The connector sends your model through component buckets, and each bucket accepts specific kinds of geometry. Rhino and SketchUp structure object data quite differently, so the rules are different in each tool — find your section below. The acceptance table at the end summarises both.
In both tools: model in real-world units at real-world size, and purge unused geometry before sending. If the connector warns that an object carries an unusually large number of faces, see Simplifying Heavy Geometry.
Rhino
Solid elements — Wall, Slab, Beam, Column, Ramp, Finishes, Opening. Model these as closed polysurfaces, extrusions, or closed meshes. Open surfaces are rejected with a warning (“does not support open surfaces”) — cap your geometry so it’s watertight.
Compound elements — Door, Window, Stair, Railing, Lift. Model these as blocks or groups, so each door or stair arrives as one element. Use block definitions for repeated elements — instances are far more efficient. (Roof is flexible: block, group, or a closed solid all work.)
Curves and lines are for Site Parameters only. Lines and polylines go in the Site Parameters bucket — as Gridlines, the Site Boundary, or Setbacks. No other bucket accepts curve geometry, so 2D linework elsewhere in the model won’t send.
Groups. You can group solid elements (walls, slabs, beams, columns, finishes) for your own organisation and still send them — but the grouping itself isn’t kept: they arrive in GingerBIM as individual elements. One caution: a group whose members sit on layers that map to different categories can’t be auto-categorised — keep a group’s contents on consistent layers, or add it to a bucket manually.
Organise with layers. Name your layers after what they contain (wall::RC, A-Window-Louvre, SLAB) — the Auto-categorise button reads layer names and fills the buckets for you. See Categorising Objects.
SketchUp
Solids are closed groups or components. For solid elements (Wall, Slab, Beam, Column, Ramp, Finishes, Opening), the group or component must be a true solid: manifold, with a single volume. A group containing two or more separate solid bodies (a disjoint solid) is not accepted — split it so each element is its own solid.
Use components for compound elements — doors, windows, stairs, roofs, railings, lifts. A component arrives as one element: categorise it once, one schedule row, one drawing tag. Components are also SketchUp’s mechanism for repetition, so identical doors stay identical.
Non-solid groups are treated as informal organisation. SketchUp users group things loosely all the time — that’s fine, but the connector doesn’t treat such a group as an element. On send, the group wrapper is dropped and its contents are evaluated individually. Don’t rely on a loose group to represent a building element; make it a solid or a component instead.
Loose faces and edges can’t be published as elements. Geometry that’s just faces in a group can only go into the Generic bucket, where it’s sent as a single mesh. If something should be a wall or a slab, make it a solid group/component first.
Organise with tags. Tag each group/component with what it is (Wall::RC, window, FLOR) and Auto-categorise sorts them into buckets from the tag names. An object’s own tag is what counts; untagged objects fall back to the tag of the group that contains them. See Categorising Objects.
Openings for doors and windows
The Opening bucket holds placeholders for GingerBIM’s door and window generator. Instead of modelling a finished door or window, you model the volume where one will go, and the generator uses it to place the door or window on the GingerBIM platform.
Model one simple box per opening. Make it the opening’s width × height × the wall’s thickness, square to its wall, with its bottom face at sill or threshold level. The generator reads the box’s position, its orientation along the wall, and its width, height, and depth.
Keep it a rectangular box. GingerBIM replaces whatever you send with its bounding box — the generator only works with boxes. An arched opening or an oddly shaped solid simply ends up as its box, so model the box you want.
Naming. Put openings on their own layer or tag — OPENING or A-Openings — and Auto-categorise sorts them for you. Watch compound names: words are read left to right, so WALL_OPENING goes to Wall and WINDOW_OPENING to Window. See Categorising Objects.
Geometry acceptance by component
A “solid” means one watertight volume. In SketchUp, a group that reports as solid but contains two separate bodies still won’t be accepted — one element, one volume.
