Visiofy Articles

How to Make Your SketchUp Models Look Perfect in Visiofy

Written by Visiofy | Oct 9, 2025 7:25:44 PM

 

If you’ve imported a SketchUp model into Visiofy and noticed that something looks a little off — you’re not alone. The good news is, it’s not a problem with Visiofy itself, but with how the model was built in SketchUp. With just a few simple fixes, your designs will look exactly the way you intended. Here's a quick model prep checklist:

1. Check Doors and Accessibility

In Visiofy, you can only enter rooms that have open doors on Sketchup. If a door is modeled closed, you won’t be able to walk through it. Before exporting, open all doors to spaces you want to make accessible.

2. Avoid Parallel Faces (Z-Fighting)

When two surfaces sit directly on top of each other, Visiofy struggles to decide which one to show — causing flickering or z-fighting.

Try to avoid overlapping or duplicate geometry. You may need to test-upload your model to Visiofy to identify problem areas, then fix and re-upload.

3. Limit Large Flat Planes

Visiofy automatically limits the total surface area of experiences for performance reasons.
Avoid modeling large, empty surfaces like flat ground planes — this leaves more capacity for the detailed, interesting parts of your design.

4. Fix Face Orientation

Before exporting, make sure that all faces in your model are oriented correctly — this ensures that Visiofy renders your model accurately.

In SketchUp, each surface has a front (white) and a back (blue). The front of every face should point outward, and the back should face inward. This process is called checking the normals. You can learn more from SketchUp's YouTube tutorial below:

To verify your face orientation:

  1. Go to View > Face Style > Monochrome — this allows you to see which sides are facing the wrong way (in monochrome mode, face fronts are white and face backs are dark gray by defult)

  2. Any dark gray surfaces visible on the outside of your model indicate reversed faces.

  3. To fix them, right-click the surface and select Reverse Faces.

For complex models, you can use the Solid Inspector 2 extension to automatically detect and repair reversed faces — a faster way to prepare your model for export

Tips:

💡Intersecting geometry doesn’t usually break your model, but it can look messy and upleasant to the eye. Whenever possible, adjust intersecting parts to create cleaner, more visually appealing results.

💡For glass to appear correctly from both sides in Visiofy, you’ll need to model two separate panes — one facing inward and one facing outward.

Once Done, Export and Upload

Once your model is clean and optimized:

FAQ: Optimizing Your SketchUp Model for Visiofy