SketchUp and SVG: how to import and export

SketchUp’s help centre has a table of the file types SketchUp imports and exports, with the subscription each needs, and SVG is not in it. What the table does list are three formats an SVG converts to cleanly: DXF for outlines, STL for a solid, and PNG for a picture to trace over. Going the other way, SketchUp exports DXF and vector PDF, and both convert to SVG.

The facts about SketchUp on this page are from SketchUp’s help centre, on pages last updated on 29 September 2026. The menu names are as the help centre gives them.

What SketchUp works with

From SketchUp’s table of file types and the subscription each needs:

File type	Extensions	Plans
CAD files	.dwg, .dxf	Go, Pro, Studio
Image files	.jpg, .png, .tif, .bmp, .psd, .tga, .eps	Free (.jpg and .png only), Go, Pro, Studio
PDF files	.pdf	Free, Go, Pro, Studio
STL files	.stl	Free, Go, Pro, Studio
COLLADA files	.dae	Go, Pro, Studio

The table goes on through 3DS, FBX, OBJ and others. There is no row for SVG.

So the route depends on your plan and on what you want in the model:

You want	Convert the SVG to	Works on
The outline as edges, to push and pull yourself	DXF	Go, Pro, Studio
A solid of a set thickness	STL	Every plan, Free included
A picture to trace over	PNG	Every plan, Free included

SVG to SketchUp as a DXF

A DXF carries the outlines as lines, which is what SketchUp builds from.

1. Convert the file with SVG to DXF. Check the width it shows in millimetres, or type the real width you want.
2. In SketchUp, select File > Import.
3. Locate the file and select AutoCAD Files as the file type.
4. Click Options. Choose the scale the file uses: here, Millimeters. The full list is Model Units, Inches, Feet, Yards, Miles, Millimeters, Centimeters, Meters and Kilometers.
5. Click OK, then Import.

The converter writes its DXF in millimetres and says so in the file’s header. We checked a 60 mm test drawing: the header carried $INSUNITS 4, the code for millimetres, and the extents ran from 1 to 59, the true size of the artwork. SketchUp’s dialog still asks, so answer Millimeters. If the model arrives 25.4 times too large or too small, the unit was read as inches or the reverse.

Other options in the same dialog, as SketchUp’s help describes them:

• Preserve Drawing Origin places the geometry at the origin defined in the file. Left blank, it lands near SketchUp’s origin.
• Import Layers as Groups makes a group for each layer in the file. With “One layer for each colour” ticked in the converter, each colour of the SVG becomes a layer, so each arrives as its own group and tag.
• Import Linework Flattened sets the height of everything to zero.
• Merge Coplanar Faces removes triangulated lines from planes.

What comes through

The converter saves every shape as its outline: a polyline, written as a POLYLINE entity in the old R12 form of DXF, made of straight pieces that stay within 0.05 mm of the true curve. Fills, line widths and dashes are not carried.

SketchUp’s help lists the CAD entities it supports, among them lines, arcs, circles, ellipses, splines, layers and “Polyline-based Solids”, and lists text and dimensions among those it does not. Plain polylines are not named in either list, and we have not been able to try this file in SketchUp. So check the first import. If nothing arrives, the polylines were not read, and the STL route below does not depend on them.

Two known issues are worth quoting from SketchUp’s own page:

• “The size or scale may not import as expected. This is especially true if you weren’t sure what unit of measurement was used to create the CAD file.” Here you do know: millimetres.
• “Lines may not connect to form faces. Hunting down all these little gaps can be difficult.”

The second is the reason to tidy the SVG first. Shapes you want as faces should be closed paths. Convert text to paths in your drawing program, since text is not carried: in Inkscape, select it and choose Path, Object to Path. Delete background rectangles and anything hidden, because the converter’s DXF has no fills and every outline shows. The SVG viewer lists what a file holds.

SketchUp also advises keeping CAD files small, noting that “files larger than 15MB may cause performance issues”. A simple drawing is nowhere near that: the test file was 7 kB.

SVG to SketchUp as an STL

When the aim is a flat shape with thickness, such as a sign, a logo plate or a part to print, skip the outline stage.

1. Open SVG to STL, choose the SVG, and set the width and the thickness in millimetres.
2. In SketchUp, select File > Import and pick the STL.
3. Optionally choose STereoLithography Files (.stl) as the type and click Options.

SketchUp’s STL import options include STL Units, where “the default unit is millimeters”, which matches what the converter writes. Merge Coplanar Faces is the other one to tick: SketchUp says “in most cases, you want to select this checkbox, which merges all faces on the same plane into one face”. An STL is made of triangles, so without it the flat top of the shape can arrive as many triangular faces.

The STL holds one thickness for everything. It is checked to be watertight before you download it, and a simple design is small: a 60 mm star in a ring, 3 mm thick, was 500 triangles and 25 kB.

SVG to SketchUp as a picture

The Free plan takes .jpg and .png images. SVG to PNG draws the SVG at the pixel size you ask for, with a transparent background. SketchUp’s help says to “size images no larger than 1024 x 1024 pixels”, the largest it imports without scaling the picture down, so ask for 1,024 pixels on the longer side. Import the PNG as an image and draw over it with SketchUp’s own tools. It is slower than the other routes, but it works on every plan and suits a simple shape or a floor plan you are going to redraw anyway.

SketchUp to SVG

SketchUp writes two vector formats that convert to SVG.

By way of DXF

1. Put the model in a standard view. SketchUp’s help says to use Camera > Standard Views “with Parallel projection enabled”, which “can help make sure the scale of your model is preserved”.
2. Select File > Export > 2D Graphic.
3. Select the .dxf file type.
4. Under Options, leave Full Scale selected under Drawing Scale & Size, and click OK.
5. Click Export.

Then convert the file with DXF to SVG. It reads the units from the DXF when the file states them, lets you pick the unit when it does not, and writes the SVG at real size with arcs and circles kept as true curves. It reads ASCII DXF, the kind that opens as text, and tells you if a file is not.

One caution. SketchUp’s help says that in a CAD export “SketchUp faces are exported as a triangulated polyface mesh”. The converter draws lines, polylines, arcs, circles, ellipses and splines, and it leaves out meshes and 3D faces, counting them in its notes. We have not run a SketchUp export through it, so read the notes beside the result: if the edges you want are not in the SVG, use the PDF route.

CAD export, like CAD import, is for the Go, Pro and Studio plans.

By way of PDF

SketchUp also exports 2D vector drawings as PDF or EPS. Its help warns that “graphic features that rely on raster images, such as textures, shadows, smooth shading, backgrounds, and transparency, can’t be exported to PDF and EPS vector files”. For line work that is no loss. Convert the PDF with PDF to SVG, which keeps the page’s vector paths as paths.

For a laser cutter or a cutting machine, check the size of the result before cutting: open it in the SVG viewer, and set an exact size with Resize SVG if it is off.

Problems

What you see	Likely cause	What to do
SVG is not in the Import list	SVG is not among the file types SketchUp lists	Convert to DXF, STL or PNG first
No AutoCAD Files option	CAD import needs a Go, Pro or Studio plan	Use the STL or PNG route
The import is far too big or too small	Wrong unit chosen in Options	Import again with Millimeters
Outlines arrive but no faces	The lines do not close	Close the paths in the SVG, or use the STL route
Lettering is missing	Text is not carried	Convert text to paths first
Extra shapes appear	Hidden or background shapes in the SVG	Delete them before converting
The flat faces of an STL are split into triangles	Coplanar faces were not merged	Tick Merge Coplanar Faces in the STL options

SVG vs DXF explains what each format can and cannot hold, which is most of what goes missing on this journey.