Rayscaper Introduction

Rayscaper pencil scene by Rich O’Brien.

Rayscaper is an interactive, photorealistic render engine for SketchUp that is fun to use. It renders your model live, right next to SketchUp: you keep modeling as usual and the render follows every change. There’s no exporting and no second program to learn, so SketchUp users can create photorealistic visualizations of their design in seconds.

This video takes you from a SketchUp model to a finished render in two minutes:

What Rayscaper does

Live inside SketchUp. Rayscaper syncs your model, camera, materials, sun and Skatter objects as you work. Move a wall, change a material or click a scene tab, and the render updates right away.
Photoreal light. A path tracer simulates how light really bounces, for natural shadows, reflections and glow, and an AI denoiser cleans up the image in seconds. Light your scene with an HDRI or a sky that follows SketchUp’s sun, and add lamps, spots and area lights.
Realistic materials. Every SketchUp material becomes a Rayscaper material that you can turn into glass, metal, water and more.
Built-in assets. Over 1,000 free Poly Haven HDRIs and materials are in the Asset Manager: drag one onto the render and it’s applied.
Nature without the weight. Scatter covers a lawn or a forest floor with thousands of plants and stones that only exist in the render, so your SketchUp model stays light.
Stills, panoramas and animations. Render perspective, orthographic and 360° panoramic images, and animations along your SketchUp scene tabs.

Made with Rayscaper

A loft kitchen rendered with Rayscaper — Loft Cuisine, by Julien Fischel

An exterior scene rendered with Rayscaper — Exterior Scene, by Majid Yeganegi

A hall rendered with Rayscaper — Hall Scene, by Rich O’Brien

The Guggenheim Museum in New York rendered with Rayscaper — Guggenheim Museum New York, by Rich O’Brien

What you need

SketchUp 2024, 2025 or 2026 on 64-bit Windows. macOS is planned, see the Roadmap.
A CPU with 4 or more cores. Rayscaper renders on the CPU, so it runs on laptops and office PCs without a gaming GPU. Have an NVIDIA GPU? Turn on GPU rendering for extra speed.

See System Requirements for the details.

Free version and license

You can use Rayscaper for free, without a license: everything works, but renders include a watermark and can’t be used commercially. A license removes the watermark. It costs $99, once, with no subscription, and includes a year of updates. See the licensing FAQ for how to buy and activate one.

Where to start

Install Rayscaper with the installation guide.
Make your first render with the quick start. Download its scene and follow the video above.
Learn the rest in the manual: it starts with an overview of how Rayscaper works and explains every setting with example renders.

When stuck with Rayscaper, look at our FAQ or ask for help.