Advanced Attributes
Advanced Attributes allow you to embed useful information into your model when creating and managing components. You can now define the Price, Size and URL attributes when creating or editing components, as well as defining Owner and Status attributes for each component instance via the Entity Info dialog.
Aggregation in Generate Report
We want to make the information in SketchUp models as useful as possible. In this release, we’re improving Generate Report to allow users to aggregate component data so you can extract and organize information contained in your models. That means you can configure Generate Report to sum parts and quantities for schedules and cutlists, or create detailed pricing estimates by listing prices by layer.
IFC Export Improvements
BIM doesn’t really work if information can’t move freely between applications. We’ve dialed in our IFC exporter to ensure that the attributes you bring in from other applications or manipulate in SketchUp stay with your work when it leaves SketchUp.
Named Section Planes
It seems simple, but naming something is the first step towards making it easier to find, organize, and edit that something. Now, even when your section planes are hidden, they’re right at your fingertips. Here’s how it works…
Create a new section plane and choose a name for it and a short symbol that will display in your modeling window. Your section plane is now a unique SketchUp entity that can be found in Outliner and manipulated in Entity Info. Use Outliner to quickly find, select and edit specific planes. Use Entity Info to edit naming conventions and organize section cuts into layers, then control the visibility of your section planes, cuts and fills via Styles.
Filled, Styled Section Cuts
We have added Filled Section Cuts to SketchUp 2018. To access, open Styles > Edit > Modeling and toggle ‘Section Fills’ on or off, and set your desired fill color. When section fills are toggled on, SketchUp will render a fill on top of cleanly modeled sections. We’ll even help you troubleshoot geometry problems that are preventing SketchUp from recognizing the section you want to fill. Access troubleshoot mode through the section plane context menu when Section Fills are on.
Section Plane Performance
While we were at it, we improved performance for models that use section planes to hide large amounts of geometry. Basically, the more geometry you section off, the more you’ll benefit!
Other Notable Improvements and Changes Outliner
While adding support for Section Planes, we also improved Outliner’s performance. Outliner no longer refreshes on many transactions that don’t need it. Additionally, we improved the sort order in Outliner. Changes include:
- Sorting based on Component Instance and then Definition instead of sorting based on one long string. This also applies to Section Planes - it will sort first based on the Section Name and then the Symbol.
- Sorting numbers in a more intuitive way.
- Sorting is now case insensitive, which means a mixture of capitalized and lowercase words sorts in a more intuitive way.
Drawing Improvements
We made some small, smart changes that help you draw exactly what you want. Including:
- Draw a rectangle about its center using modifier keys (Ctrl on Win and Option on Mac).
- Employ quicker control for rotated rectangles. We switched the order of entry in the VCB so you can quickly enter a dimension with no angle.
- Improved workflow with Tape Measure Tool. Edge length and face area are now instantly displayed in VCB as soon as user gets “On Edge” on “On Face” inferences.
- Added color coding to Freehand tool. While drawing, it is colored the same as the axis it is perpendicular to.
- Reduced display of arc/circle inferences after second click of any drawing tool.
STL Import/Export
The SketchUp STL extension is by far the most popular download from Extension Warehouse. Going forward it might not be, because now SketchUp natively supports the import and export of STL files (on both desktop and web).
Anti-aliasing on the Mac
For Mac users, we’ve added anti-aliasing settings. Go to SketchUp > Preferences > OpenGL to control the anti-aliasing sample count, which controls the smoothness of your geometry.
