If you’re one of the many people making the switch to working from home, I’m going to share several strategies for collaborating on and sharing SketchUp projects remotely using different extensions, apps, and VR. Watch the video or continue below.
So there are two topics I’m going to cover in this post. First, is where you have a single project, but multiple people working on the model. How do you stay organized, how do you divide up workload, how do you deal with multiple people editing a single file and how do you prevent one person from overwriting someone else’s work? This is a problem you’ll face, whether your team is working remotely, or if you’re all in the same office together.
We’re also going to get into ways you can share and explore a model amongst your design team or with clients, so we’ll talk about cloud-based model viewers, mobile apps, in addition to looking at some of the VR solutions out there for conducting remote VR collaboration sessions where you can have multiple people in VR at the same time, conducting a meeting inside your model and discussing the design in real-time.
File Management
So, if you’re working with a remote design team, I’m sure you use some sort of cloud storage service like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or a VPN connection to a private server. All of these services will allow you to share and synchronize files with your team, remotely.
Another option is to use Trimble Connect, which works with all versions of SketchUp. With the most basic implementation of Trimble Connect, you get cloud storage and version tracking of your SketchUp models that is tightly integrated with the entire SketchUp ecosystem.
So, you could save a model to Trimble Connect from your desktop in SketchUp Pro, and be able to access it on your phone from the SketchUp Viewer app, or on the web using SketchUp Free or SketchUp Shop. So all SketchUp Free and SketchUp Pro classic users get 10gb of free storage, while all others get unlimited storage on Trimble Connect.
! Confused about which version of SketchUp is which? Check out my article, SketchUp Make vs Pro vs Free vs Shop vs Studio.
If you explore Trimble Connect even further, you’ll discover many features like markups and issue tracking, model referencing, web-based model viewing and clash detection. The thing I find frustrating is that it’s not easy to control object visibility in Trimble Connect, and SketchUp scenes do not import, even though they have a similar functionality called views.
I’ve experimented with Trimble Connect over the past several years, and each time I find myself facing a bug, or some sort of limitation that makes it frustrating to use. And since Trimble Connect is not managed by the same team as SketchUp, there’s a lot of disconnect, and I’ve found their help forum to be pretty terrible. But we’ll talk about some other options in a little bit.
Workload Delegation
So once you’ve established a cloud-based file management system for your team, the next thing you need to do is clearly define who is in charge of what. For example, you might have one person working on site modeling, while the other person is modeling the house. You don’t want to be overwriting each other’s work, so clearly defining who is responsible for each part of the model is the first step in preventing that. If you’re using a single model, with multiple people working on it at different times, it can get really tricky to coordinate and to prevent overwriting each other’s work.
A better way to manage this is to split up a project into multiple models, so the person working on the site terrain modeling will have their own model, and the person working on the house will have a separate model, then you’d import those models into a master model. Then, over time, as updates are made, you can open the master model and update the model references to import the latest changes. So it’s best to assign a single person to manage the master model, so you avoid that same issue of multiple people editing the same file.
Technically, you could just have a house model, then import the house model directly into the site model. The point is, there are ways you can split up your model, then import them as references in other models.
You can do all this using native SketchUp Pro features, all you have to do is go to File > Import, and select the model you’d like to embed and it will import as a component. Then, if changes are made to the model externally, you can just right-click on the component and select Reload, to re-import the model.
This actually fits right into the workflow I detailed in my book with Nick Sonder, SketchUp and LayOut for Architecture. The foundation of this workflow is based on using multiple models that get referenced into a master model. So, for example, you have a template model for creating all your sections, and all you have to do is import your master model and all your scenes will already be configured.
You never edit the house model in this file. You only edit the house in the main model, and when changes are made, you just right-click > reload, and the changes come in. If you’re working with a team, you can naturally have someone in charge of the section model and they can manage that without stepping on anyone’s toes.
So if you’re interested in the book, you can buy it at sketchbook.com, and it will come with the entire template system for managing a custom home design, and it also comes with a complete sample project in SketchUp and LayOut that you can explore and see how it’s organized.
Reference Management
Depending on how many references you are importing into a model, it can get tricky to manage, so you might want to check out some extensions that make the process easier. These reference management extensions provide an interface from which to monitor the status of various references you’ve made in your model, and make it easier to update them. Trimble Connect also has a built-in reference management feature, but I haven’t had much luck with it.
- Cross Reference Organizer $35 – View, manage, update cross-referenced models.
- Eneroth Reference Manager $50 – File reference status, reload, unlink, relink, bulk relink.
Project Management
Outside of the model, you’ll also want to be using some sort of project management app or task management app. I personally like using Trello because it’s a very flexible platform and I can use it in a number of different ways. I use it to organize my personal work tasks, but I also use it with my team to assign, prioritize tasks and assign due dates, communicate, and track issues with my client.
There are a ton of other project management and communication tools like Basecamp, Monday, Asana, Wrike, and a whole bunch of others. It’s likely that you’re already using something like this, but if you’re still blasting emails back and forth to your team to try and organize tasks, this is something you should really look into.
Screen sharing
What about remote collaborative sessions? How do you replicate those meetings where you have everyone in a conference room and the model up on the screen, and you’re all discussing the design together? Well, you can always use screen sharing apps like some of the following:
VR Collaboration
But, there are some better ways to view a 3D model remotely. With VR! Conduct a live in VR meeting, in your model! If you’re looking for a VR headset, I’m really loving my Oculus Quest right now, but you can also check out this review I did on the Samsung Odyssey + for a really affordable Windows Mixed Reality Device.
- IrisVR has a product called Prospect that allows you to conduct VR meetings inside of your 3D model with multiple people in real-time. Pricing starts at $150/mo. It’s compatible with Vive, Rift, Windows mixed reality devices and the Oculus Quest. And the cool thing is you will see an avatar of each person in the meeting, and you can point at things in the model and talk to each other about the design. It provides markup tools, layer control (or tag control), and a whole lot more. And if someone doesn’t have a headset, they can follow along in desktop mode instead.
- The Wild – starting at $195/mo, which also offers VR collaboration with some basic modeling tools in VR.
- VR Sketch – $30/mo for commercial use. This is a really awesome VR app made specifically for SketchUp and actually allows you to 3D model inside VR with most of the native SketchUp tools. It has live sync, so any changes made in SketchUp are shown in VR in real-time, and if you make changes to the model in VR, they update the SketchUp model immediately. VR Sketch also has a multi-user mode where you can have multiple people remotely viewing the model in VR at the same time.
- SketchUp Viewer for VR app – The official SketchUp VR app also has a collaboration feature that allows people to join. This app is included with the SketchUp Pro subscription, but I’ve found it to be really clunky to use, especially the sign-in process, and unlike VR Sketch, the official SketchUp viewer app is not real-time, so you have to save your model, then load it in the VR app, which I think is kind of cumbersome.
Model Sharing
If VR is not your thing, or if you want to be able to share your model with a client or consultant who doesn’t have VR, there are many other ways you can share your model with them.
- SketchUp Viewers – You can simply email your model to someone, and have them download the free SketchUp viewer for desktop, which is a free download, where they can view the model, access scenes, navigate around, but they won’t have access to any of the modeling or editing tools. The free mobile SketchUp viewer app works well too. You can access models on the device, on dropbox, 3D Warehouse, or Trimble Connect. Check out my video below for a review on SketchUp Viewer for Mobile.
- Kubity – Kubity really shines in how easy it is to use. It provides fast, lightweight rendering, augmented reality, and simple mobile virtual reality viewing, available on any device. I think Kubity is the easiest way to share models, and their entire ecosystem of software and apps have really thoughtful user interfaces and navigation. Pricing starts at $19 for 12 exports.
- Enscape – Known for its real-time rendering, Enscape also has real-time local VR sync for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, but it doesn’t have remote multi-user support. Aside from all the local real-time features it provides locally, you can also export a 360 panorama, a video export, or a standalone web-based experience that you can share and anyone can navigate through the model right from their browser.
- Revizto – Although it doesn’t have all the same VR and rendering features as some of these other apps, Revizto is far superior in its issue tracking and collaboration features. Revizto does what Trimble Connect is trying to do, but much better. This is a great app for using the 3D model to track issues with a team, assign responsibility, and coordinate multiple 3D models in a single environment.
Let me know what other strategies and tools you’re using for working remotely. Leave a comment below!
