PBR Materials Just Landed in the FOCUSED 3D Library

You know the routine. You need a white subway tile or a Calacatta countertop, so you search the web, download a JPG that looks fine as a thumbnail, import it, and then spend ten minutes guessing at the scale until the tiles stop looking like bathroom-sized bricks.

And even when you get the size right, it still looks flat. A polished marble and a honed one read exactly the same, because the picture is the only thing the material knows about.

That's the problem I set out to fix. The FOCUSED 3D Library now has PBR materials, 279 of them in this first set, and every one comes into SketchUp at its real-world size.

The FOCUSED 3D Library extension open to the Materials folder, showing 279 items as spheres: stone, metals, gold, copper and brick — The Materials folder in the extension: 279 materials, each previewed as a ball so you can see the finish before you paint it on.

Key Takeaways:

279 PBR materials: tile, natural stone, countertops, wood flooring, brick, metal, fabric, leather, pavers, roofing and more, with hundreds more coming over the next few weeks.
Real-world size: a 3 x 6 subway tile paints on as 3 x 6, with no scaling and no guessing.
More than a picture: each material carries the roughness, relief and reflection maps that make a render look real.
28 are free: a free FOCUSED account can use them, and a 3D Library membership unlocks all 279 plus over 4,500 premade 3D objects.
You need extension version 1.1.0: update the FOCUSED 3D Library extension and the Materials folder appears in the Online Library.

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Table of Contents

Three figures: 279 PBR materials, 28 free with a free account, over 4,500 premade 3D objects — Members get all of it. A free account gets the 28 Free-tagged materials.

What PBR Actually Means for Your SketchUp Model

PBR stands for physically based rendering. Skip the jargon and here's what it means for you: the material describes the surface, not just its color.

A regular SketchUp texture is one image. A PBR material adds a few more maps that tell SketchUp and your renderer how that surface behaves in light:

Roughness decides whether a surface is glossy or matte, so polished brass throws a sharp highlight and honed marble stays soft.
Normal (relief) gives the surface its texture: the grout lines in a tile, the grain in oak, the waves in a handmade zellige.
Ambient occlusion darkens the little crevices, so joints and seams read as real depth.
Metallic tells the renderer which surfaces are metal, so brass, copper and steel reflect like metal instead of plastic.

Every preview in the library is a ball rendered from those exact maps, under the same studio light. What you see on the card is what the material really does.

Green zellige tile and hammered brass, each shown as five map squares (color, normal, roughness, ambient occlusion, metallic) next to the material ball they produce — Five maps, one material. The zellige has no metal, so its metallic map is black; the brass is all metal, so its map is white. Roughness is what makes the zellige glaze shine and the brass glow.

Twelve material spheres: green zellige, white subway tile, Calacatta Gold, red brick, polished brass, polished copper, Super White quartzite, white oak herringbone, cognac leather, rust velvet, terrazzo and walnut — Same light, different surfaces: the brass and copper mirror the room, the marble keeps a soft sheen, and the leather and velvet stay matte. That difference comes from the roughness and metallic maps, not the color.

SketchUp added PBR materials in SketchUp 2025, and these use them. If you haven't spent time with the new material panel yet, I walked through it in Where Did My Materials Go in SketchUp 2025?

Real-World Size, Right Out of the Box

This is the part I'm most proud of, and the part that saves you the most time.

Every material in the library was built at its real size. A 4 x 24 herringbone floor has 4 x 24 inch boards. A 7 1/2 inch plank is 7 1/2 inches wide. A 3 x 6 subway tile is 3 x 6 with real grout joints between the tiles. When it lands on a face, it lands at that size and lined up from the start.

Medium brown oak flooring in three layouts: 7 1/2 inch plank, 4 x 24 herringbone and 4 x 24 chevron — The same medium brown oak as a 7 1/2 inch plank, a 4 x 24 herringbone and a 4 x 24 chevron. Each one paints on with boards at those exact sizes.

Have you ever had to explain to a client why the tile in your rendering looks twice as big as the sample in their hand? That conversation is over. Click any card and the detail panel tells you the material's real size, finish and relief, with a picture of it installed, before you ever paint it on.

Eight subway tile spheres: glossy white 3 x 6, matte white 3 x 6, beveled glossy white 3 x 6, glossy white 3 x 12, glossy white herringbone, Carrara marble polished 3 x 6, Calacatta Gold marble 3 x 12 and glossy black 3 x 6 — Eight of the eleven subway tiles. Glossy, matte and beveled read differently in the same light, and the 3 x 12s are visibly longer than the 3 x 6s because each one is built at its real size.

The FOCUSED 3D Library detail panel for Glossy White Subway 3 x 6: a large material ball, gallery thumbnails, a Load into this model button, and rows for repeat 36 x 36 in, relief, polished finish and interior wall use — The detail panel for the glossy white 3 x 6 subway: its repeat size, relief and finish, before you paint it on.

What's in the First 279

I started with the materials designers reach for on almost every project: the kitchen, the bath and the outside of the house.

Bar chart of materials per folder: Tile 53, Countertop 45, Metal 44, Natural Stone 40, Wood 24, Brick 22, Wood Flooring 22, Ceramic 10, Fabric 10, Pavers 7 — Tile, countertops and metal lead the first release. Countertop stones also live in Natural Stone, so they count in both folders.

Tile: wall and floor tile, including zellige in a dozen colors, glossy and matte white subway, Carrara marble subway, and the dark green and navy glazes that are everywhere right now.
Countertops: granite, marble, quartz and quartzite in one folder, including Calacatta Gold, Carrara honed, soapstone and Taj Mahal.
Metal: brass, bronze, copper, gold, chrome, stainless and blackened steel, from polished to brushed to antique.
Wood and flooring: oak, walnut and more, plus wood floors in plank, herringbone and chevron.
Exterior: brick, pavers, roofing, siding and decking, stucco, concrete, pool and lawn.

Some materials live in more than one folder, because that's how you look for them. Calacatta Gold is a natural stone, so it's in Natural Stone, and it's also in Countertop, where you'll actually go looking for it.

The FOCUSED 3D Library extension searching subway inside the Wall Tile folder, showing 11 subway tile material balls, two of them tagged Free — Searching "subway" inside Wall Tile brings up all eleven subway tiles. The two tagged Free work with a free FOCUSED account.

How to Paint With Them

If you already use the FOCUSED 3D Library extension for components, you already know how this works. Materials sit right next to the objects in the Online Library.

Sample board flat lay of five library materials: Calacatta Gold countertop, glossy white 3 x 6 subway tile, white oak herringbone floor, walnut cabinets and white oak shelves, with a 12 inch scale bar — Five library materials laid out like a sample board, all at the same scale: the 3 x 6 subway, the 4 x 24 herringbone boards and the marble veining are true to size next to each other.

Four steps: update to 1.1.0, open Online then Materials, select faces, click a material — Nothing selected at step 3? Clicking a material loads the Paint Bucket with it instead.

Open the FOCUSED 3D Library panel and switch to Online.
Open the Materials folder and browse by Interior or Exterior, or just search for "zellige" or "herringbone".
Select the faces, groups or components you want to paint.
Click the material. It downloads and paints your selection at real size.

Nothing selected? Click a material anyway and SketchUp hands you the Paint Bucket already loaded with it, so you can paint face by face.

SketchUp 2027 showing a kitchen with walnut base cabinets, a Calacatta Gold countertop, glossy white subway tile to the ceiling, white oak shelves and a white oak herringbone floor, with the FOCUSED 3D Library panel open beside it — Every surface in this kitchen came from the library: walnut cabinets, Calacatta Gold countertop, glossy white subway tile, white oak shelves and a herringbone floor, each painted on at real size.

How to Get Them

Materials need the latest version of the extension, version 1.1.0. On an older version, the Materials folder simply won't show up. Download the latest version from the FOCUSED 3D Library Extension page and install it the same way you installed the first one.

Then it depends on your account:

Free FOCUSED account: 28 of the materials are tagged Free, and they're yours to use.
FOCUSED 3D Library member: you have all 279 right now, every new material as we add it, and over 4,500 premade 3D objects.

Not a member yet? You can join the FOCUSED 3D Library and get every material along with the full object library.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are PBR materials in SketchUp?

PBR (physically based rendering) materials carry more than a color image. They add roughness, normal, ambient occlusion and metallic maps that describe how the surface reacts to light, so gloss, relief and reflections look real. SketchUp added PBR materials in SketchUp 2025.

How many materials are in the FOCUSED 3D Library?

The first set has 279 materials, 217 for interiors and 62 for exteriors. Hundreds more are being added over the next few weeks.

Are the materials free?

28 of them are tagged Free and work with a free FOCUSED account. A FOCUSED 3D Library membership unlocks all 279, every new material as it's added, and over 4,500 premade 3D objects.

Why don't I see the Materials folder?

Materials need version 1.1.0 of the FOCUSED 3D Library extension. Download the latest version from the extension page, install it, and the Materials folder appears in the Online Library.

Do the materials come in at the right scale?

Yes. Every material was built at its real-world size, so a 3 x 6 subway tile paints on as 3 x 6 and a 7 1/2 inch plank is 7 1/2 inches wide. Each card's detail panel shows the real size before you use it.

This first set of 279 is just the start, and hundreds more are already on the way. Update the extension, open the Materials folder, and paint your next kitchen with tile and stone that look like the real thing, at the size they really are.