SketchUp 2025: Exploring the new Photorealistic Materials

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SketchUp 2025 significantly upgrades its visualisation capabilities with new physically-based rendering (PBR) materials. These new photorealistic materials allow designers to achieve realistic lighting, reflections, and textures without needing external rendering plugins. This new feature also allows designers to render in real-time, allowing for more informed decisions and better collaboration with stakeholders.

Whether you’re an architect, interior designer, or product visualiser, the ability to create photorealistic models within SketchUp itself is a major step forward.

What Are PBR Materials?

PBR materials are designed to simulate how surfaces interact with light in the real world. Unlike traditional textures in SketchUp, which are primarily flat images, PBR materials respond dynamically to different lighting conditions. They have attributes like roughness, metallic properties, and reflectivity that make them much more lifelike.

With the new PBR system in SketchUp 2025, you can use a variety of material types, including:

  • Smooth surfaces (e.g., polished stone or plastic)
  • Rough surfaces (e.g., wood grain or concrete)
  • Shiny metals (e.g., aluminium, gold, chrome)
  • Transparent and glass-like materials (e.g., windows, glossy finishes)

These materials also interact with Environments, another new feature in SketchUp 2025, allowing reflections and ambient lighting to create a more natural appearance.

How to Use PBR Materials in SketchUp 2025

Getting started with PBR materials is easy, and they are integrated into the Materials Tray. Here’s a step-by-step guide to applying them:

1. Access the PBR Materials Library

  • Open SketchUp 2025 and go to the Materials Tray.
  • Select the Photorealistic Materials category to browse available textures.
  • You can also search for specific materials or import your own.

2. Apply a Material to Your Model

  • Select the desired material from the library.
  • Drag and drop the material onto the surface of your model.
  • Adjust the scale and orientation as needed. UV mapping is automatically applied, but you can fine-tune it for better alignment.

3. Adjust Material Properties

  • Open the Material Properties panel.
  • Modify parameters like roughness, reflectivity, and metallic effects to match your design vision.

4. Enable Photorealistic Rendering

  • Click the “Display Photorealistic Materials” button in the toolbar.
  • SketchUp will process the materials and generate a preview based on your selected Environment.

5. Use Environments for Realistic Reflections

  • Go to the Environments section if you want your materials to interact with realistic lighting.
  • Upload your own 360-degree HDRI background or select one from the 3D Warehouse.
  • Adjust lighting intensity and direction using the default tray sliders.

Creating Custom Materials with AI

If you don’t find the exact material you need in the SketchUp library, you can use Generative AI to create custom textures:

  • Find a similar material and click the AI button in the texture preview window.
  • SketchUp will generate variations based on the existing material.
  • You can also use AI to fix texture alignment issues for seamless results.

Limitations and Considerations

While the introduction of PBR materials is a big step forward, there are a few things to keep in mind:

  • Currently, PBR materials do not automatically translate to V-Ray 7 for SketchUp, so manual adjustments may be needed for advanced rendering.
  • Environments can enhance reflections, but performance may vary depending on your system.
  • PBR materials work best when combined with other SketchUp 2025 visual features like Ambient Occlusion.

Why This Matters for Designers

The addition of photorealistic materials means you can produce high-quality visualisations directly in SketchUp, reducing the need for third-party rendering software. Whether you’re presenting to clients or refining a design, the ability to generate realistic previews within SketchUp speeds up the workflow and improves communication.

With these updates, SketchUp is evolving beyond its traditional stylised look, making it a more versatile tool for detailed, high-fidelity design work.