Content
CLASS 1 — Native features
What you will have ready after this class: a retouched presentation image, ready for the client. The AI features Trimble has incorporated into SketchUp Pro. You will learn to:
- Generate a presentation image from your model, with the right presets for each purpose — exterior, interior, aerial, sketch, watercolor and physical model
- Control how far the AI moves away from your model — to suggest design ideas during preliminary studies, or remain faithful for presentations. This is the control behind the two most common complaints about AI rendering
- ⭐ Write prompts methodically — structure, negative prompts and reference images to lock the style. This reduces trial and error, and therefore the credits spent per usable image
- ⭐ Retouch instead of generating everything again — add people, vegetation and furniture, or remove artifacts, from a rendering that is already almost right
- Know what each operation costs under your plan, and how many you have per month
- Understand what AI does not change — image features never alter your geometry
- Know where AI falls short and which tool to use instead, for each design phase
With live exercises and an assignment on your real project.
CLASS 2 — Integration with Claude
What you will have ready after this class: a .skp file of your your project, generated from a floor plan or a photo, with a hierarchy, tags and an assumptions report. The official Trimble connection between SketchUp Pro and Claude — awarded at Architosh AIA ‘BEST of SHOW’ 2026 and that works in Portuguese. You will learn to:
- Connect and authorize the integration in your account
- ⭐ Go from an interior photo to a 3D model — the AI states what it has read, asks about what it cannot see, and only then builds
- ⭐ Go from a dimensioned floor plan to a 3D model — the AI extracts dimensions, checks the scale against two independent measurements and asks only about vertical dimensions
- Check the assumptions — two lists at the end of each model: what you provided and what the AI assumed and needs validation. Nothing is added silently
- Deliver a model ready for production — floor-based hierarchy, discipline tags and door and window components, from which the door and window schedule is generated automatically
- ⭐ Receive automatic accessibility checks — the AI warns you when a requested door opening does not meet accessible route requirements, without being asked to check
- Modify without starting over — adjust an already modeled space through conversation
- Know the limitations of the integration and how to iterate without waste
With your project being modeled live and an assignment for the mentoring session.
CLASS 3 — Guided mentoring
Goal: unblock real projects from participants in the class.
How it works: the student submits their material up to 24 hours beforehand (file link + question). The instructor selects cases and reviews them live, with the class following the reasoning. The session covers:
- The class's most common mistakes, corrected for everyone at once
- ⭐ Selected cases reviewed live — open the file, floor plan or rendering, repeat the interview together and decide on the right tool for each case
- 🔮 Previews of what Trimble is building — features presented at official 2026 events and changes already indicated for future versions, including one that changes the nature of modeling in SketchUp Pro. The instructor participates in Trimble's partner channels and shares what is already public, clearly identifying roadmap items with no set date
- Open questions
- Wrap-up — a tool decision matrix, how to use your monthly credits intelligently, and a certificate
What is this course NOT?
- It is not a plugin or extension development course. No Ruby programming or .rbz packaging
- It is not a traditional photorealistic rendering course. V-Ray, Enscape and similar tools appear only in the comparison matrix, not as course content
- The modeling scope of Class 2 is the bare shell — walls, floors, ceilings, doors and windows. Furniture and finishes are not included
- The mentoring session reviews selected cases from the class, not every student's individual project
Materials provided to students
- Rendering prompt sheet — a ready-made framework + 4 styles + negative prompt to paste
- Credit cost table by operation and plan
- Decision matrix — which AI tool to use at each project phase
- Guide to connecting SketchUp Pro to Claude
- The totalcad-skp skill — the interview process, the Brazilian project structure, discipline tags and an example of model checking based on ABNT NBR 9050:202 Accessibility to buildings, furniture, spaces
and urban equipment, ready to install. It is the course's main resource - Recording of all 3 sessions
