The most impressive new addition is the Photo Match capability.
There’s also a new 3D Text tool that lets you set a font, size and extrusion depth, and creates actual geometry you can place into your scene. As well as the existing ability to create text and linked annotations that either remain fixed onscreen or follow the object they’re linked to, you can now set a fixed height for text so its size changes, like the model itself, depending on the zoom level.
SketchUp’s text capabilities have also been overhauled. There’s also a Paste-in-Place command, which makes it simple to move selections in and out of geometry as desired. More advanced drawing power comes through enhancements to its intersection capabilities, which can now be limited to currently selected objects or to the current group or component. SketchUp’s core drawing capabilities have also been made easier to use with new modifier keys that let you quickly create copies of objects and force the direction in which a line should be locked. Most importantly, SketchUp now offers quicker handling – Google claims up to five times faster for some operations.
By default, the main toolbar has been simplified, there’s a new Instructor palette, the Components and Materials browsers have been streamlined, and the new colouring of sky and ground planes plus the inclusion of a default figure in new scenes greatly helps orientation.
For this first major update under the Google brand, the SketchUp interface has been reworked to make it more accessible to its new wider audience.