Great List of Top Extensions

Every now and then I’ll get a list, on a blog or via Facebook, of top SketchUp extensions. They tend to mostly say the same things, and if you’re new to extensions a “top” list is a good place to start.

The latest one I saw come by way of a Facebook page called Winning with SketchUp. (I think I’ve “liked” way too many SketchUp pages, but this seems to be a pretty serious one – lots of good tips and tutorials.)

Here’s their page on extensions. I believe all are from SketchUcation.

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I’ve pasted their list here, and added some comments in red. I’ve used many of these, but nowhere near all! So no note means I haven’t tried it yet.

 

1. LibFredo6 (prerequisite) – This is needed for all of Fredo6’s extensions, many are must-haves.
2. TTLib (prerequisite) – Same as above, but for ThomThom’s extensions.
3. Joint Push Pull – Incredibly useful! See our post on it.
4. Round Corner – Easily makes round or chamfered corners.
5. Curviloft – Fits a surface to a set of 2D or 3D lines or curves.
6. FredoTools
7. Tools on Surface – great for drawing in 2D for projection onto an organic surface (terrain).
8. Toposhaper
9. Animator
10. Fredoscale – My number 1 pick. Twist, bend, stretch, in a much more intuitive way than SketchUp’s native Scale tool.
11. QuadFaceTools
12. Selection Toys – Select all edges, or all faces, or specific materials, or lots of other options.
13. CleanUp (Thomthom) – Removes extra materials, layers, styles, making your model perform faster.
14. Fixit101
15. Solid Inspector 2 – If you do 3D printing, you need this. Fixes holes, reversed faces, and more.
16. Edge Tools
17. Architect Tools
18. UV Toolkit
19. SketchUV
20. Vertex Tools ($)
21. SUbD ($)
22. Profile Builder 2 ($) – Follow Me on steroids, easily builds moldings, rails, and more.
23. Artisan ($) – Organic face modeling. You’ll be blown away by what this one does.
24. Split Tools (TIG)
25. Selection Memory (Thomthom)
26. Bezier Spline
27. 2D Tools
28. Workplane (TIG)
29. Extrusion Tools (TIG)
30. s4u To Components ($)
31. Layers Panel
32. 1001 bit – A treasure chest of automated architectural elements – doors, windows, roofs, and more. See our post.
33. Shape Bender – Bends anything to fit a curve. See our post.
34. Flowify
35. TIG-weld
36. Scale and Rotate Multiple
37. Upright Extrude
38. Exploded Arc Centerpoint Finder
39. Raytracer
40. SDM Floor Generator
41. SDM Deck Builder
42. Zorro 2
43. Mirror – Simple but essential. Mirrors and mirror-copies.
44. s4u Make Face
45. 2D Boolean
46. Material Tools (ThomThom)
47. Projections (Didier Bur)
48. Faces2Groups
49. Section Cut Face
50. s4u Make Box ($)

 

Now I can see I have my work cut out for me, catching up on all the extensions I haven’t tried…

About Bonnie Roskes

Bonnie Roskes has been writing tutorial-style projects on 3D modeling software, primarily SketchUp, since 2001. Her website, www.3dvinci.net offers a wide variety of learning materials for all ages, from kids in grade school through design professionals. Her materials cover general 3D design, 3D printing, geometry, interior design, geo-modeling, and more, and future books are in the works. Read more about Bonnie.

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4 Comments


  1. hi bonnie,

    great list.

    just a reminder about Layers Panel: it has been, so to speak, abandoned by its author who no longer supports it or maintains it.

    it is a real pity as LP was a great improvement to the native Layers Manager.

    Reply

  2. What Edson says is true, but it must be noted that the author of Layers Panel (which is free, by the way) has also made the code available for anyone who would like to continue where he left off, very generous if you ask me. Layers Panel has the occasional glitch (which often resolves by closing the extension and starting it again), but it is very useful and works in SU2017!

    Reply

  3. I’ve used Layers Panels for years, and it is my favorite extension. Coming from the Autocad world, it adds tons of value for my work needs. A few glitches, but few and far between

    Reply

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