To access the software, you download the free trial and select the “SketchUp Make” version.

SketchUp is desktop software, available as a free download for educational use. To help you with these steps, iMaterialise have produced a really useful article for 3D Printing with SketchUp. It may also be worth considering using SketchUp alongside Meshmixer for preparing the 3D model files. However once students are familiar with the process for checking and preparing the file they should be able to do this independently. One drawback of SketchUp is that it is not straightforward to produce a 3D printable model file from a design as it is a surface modeller.

We recommend SketchUp for students in upper KS2 and upwards although younger students will need support in checking and preparing their models for 3D printing. Shapes can be moved and grouped to build up the 3D drawing. Models are created by drawing 2D shapes on one of the 3D planes then pushing and pulling the shapes into 3 dimensional forms. SketchUp is a powerful 3D CAD program that is simpler for students to learn than many other Professional CAD software.

Sketchup for schools tutorial