pm.
Brickrat publishes an interactive walkthrough instead. First-person camera, baked lighting, real furniture in the rooms. Your client walks the house room-to-room — closer to a video game tour than to a 3D viewer.
FAQ
Questions architects ask first.
- How do I share a SketchUp model online with a client?
- Open the .skp in Brickrat, place lights and furniture, hit bake, and Brickrat publishes a shareable browser link. Send that URL on WhatsApp or email. Your client opens it on any device and walks through the model — no SketchUp account, no download, no plugin.
- Is this a SketchUp web viewer?
- Not quite. Trimble’s SketchUp web viewer renders your model as a 3D object you can spin and pan. Brickrat publishes an interactive walkthrough — your client walks room-to-room from a first-person camera, with baked lighting and placed furniture, like a video game tour of the house.
- Do I need to learn a new modelling tool?
- No. You keep modelling in SketchUp the way you already do. Brickrat starts where SketchUp ends — it reads your finished .skp file and adds the lighting, furniture and viewer layer on top.
- Does my client need to install anything?
- No. The walkthrough opens in any modern browser on any device — desktop, tablet, phone. No app store, no plugin, no account. They click the link you send and they are inside the model in seconds.
- What happens when I revise the model?
- Re-export from SketchUp, re-bake in Brickrat, and the existing share link updates in place. Your client always sees the latest version. No new MP4 attachments, no version-N+1 link to send.
- How long does it take to ship the first walkthrough?
- A first-time walkthrough of a residential model takes most architects an afternoon — most of that is choosing furniture and tuning lights. Subsequent walkthroughs on similar projects take a couple of hours.
Your next .skp deserves a link, not a printout.
Join the beta. We will send you a private link to the desktop app and walk you through your first SketchUp walkthrough this week.