Resources

Welcome to the  SketchUpArtists resource section where you will find some great links for sites with tutorials and free resources which will help enhance your image editing skills and post-processing techniques. There are also some useful SketchUp ad-dons, unique free software, materials, 3D models  and other useful official SketchUp related off-site  links.

Official SketchUp Sites

• SketchUp Home – Trimble Homepage
• New SketchUp Blog – Official SketchUp Blog
• 3D Warehouse – Free 3D Models
• SketchUp Sage – Links to other great SketchUp resources

Forums and Communities

• SketchUpArtists Community – Official Facebook community group
• Official SketchUp Community – Trimble SketchUp folks
• SketchUcation – Great resourceful SketchUp forum
• @Last Forum –  a nostalgic look back in time, archive with original SketchUp content

Forums and Communities Non – English

• SketchUp Vray Resources  – Nomer Adona’s excellent tutorial Blog
• ronenbeckerman – Arch ViZ Blog
• Biblio3d.com – France

Google SketchUp Plugins

• Smustard – Big collection mostly pay for, some freebies
• SketchUp Plugins – Some popular SketchUp plugins
• Extension Warehouse – Extend the functionality of SketchUp with this list of sites
• SketchUp Tips – SketchUp plugins Blog by Jim Foltz

Free Image Editing Software

• Stable Diffusion – Image editing AI
• Krea AI – for enhancing and upscaling with AI
• normalmap –  GIMP plugin to convert images into RGB normal maps
• Cinepaint – Easy to use and similar to Photoshop
• Pixia – Painting and retouching software for full color graphics
• ChocoFlop – Free image editing on your Mac
• Paint.Net – Free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.
• FotoSketcher – FotoSketcher is a 100% free program which can help you convert your digital photos into art, automatically. If you want to turn a portrait, the photograph of your house or a beautiful landscape into a painting, a sketch or a drawing then look no further.
• Gimp – The world famous free image editing software.
• 3DPaysage – This free software creates 3D terrain (or something else) from a picture. The mesh can be exported to different formats including .obj.
• FastStone – A collection of free image editing and viewing software.
• Photoscape – Free photo editing software that enables you to fix and enhance photos.

Free Vector Editing Software

• Inkscape – Vector graphics editor with similar capabilities to professional pieces of software such as Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw and Xara X
• Alchemy – Vector-based editing application that makes use of a handful of interesting features

Free 3D Models and Textures

• cc0 Textures – Free textures
• Texture fun – Collection of free textures
• Textures.com – Free textures
• maxTextures – Tiled and seamless textures
• sharetextures – Free seamless textures
• cadhatch – Free seamless textures
• Sketchuptextureclub – textures and resources
• Coalesse – free SketchUp furniture moles for non-commercial use.
• cgtrader.com – Huge collection of excellent quality 3D models, free and paid for
• Hdri-Skies.com – Good collection of free HDRI sky maps in 4K resolution
• TonysTextures – 4000 free textures and several tutorials and other freebies for architectural visualization
• Skal Gubbar -Library of free high resolution cutout images of people
• NonScandanavia  -Free Hi Res 2d Cutout people from
• HDRI-Hub – Small collection of free HDRI skies.
• Gtrove – Small collection of free HDRI’s
• NoEmotion HDR’s – Free collection of  day, evening and night HDRI’s
• Krost Office Furniture – Free collection of SketchUp models
• SketchUpTexture – Growing collection of free good quality models and textures
• Knoll Office Furniture – Free SketchUp models…100’s of them
• 3drender.co.uk – Some free samples and models
• Textures Forrest – High resolution free textures
• DesignBeep – Collection of high quality and free brick textures
• High Resolution Textures – Free Textures, game textures, 3D textures, design resources
• Texturemate – Free textures, brushes and patterns
• carbodydesign.com – Free 3D car models various formats, some SketchUp models
• BIMstop.com – Free models, but you need to register first
• SteelSelect.com – Free SketchUp Component library for eaves guttering
• Landscapeforms – SketchUp library of 3D models
• CadTutor – Free collection of images, trees, people, skies and more
• Cut Out People – Free cut out people, animals, transport, nature and objects
• OpenFootage – HDRI panorama’s and more
• Graphic Mania – High quality old paper Photoshop textures
• Naldzgraphics – Free high quality wood textures,200+
• Designmoo – Free PSDs, vectors, textures, patterns, fonts, and more
• Archiforge – Textures and CAD library
• 3D Warehouse – Huge collection of free 3D SketchUp Models
• Archive 3D – Large collection of free 3D models
• Bricks’n’Tiles – Design Photo-realistic textures for high quality 3D content
• CGDigest – Selection of models from furniture to transport and electronics
• Turbosquid Free – Loads of good quality free models
• Designfreebies – Free high resolution photos of skies, clouds, sunsets and much more
• CG Textures – The worlds largest free texture site
• 3dmd.net – Free textures for 3D artists
• 3Dmodelsharing – Free library once you register, various file types
• Archweb – Free cad blocks and textures

Popular Photoshop sites with tutorials and freebies!!

• PSD tuts+ – The mother of all PS sites for tuts and freebie
• PSDFAN – New kid on the block, with great tutorials
• PSHERO – Great set of unique tutorials and tips and tricks
• PhotoshopStar – More tutorials and resources
• Smashing apps – Free hand drawn style icons, brushes, textures and fonts

Brushes for  post-production work

• WeGraphics – More free stuff
• Pepsized – Free Photoshop brushes
• Photoshop Tutorials – More free brushes
• Hejbrush – Free Photoshop marker brushes
• FGD – Free Photoshop brushes
• CreativeNerds – Free Photoshop brushes
• BrushLovers – Free Photoshop brushes
• BrushKing -Photoshop brushes
• Bonehaus – Photoshop dry brushes
• carbodydesign – Collection of  Photoshop brushes including some colored pencils
• DesignM.ag – 500+ watercolor brushes for Photoshop
• Naldz Graphics – Free vintage brush sets
• Bittbox – Great brushes and tutorials
• Brusheezy – Cool Brushes
• DeviantArt – Some great free tree brushes and much more

Software and other free goodies!

• Evermotion – Forum, tutorials and downloads
• LuxRender – Free physically based and unbiased rendering engine
• Kerkythea – Is a free standalone good quality renderer, using physically accurate materials and lights
• Blender – Free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems
• Artweaver Free – Free painting program which is suitable for beginners but also suitable for advanced users
• Meshmixer – Free tool for making as they say “crazy-ass 3D stuff” without too much hassle
• ngPlant – Free plant modeling software suite
• WebInpaint Beta – Remove one or more objects or persons from your composition
• An Ivy Generator – A small tool allowing a virtual ivy to grow in your 3d world
• xNormal – An application to generate normal / ambient occlusion / displacement maps
• Color Palette Generator – Enter the URL of an image to get a color palette that matches the image
• The Blueprints.com – Exactly what it says
• Wings 2 – Aircraft plans/drawings
• yED – Powerful free graph editor
• Sculptris – Free 3D organic modeler
• ShiftN – Automatic correction of distracting converging lines in your image

Social Networks – check us out

•  X – News and Updates
• Facebook – News and Updates

If you know of anymore useful free resources for the SketchUp design community please contact us or comment below and we will add it to the list.