Optimize files in Sketchup

A SketchUp file keeps every component, material, tag, and style you have ever added — even after you erase or replace them — so models quietly bloat with unreferenced definitions. The Auto purge tool strips these unused entities in one click to lighten the file and reduce lag.

Video tutorial:

Steps by steps:

• Select the object you want to lighten the file
• Click Auto purge all, the file has been optimized

  

Good to know

• The same cleanup is built into SketchUp natively: purge order matters — components are removed first, which then orphans the materials they referenced, so a single pass may leave unused materials behind; running purge twice (or letting Auto purge handle the chain) clears the rest.
• Purging only deletes unreferenced definitions, materials, tags, and styles — it never reduces the polygon count or touches geometry inside components that are still placed, so a heavy model full of high-poly objects will stay heavy. For real weight reduction you also need to simplify mesh density (a decimate/optimize step), not just purge.
• SketchUp’s native Purge Unused lives in Window > Model Info > Statistics (and you can purge a single category by right-clicking in the Components, Materials, or Tags tray). The neighboring Fix Problems button is a separate repair pass — it resolves corrupt or invalid geometry that purging alone will not, which is often the real cause of unexplained slowdowns and crashes.