Best Practices for Custom Prompts
When creating a text prompt in one of SketchUp’s AI solutions, it’s important to provide clear instructions through natural language. High-quality output from text prompts is best achieved by balancing how you describe your subject, how your prompt is composed, and technical style.
Building a Prompt
Properly structuring your prompts can help make sure the output you generate is high-quality and representative of your creative vision and technical style. For consistent results, try using this structure when creating a prompt:
[Subject] + [Action/Environment] + [Composition/Camera] + [Lighting + Style]
The table below provides a few examples of effective text prompts of varying lengths that use this structure:
Length | Prompt Concept |
|---|---|
Short | Unique organic city |
Medium Short | Modern skyscraper, glass facades, aerial view |
Medium | Cutting-edge cityscape, sustainable design, cinematic lighting, shot on 35mm film |
Medium Long | Futuristic masterplan, flying vehicles, vibrant environment, low-angle heroic shot |
Long | Mixed-use development with seamless green spaces, sunset golden hour lighting, sharp focus, architectural photography style |
Prompting Tips for Professional Results
Beyond the basic structure, there are a few other things to keep in mind when crafting your text prompts.
Control the Camera - Don't just describe the building you want to create. Describe how the camera sees it. You can use photographic terms to control the depth and perspective. Examples include:
Wide-angle lens: Ideal for showing vast masterplans or making small interiors feel spacious.
Shallow depth of field (f/1.8): Blurs the background to pull focus toward a specific architectural detail or material.
Low-angle shot: Makes skyscrapers and structures look tall, powerful, and "heroic."
Design Your Lighting - Light defines the mood of your SketchUp model. Be specific about the source and quality of light. The following examples can grant a specific lighting quality to your prompt:
Golden Hour: Provides warm, long shadows and soft highlights—perfect for exterior renders.
Chiaroscuro: Uses high-contrast, dramatic lighting to emphasize 3D form and massing.
Cool Twilight: Ideal for showing interior lighting glowing through glass facades.
Emphasize Materiality - Moves beyond simple material names. Use descriptive adjectives to tell the AI how surfaces should react to light.
Instead of… | Use… |
|---|---|
glass | frosted glazing, reflective tinted glass |
wood | weathered reclaimed cedar, polished walnut |
metal | brushed anodized aluminium, matte black steel |
Use Positive Framing - AI models respond better to what should be there rather than what shouldn't. Avoid negative statements “No cars in the street,” and use positive language like “Clean, quiet, urban, walkway.”
Iterative Refining – Don’t try to write the perfect prompt on the first try. Use a feedback loop to make data-driven decisions based on your previous prompts to sharpen your output until it matches your vision.
You can utilize the prompting tips on this page with any of SketchUp’s AI tools. Since AI Render is built on Nano Banana technology, take a look at The ultimate Nano Banana prompting guide for even more tips on how to generate high-quality visuals when rendering your designs.