About Importing SketchUp Files

You can incorporate a Trimble® SketchUp® design into a Revit project to provide a starting point for the building model.

Trimble® SketchUp® is a general purpose modeling and visualization tool. Revit LT uses building information modeling (BIM), in which building elements understand their relationship to each other.

When working on a design project, you can use both products to leverage the unique strengths of each. For example, use Trimble® SketchUp® to model an initial design pass or quickly model a single element. Later, use Revit LT to refine the design.

To use a Trimble® SketchUp® design in Revit LT, you can import a SKP file from Trimble® SketchUp® directly into Revit LT. As an alternative, you can use Trimble® SketchUp® to export a DWG file, and then import that DWG file into Revit LT. You could also link a SKP file to the Revit project, instead of importing it.

To incorporate a Trimble® SketchUp® design into a Revit project, use this general process:

1. Use Revit LT to create a family.
2. Import the SKP file into the family.
3. If you created the family outside the project, load the family into the project.

When Trimble® SketchUp®files are imported into family files. The workflows are the same as when imported into project files with the following exceptions:

• Imported geometry is not able to be exploded.
• Non-uniform scaling will preform better when importing to a family resulting in more accurate geometry.
• Energy analysis function may not work with families containing imported Trimble® SketchUp® geometry.