SketchUp Rendering

Render the SketchUp view you have open right now.

Upload a screenshot or exported view and get a photoreal image designed to hold your geometry — and to keep the materials you already assigned. Not the .skp file — there is no plugin to install.

No image handy? Try a sample
Free · no credit card · 3 previews · we don’t train on your uploads
Designed to preserve your geometry — compare with your original
Example render — AI renderExample render — inputBeforeAfter
Example · drag to compare
Design fidelity

Decide up front how much licence the model gets.

Every render runs at one of three fidelity settings, and the setting is what tells the model whether your massing, openings, roof lines and camera are allowed to move. Switch between them and drag each result against the original.

The same model rendered at Balanced fidelity — AI renderThe same model rendered at Balanced fidelity — inputYour modelBalanced

Balanced — asks for the same structure to be preserved while materials, lighting, context and realism are enhanced. The studio default.

Real output from the production pipeline — one example per setting, from the same source image. Generation is non-deterministic, so the same settings run again give a different image.

Balanced asks to keep
  • Massing and proportions
  • Window and door openings
  • Roof lines
  • Perspective and camera
And lets change
  • Materials and finishes
  • Lighting
  • Surrounding context
  • Photographic realism

In the studio this is one choice — Preserve design, which is Balanced above, or More creative, which is Creative. Faithful is the stricter setting and sits under Advanced, on the full Faithful → Creative slider.

Real SketchUp models

Three SketchUp exports, rendered through the product you are about to use.

Every source below is a real SketchUp model view, published by its author under a licence that permits this use, and named. Drag each seam and check the openings, roof lines and camera against the model yourself.

A model you already textured, kept as you textured it. — AI renderA model you already textured, kept as you textured it. — inputSketchUp viewAirender
Textured model · exterior

A model you already textured, kept as you textured it.

Stucco, roof tile, the white quoins and the stone plinth all came from the SketchUp model — not from a style preset. Materials was set to “Keep what I modelled”, so the render was asked to make those surfaces real rather than replace them. The scale figure, the dormer and the entry steps are where they were.

Exterior · Keep what I modelled · Preserve design

Source model: sXe_92 · public domain · Wikimedia Commons

An untextured export, given materials and daylight. — AI renderAn untextured export, given materials and daylight. — inputSketchUp viewAirender
Clay model · exterior

An untextured export, given materials and daylight.

A 2007 SketchUp export with no materials on it. There is nothing to preserve here, so this one ran on a style — and the roof slab, parapet, louvred window bays, both entrance canopies and the glass-block ribbon on the return elevation all still line up with the model.

Exterior · Modern style · Preserve design

Source model: Bill Wrigley · public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Interiors run through the same pipeline. — AI renderInteriors run through the same pipeline. — inputSketchUp viewAirender
Interior

Interiors run through the same pipeline.

A student canteen scheme, modelled with placeholder blocks for furniture. The columns, the beam grid, the glazing and the floor tile survive; the blocks come back as blocks, because “Keep what I modelled” means exactly that. Nothing here furnishes a room you left empty.

Interior · Keep what I modelled · Preserve design

Source model: Akrisht Pandey · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Materials

You already chose the materials. Decide whether the render is allowed to.

The same SketchUp interior, the same Preserve design setting, rendered twice — once asking the model to keep what was modelled, once asking it for a style. This is one control, and it is the difference between a render of your scheme and a render of someone else's.

Your SketchUp view
Your SketchUp view
Concrete frame, glazing, tiled floor — and blocks standing in for furniture.
Keep what I modelled
Keep what I modelled
The frame and glazing come back as the materials you assigned, made real.
Apply a style · Scandinavian
Apply a style · Scandinavian
Same geometry, same camera — the surfaces are deliberately replaced.

Note what did not happen in either version: the placeholder blocks are still blocks. Keeping your materials is an instruction to the render, not a furnishing service — a room you left empty comes back empty.

Controlled revision · verified pair

When the client asks for one change, you change one thing.

Everything outside your selection stays exactly as it was. For the most predictable result inside it, select a single surface — one wall, one panel, one roof plane — and keep windows, corners and structural edges out of the box. This selection sits on one concrete panel, edge to edge.

The parent render, with one blank concrete facade panel selected for a local edit
01Select one blank concrete panel and describe one change.
The same render after the edit: the selected concrete panel is now vertical timber cladding, and everything around it is unchanged
02“Change this concrete panel to vertical timber cladding.”
The parent render, with one blank concrete facade panel selected for a local edit
The same render after the edit: the selected concrete panel is now vertical timber cladding, and everything around it is unchanged

The same two files, enlarged. The window frames either side, the soffit reveal with its downlight above and the shadow line at the base all sit outside the selection — if the new panel had drifted, it would no longer line up with them.

Outside the selection: 0 / 2,924,260 pixels changed.Compared at full resolution, pixel by pixel
The workflow

Upload, render, edit, version, export — in one session.

Everything made from one SketchUp view stays together. Each run adds a version rather than replacing the last, so the image you showed the client on Tuesday is still there on Friday.

  1. 01

    Upload the view

    Screenshot the SketchUp viewport, or export the scene as a JPG, PNG or WebP up to 10MB. Perspective views work best; a flat top-down plan is not what this is for.

  2. 02

    Render it

    Say what the space is, whether to keep your materials, and how much licence the model gets. The result opens beside the original with the compare slider already on.

  3. 03

    Change one thing

    Drag a box around the one area a client asked about, describe the change, and only that area is repainted — every pixel outside your selection is restored from the render it came from.

  4. 04

    Keep the versions

    Each run adds a version under the source it came from — Render 01, Edit 01 — labelled with the settings that produced it. Nothing overwrites anything.

  5. 05

    Export

    Download the full-resolution, watermark-free file on a paid plan, cleared for proposals and published work. Free previews stay in the Studio.

The Airender Studio on a phone: Render, Edit and Enhance tabs, the render on the canvas beside the view it came from, and a bottom bar with 3 versions, the render button and settings
One SketchUp view, its renders and its edits — the rail on the left is the lineage, and every row is labelled with the settings that made it.
What you actually set

Four decisions, none of them about AI.

There is no sampler, no step count, no seed and no negative prompt. Each control below is described by what it asks the render to do — because that is all any of them are: instructions, not locks.

How much the design may move

Preserve design asks for your massing, openings, roof lines, proportions and camera to be held while materials, light and context change. More creative asks only for the composition and silhouette to stay recognisable. A finer Faithful–Balanced–Creative slider sits under Advanced.

Whether your materials survive

Keep what I modelled asks the render to match the cladding, roofing, glazing and floor surfaces already in your view instead of substituting a palette. Apply a style does the opposite, deliberately. A view that arrives already textured opens on Keep — one tap changes it.

Light

Golden hour, overcast, midday or dusk, plus an eye-level, aerial or street camera. These are written into the prompt, not a light rig — you are choosing a description, not placing a sun.

One optional sentence

A free-text instruction — “warm timber, hazy mountains behind” — applied where it does not fight the geometry. Everything works without it.

How it compares

Three ways to finish a SketchUp view, by the job each one does.

Airender
This page
What it makes
A still image from one view, plus edited versions of it
Where it runs
A browser tab — nothing installed, rendering happens on our side
What it works from
An image of the view — never the .skp file
Revising one detail
Select the area, describe the change; pixels outside it are restored from the parent
Best for
Turning a view you already modelled into something you can send, and revising it in place
Enscape / D5
Real-time renderers
What it makes
A navigable real-time scene, stills and video
Where it runs
Installed alongside SketchUp, rendering on your machine
What it works from
Your live SketchUp model
Revising one detail
Change the model or materials, then re-render the view
Best for
Walking a client through the scheme, and animation
V-Ray
Offline renderer
What it makes
Art-directed stills and animation with real lights and materials
Where it runs
Installed alongside SketchUp; included with a SketchUp Studio subscription
What it works from
Your live SketchUp model
Revising one detail
Change the model, materials or lights, then re-render
Best for
The one hero image that has to be art-directed

Nothing here says another tool is worse — the other two work from your live model and this one does not, which is a real disadvantage as well as the reason it needs no install. The V-Ray line was last checked against help.sketchup.com on 24 August 2026; check SketchUp’s current plan pages before making a purchase decision on them.

What it costs

Enough free to render your view and fix one thing on it.

Free — 3 previewsno credit card, granted the moment you sign in
  • Standard · 2K only — HD and Ultra need a paid plan
  • Output is watermarked, up to 2K on the long side
  • A render, edit, or enhance uses 1 generation. That leaves one free preview after you render and edit once
  • Previews are for judging, not delivering — Download and commercial use both start with a paid plan
Starter

$24/month

$199/year · $16.58/month equivalent · save 31%

200 generations / month

Pro

$49/month

$429/year · $35.75/month equivalent · save 27%

500 generations / month

Studio

$99/month

$899/year · $74.92/month equivalent · save 24%

1,200 generations / month

At the annual Studio rate that is $0.06 per generation — watermark-free and cleared for client work. Render, Edit, and Enhance use the same amount.

See full pricing →
Render a view from your project
Rights, privacy and getting out
We don’t train on your uploads

Your SketchUp views, prompts and renders are never used to train, fine-tune or improve any model.

You own both sides of it

You keep every right to the view you upload, and paid plans add a worldwide commercial licence for proposals, bids and published work.

Deleted when you ask

Ask us to remove your uploads and renders — or close the account — and they are gone within 30 days.

7-day money-back

Email us within 7 days of your first subscription payment and we refund it in full, no questions.

FAQ

What SketchUp users ask before they upload.

01Do I upload my .skp file?

No — and there is no plugin or extension to install. You upload an image of the view: a screenshot of the SketchUp viewport or an exported JPG, PNG or WebP up to 10MB. That is why the SketchUp version does not matter — Free, Go, Pro and Studio all produce the same screenshot.

02My model already has materials on it. Will it repaint them?

Only if you ask it to. Materials is a two-button choice above the render button: “Keep what I modelled” asks the render to match the surfaces already in your view rather than substitute a palette, and a view that arrives already textured opens on that setting. Choosing a style is the deliberate opposite — and the panel says so before you spend anything.

03Will it keep my geometry?

That is what the Preserve design setting is for: it asks the model to hold your massing, window and door openings, roof lines, proportions and camera angle while materials, lighting and context change. Designed to preserve the visible structure. Always compare the result with your original design. That is also why the compare slider is on by default on the Studio canvas, and why the examples above are all draggable.

04The client wants one thing changed. Do I re-render the whole view?

No. Draw a box around the area on the finished render, describe the change, and only that area is repainted — every pixel outside your selection is restored from the render it came from. The result arrives as a new version under the original, which stays exactly as it was.

05What about SketchUp’s own AI image feature?

Honest answer: we could not confirm its current status, so we have left it out of the comparison rather than describe something that may have changed. On 24 August 2026 we found no mention of Diffusion on SketchUp’s plans-and-pricing page — which does still name V-Ray — none on the English help home, and no reachable help article for it. If you are weighing it up, check SketchUp’s own site rather than trusting a summary of ours that we cannot stand behind. What we can say about ours is on this page, with the settings and sources printed beside every image.

06Does this replace V-Ray or Enscape for SketchUp?

Not for what those are best at. Enscape and D5 give you a navigable real-time scene and animation; V-Ray gives you shot-by-shot art direction with real lights and materials, and comes with a SketchUp Studio subscription. This does one thing they are slow at: turning a view you already have into a presentable still, and revising it in place. Most people who pay for it keep their renderer for the hero shots.

07What should I screenshot from SketchUp?

A perspective view of the thing you want to show, framed the way you would want the final image framed — the render keeps your camera, so it cannot recover what is outside the frame. Hide section planes and guides if they are visible. Software UI, toolbars and cursors are explicitly ignored, so a raw screenshot is fine.

08What do I get free, and what does a render cost after that?

3 previews once you sign in, no card. They are watermarked, up to 2K on the long side at Standard · 2K only, and they stay in the Studio — Download and commercial use both start with a paid plan. That is deliberately enough to run one render and one edit on your own project before deciding. Paid plans are watermark-free at every tier and work out from $0.06 an image on the annual Studio plan. See full pricing →

09Can I use the renders in client work?

Yes, on a paid plan. Every paid plan includes a worldwide commercial licence to use your renders in proposals, presentations, competition boards and published work, and you keep every right to the view you uploaded. Read the terms →

Weighing up the alternatives first? Read how to render in SketchUp — or see AI architectural rendering across Revit, Rhino and interiors.

A SketchUp model rendered with Airender

Screenshot the view on your screen and see what comes back.

Render it, drag the seam against your own model, and decide from that.

Upload a SketchUp view — 3 free previews
3 free previews
No credit card
Commercial use on paid plans