The typical process I see architecture students take when exporting from Sketchup to Revit is that they’ll export the Sketchup model as .dwg file – an AutoCAD drawing. This can cause unwanted issues and problems, ruining the mass of the 3D model and turning it into a 2D drawing.

In this Sketchup and Revit tutorial, you’ll discover how to export the Sketchup model while maintaining and preserving its quality and three-dimensionality.

Another common mistake I see students make is that they will import the CAD file directly into Revit, either by importing or linking it.

This can also cause unwanted errors and warnings.

In this tutorial, I begin by exporting the 3D model from Sketchup as a “Sketchup Version 6” (.skp) filetype, instead of an AutoCAD drawing (.dwg). This preserves the model’s quality and allows us to import it directly into Revit.

Once exported from Sketchup, I open up Revit and create a “In-Place Mass”. This allows us to import the Sketchup Version 6 file as a generic mass. If preferred, you would then be able to change the walls to be Walls in Revit, or the floors to Floors in Revit. It’s a very handy trick to know!

If you have any warnings or errors appear when attempting to export from Sketchup or import into Revit, consider cleaning up your model in Sketchup before exporting. There are plenty of ways to do this. For example, you can:

1) Go to “Window, Model Information, Statistics, Purge Unused”

2) Unhide Objects & Switch on Layers, Copy All to a New File

3) Use the Extension: CleanUp3 (via Extension Warehouse)

4) Visit: https://help.sketchup.com/en/sketchup/improving-performance (follow along to optimise your model)

This will fix issues when importing into Revit such as:

“This family instance has too many edges. Remove unnecessary geometry or split the instance into multiple instances”,

“Too many faces were created from imported meshes. Host by Face tools may not select the imported meshes correctly. Decrease the complexity of the file or try importing only selected layers to resolve”,

As well as “Revit cannot import some of the geometry. This result can be caused by various issues with the source file. Adjust the geometry in the file and try the import process again”.

Once your Sketchup and Revit model has been cleaned up, these issues will no longer appear.