Developers

Make your stuff work with ours

We want to do everything we can to help people to extend SketchUp's functionality and make it even more compatible with other software. If you need information on creating a plug-in for SketchUp, or if you want to read or write SketchUp files, this page is the place to start.

Note: If you're just looking for cool plug-ins for SketchUp, please visit our Ruby Scripts page or SketchUp Plug-ins page.

SketchUp Ruby API

The easiest and most powerful way to write plug-ins for SketchUp is to use SketchUp's Ruby API. You can use this API to write your own tools, as well as query and influence SketchUp models. The scripts you create are freely distributable and they will work in both the free and Pro versions of Google SketchUp. The SketchUp Ruby API is free to use.

Learn more about the SketchUp Ruby API | Check out the Ruby API discussion on the SketchUp Pro Groups

SketchUp Software Development Kit (SDK)

If you're interested in using the SketchUp Software Development Kit (SDK) to read and write SketchUp files, or in writing a custom exporter that works from within Google SketchUp Pro, you'll need the SketchUp SDK. The SDK contains:

• C++ libraries for reading and writing SketchUp files
• examples
• the Ruby scrambler
• documentation explaining how to use the SDK and how to write a custom exporter for SketchUp Pro

Download the SketchUp SDK | Visit the SketchUp SDK discussion group