What are Fast Styles?

Let’s say you’re presenting an idea in SketchUp, but perhaps you’d prefer a loose conceptual look or a hand-drawn visualization — you’d rather not show what you’ve created in a way that makes it feel finished or final. Styles in SketchUp control the display settings which alter the way your model appears.

You can choose from a collection of predefined Styles, mix attributes of various Styles to make your own unique Style, and assign Styles to Scenes for handy access. The thing is, some Styles render faster than others. Because of this, you may want to use certain Styles (or Style settings) in certain situations during modeling and presentation work.

The Style shown above is called “PSO Vignette”; you can find it in the “Assorted Styles” category of the Styles Browser. This Style looks great, but it’s meant for illustration — not navigation. (Mountain Lake Retreat model by MB Architecture via 3D Warehouse)

This led us to the idea for Fast Styles: a combination of Style settings that won’t slow you down while modeling. In SketchUp 2015, you’ll notice a small green stopwatch icon in the bottom right corner of a Style thumbnail that meets the criteria of an official “Fast Style.” SketchUp now auto-detects Styles that use less processing power — this earns them the new badge.

These Styles are Fast Styles; note the new green badge.

To create your own Fast Style, you’ll need to get your hands dirty in the Styles Browser. When creating a Fast Style, you should avoid Style choices that will cause performance decline as your model complexity increases — settings like Sketchy Edges, Profiles, and Watermarks. Check out our Knowledge Center to learn more about these settings and Fast Styles, and remember to save the changes to your newly configured Styles!

However, a Fast Style doesn’t mean a boring Style. We whipped up a few custom Fast Styles and tossed them into this SketchUp model. Go to Window > Styles and jump into the "Select", "Edit", and "Mix" tabs to see what's there and mix some new Styles of your own.

This Style was created by simply changing the edges for the default “Blueprint” Style. The white Edge Setting from the “Camo” Style was applied to a copy of the Blueprint Style to create this new fast version.

A Style like the Fast Blueprint above might be a good choice when you want to present your SketchUp model in a stylized fashion, but you’d also like the benefits of smooth navigation and Scene transitions. Of course, you can still use Styles that have not earned the Fast Style badge — the benefit of working with Styles and Scenes together is that it’s easy to jump from a Scene meant for illustration to a Scene you might want to interact with. Now, with Fast Styles, you've got another trick up your sleeve for working and presenting quickly in SketchUp.

Posted by Josh Reilly, SketchUp Team