Boston-based Skema showcased its new Skema extension for SketchUp at the Trimble Dimensions User Conference in Las Vegas late last fall. The new capability serves as a bridge between SketchUp’s conceptual design world and Revit’s design development and construction drawings world.
No Code Solution
The relatively new solution allows architects and designers to begin their massing studies in SketchUp and then take that work into Skema for more advanced planning, or what is known in Skema lingo as “block-and-stack” planning. Once that phase of the design is complete, they can return their designs to SketchUp to explore facade design, massing adjustments, energy and daylight studies (some of these evolving third-party tools as well), and rendering via the countless rendering plugins for SketchUp.
Richard Harpham, co-founder of Skema noted:
We’re working to bridge the gap between SketchUp and a firm’s existing BIM workflows within Revit. The new Skema for SketchUp extension empowers architects to transform their initial design concepts into precise, data-rich BIM models faster—reducing rework, data loss, and coding.
With Skema, which Architosh has written last about here, users can leverage their own design IP (intellectual property) and allow Skema’s machine-learning (ML) algorithms to rapidly generate various workable plan options for an architect’s review. Skema already supports two pathways to pushing Skema-produced virtual building models to the popular BIM tool Revit. Now, with this new SketchUp integration there is essentially a new link between SketchUp and Revit—one that never existed like this before.
Trimble Applauds
Achieving this technical offering and milestone wasn’t lost on AEC/O software giant Trimble. Skema applied for the Trimble Ventures’ 0-60 SketchUp Challenge and won a top spot in this competition for startups.
Skema to SketchUp integration is a big win for Skema users who also use SketchUp along with Revit for BIM.
This opportunity enables Skema and its solutions to gain some prime exposure on a global stage with a company that has the most software licenses of anybody for a 3D modeling solution. Passing through the 12-week incubator, Skema came out with numerous lessons, insights and new business acumen as well.
Embracing a new “co-opetition” vibe, Skema is now thrilled to help solve a problem that the AEC/O community has had forever: a solid SketchUp to Revit integrated workflow.
To learn more visit this page here and watch the video: https://www.skema.ai/skema-for-sketchup
Architosh Analysis and Commentary
While the prescribed workflow can begin in SketchUp for “massing studies” it doesn’t have to. One could begin their design process in Skema directly, especially if they are existing Skema users. Leveraging one’s own “greatest hits” as Marty Rozmanith, co-founder of Skema has labeled an architect firm’s prior and proven designs, is one way to begin the design process.
What was lacking and would have entailed a lot more development work on Skema’s part would be push and pull explicit modeling support. The big criticism of BIM tools has often been inaccessible easy conceptual modeling. Hence, the phenomenal growth and continued embrace of Trimble’s SketchUp. And SketchUp—as we noted in our last AIA conference coverage—is growing in exciting new ways and no longer the lingering tool getting too little attention.
So the architect starts in Skema and pushes out to SketchUp to do more direct modeling and design exploration. The fact they can return that back to Skema on route Revit. Or they can push to IFC to input into other BIM solutions.
MORE: Perspectives on Architosh AIA 2024 BEST of SHOW Honors
If you read our report on what trends Nemetschek Group sees in 2025, you will surely note “interoperability” as one of them. “Interop” is fast becoming the new superpower as the AEC/O industry moves further to the cloud, watches a new groundswell of new BIM 2.0 era upstarts acquire new customers and tackle a range of problems the BIM 1.0 solutions failed to achieve. So the “Co-opetition” term (coopetition) used by Skema in their recent blog posts about this new SketchUp to Skema integration may have stemmed from Architosh’s use of that word in our Perspectives on Architosh AIA 2024 Best of SHOW Honors feature, which covered the digital tools we felt were “best of show” at AIA 2024 in Washington, DC, last year. In that spirit, it will be interesting to see if Skema makes a bigger move to embrace other BIM tools directly or if the Nemetschek Group, for example, embraces them first?
