SketchUp MCP

SketchUp MCP

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SketchUp MCP lets Claude work directly in the SketchUp model you have open. Ask in plain language, in any language, and Claude reads the model, runs quantity takeoffs by tag or material, models geometry, assigns materials and tags, takes screenshots to check its own work, and exports images and files. It ships as a Claude Desktop extension (.mcpb) that runs on the Node.js built into Claude Desktop, plus a small Ruby extension for SketchUp (the SU MCP Bridge). You do not need to install Python or Node.js.

Current version: 1.4.0 - download it from Releases. Also listed in the official MCP Registry as io.github.2ez4gcx/sketchup-mcp.

Features

34 tools, all working in millimetres (areas in m², volumes in m³, angles in degrees, Z up):

Highlights:

• Professional tags: Claude tags what it models like a finish schedule, CODE-NN description (for example FL-01 Engineered oak floor 12mm, WL-02 Walnut veneer panel, CL-01 Gypsum flat ceiling): one tag per specification, so one tag is one line of the bill of quantities. Codes cover floors (FL), skirting (SK), wall finishes (WL), partitions (PA), ceilings (CL), cornices (CO), doors (DR), windows (WN), glass (GL), built-in joinery (JN), furniture (FN), lighting (LT), sanitary ware (SN), equipment (EQ), curtains (CU), decor (DE), existing structure (EX) and reference (RF). Each tag goes into a folder for its category (SketchUp 2021+) with a category color, shown by *Color by tag* in the Tags panel. A tag scheme already in the model is followed instead.
• Interior bill of quantities (interior_takeoff): one row per tag with the unit its category needs: floors and ceilings in m² (each board once, whatever its face orientation; sloped ceilings at their real area), walls, partitions and glass in m² of one side (a door or window that cuts only one face of the wall is deducted), skirting and cornices in metres (also runs made with Follow Me around a room), curtains in width x height, existing structure in m³, everything else by count. Walls drawn at an angle are measured like straight ones. It adds totals per category and warnings: geometry in no tagged object, a whole room drawn as one box, objects on hidden tags (not measured unless you ask), components nested in a finish without their own tag. It can save the table as a CSV file for Excel.
• Quantities by room: put each room's objects in a named group without a tag (for example Living room; nested groups give Level 2 / Bedroom 1), and by_room splits every line by room. The CSV then has one column per room next to the total. make_group builds the room groups.
• Rooms in one step (create_room): give the outline of a room (the bare inner face of its walls), its height and its finishes, and Claude builds the floor finish, one wall-finish panel per wall with the doors and windows cut through, the ceiling board, the skirting (interrupted at doors) and the door leaves and glass panes, each tagged and named, inside a room group. Every wall panel follows its wall, so angled rooms are measured and checked correctly. A feature wall can take another finish, and an open side can be left without a wall.
• Model health check (check_model, purge_unused): geometry outside groups or without a tag, raw faces carrying tags, inside-out solids and faces turned different ways, stacked duplicate copies (they double quantities), loose and tiny edges, unused components/materials/tags, heavy textures and components, hidden objects, tags without a standard code. purge_unused cleans up, keeping the empty standard tags made with setup_tags.
• Documentation scenes (create_scenes): furniture plan, reflected ceiling plan (same orientation as the plan, with walls and openings for reference), floor finish plan, four elevations and an eye-level view per room, and plans per level when rooms are grouped into levels. The section planes sit on a hidden tag of their own (they still cut) and the ceiling plan gets a style of its own with your display settings and X-ray. Re-running replaces the scenes it made for the same kinds and rooms; your own scenes, view, style and tags are left as they were. Scene names can be in any language.
• Design checks (check_design): clear ceiling height per room and under bulkheads, overall door size, furniture clashing with walls, tight passages, furniture in a door swing zone (sliding doors skipped) and the kitchen work triangle. The limits are common reference values, not a building-code check: set them to your project's rules.
• Quantity takeoff by tag or material: walks the whole model (or only the selection) and totals face area, face count, edge length, solid volume and component instance counts. Untagged or unpainted entities inherit the tag or material of their parent group.
• Screenshot that restores your view: Claude sees the viewport image directly. When it asks for a specific view (iso, top, front...), the camera changes only for the capture, and your own view comes back afterwards.
• `run_ruby` as one undo step: when no dedicated tool fits, Claude can run Ruby API code. The whole snippet is a single Undo step. On an error the partial changes are rolled back, and the message points to the line in the snippet.
• Every model edit is one Undo step, named MCP: ... in SketchUp's Edit menu, so Ctrl + Z always takes back exactly one Claude action.
• `install_sketchup_bridge`: Claude installs or updates the Ruby bridge itself. It copies the files into the Plugins folder of every SketchUp version that has been opened at least once (dry_run only reports what it would do).
• Safe defaults: an existing material keeps its color unless Claude passes update_existing=true. delete_entities only deletes by explicit id, never by selection. After a timeout, the error tells Claude whether the command may already have run, so it does not repeat the edit and create duplicate geometry.
• Version check: ping shows which model Claude is controlling and warns when the bridge in SketchUp is older than the one bundled in the extension.
• SketchUp menu (*Extensions > SU MCP Bridge*): Start server, Stop server, Status, Open log file, Change port....

Demo

This demo pavilion was built entirely through the MCP tools (create_box, create_shape, run_ruby, set_material, set_tag), then checked with screenshot and quantity_takeoff - 82 tool calls in total.

How it works

Claude Desktop

| MCP over stdio v sketchup-mcp-1.4.0.mcpb Node.js MCP server, runs on the Node built into Claude Desktop | one JSON request per command, TCP 127.0.0.1:9876 (localhost only) v SU MCP Bridge Ruby extension inside SketchUp, starts with SketchUp | SketchUp Ruby API v the open SketchUp model

Requirements

• Claude Desktop (a current version, with *Settings > Extensions*), signed in to a Claude account.
• SketchUp 2017 or later (desktop). Tested on SketchUp 2021 and 2023. Each SketchUp version must have been opened at least once before you install the bridge.
• Windows 10/11: tested. macOS: untested (the extension is packaged for macOS and the installer knows the macOS Plugins folder, but it has not been tried on a Mac).
• To build from source only: Node.js 18 or later and npm.

Download

Get the files from the latest release:

Install

1. Install the extension in Claude Desktop. Open *Settings > Extensions*, then drag and drop sketchup-mcp-1.4.0.mcpb into the window, or click *Advanced settings > Install Extension...* and pick the file. Click *Install*. The build is not code-signed, so Claude Desktop may warn that the extension is unsigned: only install a file from this project's releases or one you built yourself. On the Microsoft Store version of Claude, double-clicking a .mcpb file does not open it, so install it through Settings.
2. Install the SU MCP Bridge in SketchUp. In a new chat, ask Claude:

Install SU MCP Bridge in SketchUp

Claude calls install_sketchup_bridge (click *Allow*) and lists the SketchUp versions it updated. Or install it manually: *Extensions > Extension Manager > Install Extension* (SketchUp 2017-2020: *Window > Extension Manager*), then pick su_mcp.rbz. The plugin is not digitally signed. If SketchUp refuses to load it, set the Extension Loading Policy (gear icon in Extension Manager) to *Approve Unidentified Extensions*, if your IT policy allows it.

1. Fully quit SketchUp and reopen it. Then check *Extensions > SU MCP Bridge > Status*. It should show SU MCP Bridge v1.4.0: RUNNING on 127.0.0.1:9876. Finally, ask Claude "Ping SketchUp".

Options are under *Settings > Extensions > SketchUp MCP > Configure*: the bridge port (default 9876) and the timeout per command (default 120 s; raise it for takeoffs on large models). If you change the port, change it in SketchUp too (*Extensions > SU MCP Bridge > Change port...*) and restart SketchUp.

To update, install the new .mcpb over the old one (your settings are kept), ask Claude to install the bridge again, and restart SketchUp. Always update both parts.

Sample prompts: mcpb/release-docs/en/SAMPLE_PROMPTS.txt. The full user guide (HTML and PDF) is in the release zip (GUIDE_EN.html / GUIDE_EN.pdf) and attached to each release; its source is mcpb/release-docs/en/GUIDE.html.

Other MCP clients

The .mcpb one-click install is specific to Claude Desktop, but the server is a standard MCP server over stdio, so any client that can launch local MCP servers can use it. Outside Claude Desktop you need Node.js 18 or later on your PATH.

1. Get the server. The .mcpb file is a zip archive. Extract it to a folder of your choice, for example with the tar that ships with Windows 10/11, in Command Prompt or PowerShell (the tar of Git Bash cannot read it). You can also rename the file to .zip and use *Extract All*:

mkdir C:\Tools\sketchup-mcp

tar -xf sketchup-mcp-1.4.0.mcpb -C C:\Tools\sketchup-mcp

The server is then C:/Tools/sketchup-mcp/server/index.mjs (use forward slashes in configs). The folder also contains the bridge files, so install_sketchup_bridge works