SketchUp extension · production stable
MagicMesh
Mesh generation from complex boundary shapes — including the curved, concave and steeply graded ones that defeat a standard sandbox tool.
- Current version5.1.0
- ReleasedDecember 2025
- First releaseSeptember 2025
- LineageSplit from SABOS, November 2024
- HostSketchUp, via Extension Manager
- Default grid12 × 12, Pre-Smooth + EdgeOpt
Key features
What the extension does, in the terms a planner or a modeller would use.
Rock-solid stability
Tested across thousands of complex shapes, with extensive error handling and graceful fallbacks for edge cases.
Fix broken boundaries
Detect and repair gaps, orphan edges, spurs and duplicates in boundary geometry in one click.
Multiple mesh strategies
Pre-Smooth + EdgeOpt, EdgeOpt V2, Standard, Soap Bubble physics and Rib-based, for the surface quality the job needs.
Multi-shape support
Generate separate meshes for adjacent shapes, or combine them with automatic hole detection for complex layouts.
Boundary conforming
Meshes follow curved, concave and irregular boundaries without gaps or overlapping faces.
Line style options
Mesh and boundary lines as Standard, Dashes, Thick, Dots or Hidden, for presentation-ready output.
What is MagicMesh?
The short version, for anyone deciding whether it fits the way they work.
MagicMesh is a SketchUp extension that turns closed boundary edges into smooth, mathematically precise mesh surfaces. It began as SABOS — Shape Analysis and Build-Out System — and has been reworked through real project work to handle geometry that breaks simpler tools.
Whether the input is a plain rectangle or a whale-shaped curve with an extreme Z gradient, it applies Delaunay triangulation, Laplacian smoothing and membrane physics simulation to produce clean, optimised geometry rather than a field of slivers.
The companion ShapeFixer toolset gets boundaries analysis-ready first, detecting and repairing gaps, orphan edges, spurs and duplicates before any mesh is generated.
Installation
Five minutes, once. The extension installs like any other .rbz.
- Download the
MagicMesh.rbzextension file from the SketchUp Extension Warehouse or from ViewBuild. - In SketchUp, open
Window → Extension Manager. - Click
Install Extensionand select the downloaded .rbz file. - Restart SketchUp to complete installation.
- Open MagicMesh from the toolbar, or via
Extensions → MagicMesh.
Version history
What changed, and when.
Line styles and tag organisation
- Line style dropdowns — mesh and boundary lines as Standard, Dashes, Thick, Dots or Hidden
- Tag organisation — a MagicMeshes folder, with Mesh_Path_XXXXX for boundaries and Mesh_XXXXX_XXXXX for generated meshes
- Pre-Smooth + EdgeOpt default — new default strategy combining boundary pre-smoothing with edge optimisation
Mesh strategy system
Introduced multiple mesh generation strategies to handle extreme Z gradients.
- Strategy selector — Pre-Smooth+EdgeOpt, EdgeOpt V2, Standard, Soap Bubble, Rib-based
- Laplacian smoothing — interior cells move toward neighbour average Z over multiple iterations
- Gradient-limited interpolation — clamps the maximum Z difference between adjacent cells
- Soap bubble physics — membrane tension simulation solving the Laplace equation with Gauss-Seidel relaxation
Multi-shape detection
- Multi-shape mode — separate meshes per shape, or combined with the largest as outer and the rest as holes
- Hole clipping — inner closed shapes automatically create mesh holes
- Adjacent shape handling — shared edges treated as boundaries between shapes
MagicMesh launch
Split from SABOS: ShapeFixer handles analysis and cleanup, MagicMesh handles mesh generation.
- Dedicated toolbar icons — separate icons for ShapeFixer and MagicMesh
- Independent control panels — each tool has its own HtmlDialog interface
Earlier releases, as SABOS
Mesh placement and hole detection
- Mesh placement mode — World Coordinates or Local to Group
- Shape relationship analysis — outer boundary versus inner holes
Single-button control panel
- Single toolbar button — opens an HtmlDialog control panel with all functions
- Stored boundary coordinates — original geometry can be deleted once the boundary is set
- Spur detection — iterative dead-end edge finding
- Check for issues — finds orphans, spurs and duplicates in one click
Boundary conforming grid
- 12 × 12 default grid — standard resolution balancing quality and performance
- CCW winding — proper counter-clockwise face orientation throughout
- Edge IDW Z interpolation — inverse distance weighting for smooth Z transitions
Three-pass mesh with edge blending
Three-pass algorithm for smooth boundary-to-interior transitions.
Delaunay triangulation
- Bowyer-Watson algorithm — incremental Delaunay triangulation
- Circumcircle test — ensures optimal triangle angles
Toolbar version
- Native toolbar UI — separate buttons for each operation
- Z modes — IDW convex dome, IDW concave bowl, flat, auto-fit
- Curvature scale slider — 0 to 90 degrees
SABOS initial release
Shape Analysis and Build-Out System — first release.
- Path analysis — check whether selected lines form a closed shape
- Gap detection — find open endpoints and prompt to connect
- Orphan detection — find disconnected or duplicate edges
- Cutout support — inner closed shapes treated as holes
- Point-in-polygon — ray casting for boundary detection
Also from ViewBuild
Both plugins came out of our own shadow report and visualisation work.
VisiShadow
Shadow coverage percentages for private open space and overshadowing — the engine behind our council shadow reports.
Bespoke softwareBuilt to order
Web apps, native macOS and iOS tools, APIs and integrations. When a workflow has no product behind it, we write the product.