3 types
Models · materials · textures
Three tabs sharing one folder tree, one search box and one thumbnail view.
Free
Project ManagerSKP · SKM · texture library
Browse models, materials and textures in one window. Thumbnails are packed into the folder itself, so the whole studio shares them.
Free with your account — download the Lotuz Arch installer for Clear / Library / Plugin Manager.
Requires: SketchUp 2025+ · Windows
Inside SketchUp
Library Manager inside SketchUp
Models, materials and textures in one browser — shared over the studio drive.
Root
Point it at your own library
A real folder tree on disk — local drive or studio share.
Library Manager inside SketchUp
The Library Manager window (no folder selected yet)
Cache
Build thumbnails once
Hit Build Thumb for a folder: a background job with progress and cancel, pack written in place.
Search
Find by name, resize tiles
The search box and the thumbnail-size slider sit on the title bar.
3 types
Models · materials · textures
Three tabs sharing one folder tree, one search box and one thumbnail view.
Root
Point it at your own library
A real folder tree on disk — local drive or studio share.
Cache
Build thumbnails once
Hit Build Thumb for a folder: a background job with progress and cancel, pack written in place.
Search
Find by name, resize tiles
The search box and the thumbnail-size slider sit on the title bar.
Real captures
Shot from the live plugins
No mock marketing UI — real SketchUp / 3ds Max / Photoshop panels from Lotuz workflows.
Audience
Who it is for
Architects and interior designers
Reusable models scattered across drives. You need to see the thumbnail before inserting, instead of opening files to remember what they are.
Studios on a shared drive
Put the library on the NAS and point everyone at the same root. Thumbnails are packed into the folder itself, so whoever opens it sees them — no per-machine rebuild.
Freelancers
Browse, search by name, insert — and write a selection back into the library so you never model it twice.
Whoever curates materials
.skm files and textures live in the same browser as models and drop straight into the scene.
Workflow
How you work — step by step
- 01
Open Library Manager
Lotuz Dashboard → Library → Open Library Manager. A separate window, so it does not crowd the panel.
- 02
Point it at a root
Pick your library folder — local disk or a studio network path. Models, materials and textures each have their own root.
- 03
Build thumbnails once
Hit “Build Thumb” for the folders you use. It runs in the background with progress and a cancel button, and writes a pack into that folder.
- 04
Browse and insert
Search by name, look at the thumbnails, insert a model or load a material or texture straight into the model.
- 05
Write back to the library
“Export Selection” saves what you have selected as a .skp in the folder you choose — the library grows with the project.
Deep dive
Features in depth
▸
Three asset types, one window
Models, .skm materials and image textures get their own tabs but share the folder tree, the search box and the thumbnail view.
▸
Thumbnails in three tiers
It prefers the thumbnail Windows already has; failing that it asks SketchUp to write the definition’s own image; only then does it render an isometric view. An unfamiliar folder still shows pictures.
▸
The thumbnail pack lives in the folder
The cache is `.lotuz_thumbs.idx` plus `.lotuz_thumbs.pack`, written into the library folder itself and keyed by file name. Rename or move the folder and the pack travels with it.
▸
Read in batches, not one call at a time
Thumbnails are fetched in batches: open the pack once, then seek to each image. That is the difference between smooth browsing and stuttering over a network share.
▸
It reads the image inside a .skm
A .skm file is a zip archive; the tool pulls the embedded preview, or the sidecar image next to it, and scales it to 256 px.
▸
Real files, not a shadow database
Create, rename, move, delete, reveal in Explorer — every action goes to the file system. There is no separate index to corrupt or drift out of sync.
Specs
In numbers
- Licence
- Free — a lotuz.ai account is all you need
- Formats
- .skp models · .skm materials · image textures
- Library root
- Configurable — local disk or network path
- Thumbnails
- 256 px, JPEG inside the pack
- Cache files
- `.lotuz_thumbs.idx` + `.lotuz_thumbs.pack`, in the folder itself
- Building
- Per folder, with progress and cancel
- Write back
- Export Selection → .skp into the folder you pick
FAQ
Common questions
Does it work with a library on a network drive?+
Yes — that is the main case it was built for. The thumbnail pack sits next to the files on the share, so every machine sees it immediately.
The first open of a big folder is slow+
A folder without a pack has to generate each thumbnail on the spot. Press “Build Thumb” once for that folder and later visits read straight from the pack.
Will it modify my original files?+
Only when you ask it to: rename, move and delete are real operations on disk. Browsing and inserting are read-only.
Is there AI tagging?+
No. This release is browsing, name search, previews, insert and write-back. We do not advertise features that are not there.
Do I need the Arch plan?+
No. Library is in the free tier with Clean and Utilities.
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