SketchUp Plugin: Artisan for Google SketchUp

Artisan is known as Subdivide and Smooth 2. Created by Dale Martens and its becoming a must plugin for SketchUp. Download the Free trial HERE

 by Scott Para and Pete Stopple

Artisan works with SketchUp 7 and above for both PC and Mac. It is one of the only SketchUp plugins to use an automatic installer for seamless installation.

Although the subdivision tools were included as part of the previous generation ‘Subdivide and Smooth’ plugin, they have all been greatly improved in ‘Artisan’.

Features Include:

Subdivision Surfaces
- Robust subdivision algorithm that can handle very complex geometry
- Subdivide and smooth selected faces, groups, or components
- Crease edges or vertices to create hard edges
- Knife subdivide tool for creating loops
- Extrude tool to create loops without interior faces
- Low-poly ‘Proxy Mode’ that automatically updates the subsurface geometry as you edit

New Subdivision Features in Artisan
- Perform subdivision or smoothing on any selection of faces
- Auto-subdivision of selection boundary faces that results in cleaner meshes after subdividing
- Quickly preview subsurface geometry prior to committing
- Proper interpolation of UVs for subdivided geometry
- Faster subdivision and better topology

Brush Tools
-Sculpt Brush (sculpt, pinch, flatten, inflate, smooth)
-Select Brush (select faces by performing strokes)
-Paint Brush (paint SketchUp materials on faces using virtual brushstrokes)
-Symmetrical sculpting mode using with user-defined work plane
-Lock vertices to user-defined work plane

Vertex Transformation Tools
-Soft Selection
-Soft Move
-Soft Rotate
-Make Planar (XY, XZ, YZ, or best fit)

Mesh Optimization (Polygon Reduction)
-Much faster and more robust than the free Polyreducer plugin