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GingerBIM accepts three types of model data: SketchUp, Rhino, and IFC. For SketchUp and Rhino, a dedicated connector — a plugin with a GingerBIM panel inside the modelling tool — sends your model straight into a GingerBIM project and can load models back into the file. IFC files are uploaded directly instead.

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Installing a connector

  1. Open the Connectors page in the GingerBIM app.
  2. Download the connector for your tool — SketchUp or Rhino — and install it. Both Windows and macOS are supported; on Windows the connector keeps itself up to date automatically, on macOS you install updates manually.
  3. Open the GingerBIM panel inside SketchUp or Rhino and click Sign in — it opens your browser to authorise, then returns you to the connector.

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Sending a model

The connector organises your model into component buckets — Wall, Slab, Beam, Column, Door, Window, and so on — and sends whatever is in the buckets:
  1. Add objects to their component buckets. Use Auto-categorise to sort objects automatically from your layer/tag names, or add them to a bucket manually — see Categorising Objects.
  2. Click Send, then pick the GingerBIM project and model to publish into (or create them from the connector — a new model takes a Building and a Discipline). Confirm with Publish.
  3. Each publish creates a new version of the model in GingerBIM — your history stays intact, and collaborators see the update immediately.
Each bucket accepts specific geometry — a wall must be a closed solid, a door should be a block or component — so before you send, check the Modelling Guidelines for your tool.
When the slabs you’re sending have changed, the connector offers to recalculate the building’s levels from them — levels drive floor plans and space assignment in GingerBIM.

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Uploading IFC

If your model comes from another BIM tool, export it as IFC and upload the file to a model on the project’s Models tab. GingerBIM imports it and publishes it as a new version, keeping the IFC’s classifications and property data.

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More than a one-way street

The connector also works in reverse: Load pulls a GingerBIM model back into SketchUp or Rhino, which is how teams use GingerBIM as the shared source of truth — see Loading & Collaboration. A central Material Library that syncs materials through GingerBIM is in the works.