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I am new with Blender. I changed to it because now I am using Ubuntu. Previously on Windows I used to work with SketchUp, and I still have many projects, that I would like to import *.skp into Blender to continue modeling and or rendering.

Is there any way how I could import SketchUp's .skp file into Blender?

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  • $\begingroup$ This might be interesting sites.google.com/site/alexvaqp/sketchupblender $\endgroup$
    – iKlsR
    Commented Aug 12, 2013 at 20:02
  • $\begingroup$ @iKlsR thanks a lot. It might help me, but is there any way that I could do that without coming back to SketchUp? $\endgroup$
    – Gediminas Jeremiah Gudelis
    Commented Aug 12, 2013 at 20:08
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    $\begingroup$ I am not sure if there is an importer for this. I poked around a bit and it seems most people export to .dae or .obj and then import into Blender. Your best option I think is to get on a windows machine and export them to either of these formats. $\endgroup$
    – iKlsR
    Commented Aug 12, 2013 at 20:10
  • $\begingroup$ it should be noted that it is possible to run sketchup under wine. some instructions. Possibly the easiest way to set this up would be to use Play On Linux $\endgroup$
    – gandalf3
    Commented Aug 12, 2013 at 21:29
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, I know about that. But on my PC SketchUp crashes at startup... $\endgroup$
    – Gediminas Jeremiah Gudelis
    Commented Aug 12, 2013 at 21:49

7 Answers 7

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There isn't a direct importer for .skp files into Blender. Given your situation of being on linux at the moment, your best option is to get access to a windows machine and export to either .obj or .dae and import into Blender. If you are using the free version of sketchup, you might have to go through a few more steps.

There is an article of an extension on how to do this here.

To run Sketchup on Linux you can use wine for instructions With a web search this was found.

Or perhaps an extension on Sketchup might be http://sketchup2blender.com/blendup-get-started

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  • $\begingroup$ You don't to use a Windows machine, just the 8 hour trial version of SketchUp in Wine in Ubuntu.... You can download the exe's here... $\endgroup$
    – Wilf
    Commented Dec 19, 2013 at 14:12
  • $\begingroup$ @wilf Yes, that and using a virtual machine were also suggested in the comments on the question. $\endgroup$
    – iKlsR
    Commented Dec 19, 2013 at 15:27
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    $\begingroup$ 17000 views, this needs a better answer. Will update it soon. $\endgroup$
    – iKlsR
    Commented May 6, 2015 at 9:40
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    $\begingroup$ if video helps I found youtube.com/watch?v=WFDQq2zVhuM $\endgroup$
    – CrandellWS
    Commented Feb 15, 2017 at 6:13
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.skp is a closed file format, this means the specifications for the file are only available to

  • developers with access to the SDK (Software Development Kit) and therefore have accepted the licensing terms for the SDK (which is incompatible with Blender's license).
  • developers who are willing to stick time into reverse engineering it.

It is unlikely that blender will get a way to import .skp files directly because there are several alternative ways to get models from SketchUp into Blender. Exporting as Collada .dae format from SketchUp works very well.

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Keeping all the layers

The best procedure is that shown by Sixthlaw in this video. Because if you export it directly as .dae you loose all the informations regarding the layers and you will have many surprises. So is better to follow this procedure:

  1. Export your model to .dxf from SketchUp
  2. Download and install Autdodesk-FBX-Converter to
  3. convert the .dfx to .fbx
  4. convert the .fbx to .obj

Now you can import it in Blender.

  1. go to import ->Wavefront(.obj)
  2. set Forward: to Y Forward
  3. import the model
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  • $\begingroup$ Softpedia? Is there an official source to get that app? $\endgroup$
    – SilverWolf
    Commented Oct 22, 2017 at 19:12
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks. I don't really need this app myself, I just feel uncomfortable with download hubs and don't want people to get infected with adware, etc. (: $\endgroup$
    – SilverWolf
    Commented Oct 23, 2017 at 14:29
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I know this is old, but if you came accross this like me you can try convert them to .kmz then change the file extension to .zip and extract the files and see the .dae and textures.

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  • $\begingroup$ Blender 2.83.5 crashes when I try this method. $\endgroup$
    – tomh
    Commented Aug 25, 2020 at 9:50
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Recently, I came across this as an issue as well. The AutoCAD converter I had tried using didn't work out too well. But I was able to, after installing the latest version of Sketchup 8, export directly from Sketchup in the .obj format and import directly into Blender. Of course you have to remember to turn on the plugin in the User Preferences menu.

The exporting options, like the other answers have stated, don't tend to work out too well. The file loses translation in between programs. Merging layers and codes or omitting them altogether. I think the first time I tried using the .dae it turned a bracket into this weird spikey ball vector. So I don't recommend it.

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There is an import option available, called sketchup_importer_0.18_win64. I used it to import .skp files directly into Blender. However, the guy who wrote the software, has to upgrade it to the latest version of Blender, and (even worse) he only wrote it for Windows, not Linux. Now, others stated running blender in Wine, but I would rather use the importer from him. My options at the moment are building in SketchUp, open an older version of Blender, import and save, then open the latest Blender. All in Windows.

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  • $\begingroup$ That could work, although using Windows may not be an option. I'd be surprised if it worked only on Windows, though maybe it uses some Windows-specific API or something. $\endgroup$
    – SilverWolf
    Commented Oct 22, 2017 at 18:56
  • $\begingroup$ @seaturtle It's a partly binary plugin, having a .dll file. However, the source code is available. github.com/martijnberger/pyslapi/releases $\endgroup$
    – user27640
    Commented Oct 22, 2017 at 19:09
  • $\begingroup$ Ah, that's good! Although nobody can actually use that to help unless they get permission from the person who wrote it, as they don't seem to have included a license file. $\endgroup$
    – SilverWolf
    Commented Oct 22, 2017 at 19:11
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A new addon release for sketchup to blender users

Addon

Video

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  • $\begingroup$ New? There have been no commits for 2 years. Need blender 2.77 with python 3.4 or 3.5. Is not available for linux. Is mentioned in another answer. $\endgroup$
    – batFINGER
    Commented Nov 6, 2017 at 13:08
  • $\begingroup$ @batFINGER I think the question is not for Linux its about importing sketchup model into Blender $\endgroup$
    – atek
    Commented Nov 6, 2017 at 13:25
  • $\begingroup$ I am using Ubuntu (in the question) $\endgroup$
    – batFINGER
    Commented Nov 6, 2017 at 13:39

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