What makes a great 3D Warehouse model? A checklist...

For years now, SketchUp users of all skill levels have provided 3D models to the world through 3D Warehouse. We’re continually surprised by the breadth of 3D Warehouse contributions, but for a while now, we’ve been wondering how to help people make good models great.

Recently, we have taken some time to reflect on What makes a great 3D Warehouse model? To get everybody on the same page, we have developed a checklist that should help you create beautiful, useful, and easy-to-operate 3D Warehouse models. We’ve also created an article and a video series that digs deeper into what each item on the checklist means and how to hone your SketchUp skills to achieve the desired results.

At a minimum, models should be at real world size so that others can place and use them easily in their models. We’re nuts for managing model efficiency, so we also think that models should be lightweight and have an appropriate number of polygons to represent the geometry correctly.

This checklist is a great guide for anyone creating a lot of 3D Warehouse content, and we think it will be particularly useful for building product manufacturers who are recreating their products on 3D Warehouse. Well-constructed models are easy for designers to incorporate and specify, and are the basis for improved design accuracy, cost estimates, and even public safety.

We love that it’s easy and fun to create SketchUp models; creating great 3D Warehouse models makes SketchUp even easier and more fun for everybody. Using this checklist, the SketchUp community can continue to contribute great, high quality models to share with an entire planet of designers.