Work smarter, not harder in 2022 with LayOut and SketchUp Pro

2022 is off to a great start with brand-new updates in SketchUp Pro and LayOut. The SketchUp 2022 release includes new and improved modeling tools, additional search functionality, time-saving enhancements in LayOut, and so much more. These updates will help speed up and simplify your workflows so you can stay focused on your designs. Before we get into the release, let us introduce our newest scale figure, Niraj Poudel! Niraj joined SketchUp in 2014 and is a key figure on our customer success team. He loves helping people optimize their SketchUp workflow and is passionate about early-stage sustainable design. Niraj enjoys the outdoors, playing guitar, and finding new ways to bring a smile to his daughter's face in his free time. Learn more about our latest scale figure. Now that we’ve met Niraj, let’s explore the 2022 release.

SketchUp Pro (desktop)

Search in SketchUp

First introduced in SketchUp for Web, Search is now a SketchUp Pro feature that allows you to quickly find and activate native commands and installed extensions. Instead of spending valuable time trying to find or remember a tool in SketchUp, you can type in the name or workflow-related query such as ‘elevation’, ‘boolean’, or ‘chamfer’ to quickly find it. If you’re new to SketchUp, this will help you get up to speed on the UI and toolset, allowing you to focus on your design rather than trying to find a tool. Search by name or search for what you want a tool to do in SketchUp and relevant results will appear. For more experienced users, this will help reduce the amount of screen space devoted to toolbars. For example, instead of displaying all seven Joint Push/Pull toolbar icons, you can now search for ‘Joint Push/Pull’, and all commands associated with the extension show up. The best way to bring Search (default shortcut: Shift +S) into your workflow is to customize the shortcut so the command is easy to find.

New and Improved Modeling Tools

In 2022, we’re speeding up, streamlining, and enhancing workflows by introducing brand-new tools and considerable updates to older ones. You can see the details in our release notes, but here are some highlights:

Lasso Select

The Lasso Select tool allows you to draw custom selection bounds without reorienting the camera. You can also create multiple discrete selections in one click-drag operation and select entities much faster with stylus inputs.

Stamp Copy

A new modifier state for the Move tool (introduced in 2021.1.2), Stamp enables you to make multiple copies of an entity, ‘stamping’ each with just a click. This tool is handy for naturally dispersing objects across a given area. For example, you can quickly place scale figures or other entourage in a landscape design. It’s also helpful in making multiple copies along one axis at irregular intervals, such as displaying crosswalks in an urban design model.

Tag Tool

Streamline model organization using Tag, a new tool that allows you to click entities or pre-selected entities to apply tags. With the Tag tool, you can speed up model organization by tagging objects directly in the modeling window, rapidly clean up unwanted tags, and improve reporting fidelity by bulk modifying the tagging of component instances. 

Freehand

We made a big update to the Freehand tool. With smoother curve entities, you can create organically drawn lines and Follow Me extrusions with more natural variance. Because Freehand’s output is smoother, the tool creates more segments. Immediately after drawing a curve, you can decrease the segmentation of the curve incrementally. SketchUp provides visual feedback with each increment. Freehand also receives axis locking input to specify a drawing plane, and it’s now possible to draw across adjacent faces on different planes.  

Tangent Inference Lock

Using the new tangent inference toggles for 2-Point and 3-Point Arc tools, you can now quickly specify and lock arc tangency from an existing edge or arc. Not only is the tangent arc more predictable, but it also allows you to create curved faces in a shorter amount of time.  

Scene Search

If you generate architectural visualization outputs or construction documentation, you probably create a lot of different scenes to communicate the design details. This results in having to visually scan long scene lists with coded names. With Scene Search, a new search filter adjacent to the Scenes tab, you can now quickly identify and jump to your desired scene.

More modeling modifications

In 2021.1, we focused on improving the consistency of how modeling worked from tool to tool, specifically on our ten core tools. There are a couple of notable tool behavior changes to Tape Measure, Classifier, Position Texture, and directional inferencing tooltips in this release.