Trimble ships SketchUp 2014

A comparative demo of shadows in SketchUp 2013 and 2014, posted by YouTube user Vladislav Pishko. Trimble claims that shadow calculation is 15 times faster in the 2014 edition of the software, released today.

Trimble has released SketchUp 2014, the latest update to the popular architectural sketching and modelling software it acquired from Google in 2012.

Better BIM compatibility, speed boosts, a few small tools
New features in the Pro edition include a new Classifier tool for better compatibility with BIM systems, new Arc tools, and new Auto-Text tags for automatically inserting page numbers and titles in documentation.

Performance on calculating shadows from large models and on vector rendering in LayOut has been improved: Trimble is advertising an average speed boost of 15x for both.

Interactive 3D previews of models in Google Warehouse
The 3D Warehouse online model library has also been overhauled, including support for interactive 3D previews in WebGL-enabled browsers.

SketchUp 2014 is available for Windows and Mac OS X. The Pro version costs $590; the Make edition is free.

Read a full list of new features in SketchUp Pro 2014 on Trimble’s website

Read more about SketchUp 2014 on Trimble’s blog