How to use Purge Unused Sketchup (Purge Unused Tools)

The Purge Unused tool is used to delete unused objects that are preloaded into the sketchup file. The way sketchup works will usually preload, or center, the object in the file, even if the object has been deleted. This tool is completely safe to use without losing any data of the sketchup file. Below will explain how it works

Processing object:

• Components – Groups not in use.
• Materials not used.
• Style not used.
• Tags (formerly “Layers” — renamed to Tags in SketchUp 2020) that are not in use.

Why does unused object appear:

• This often happens when you import or copy external library models into sketchup files.
• When you delete the object, all properties associated with the object such as definition (components-groups), tags, materials, and style remain by default sketchup.
• An unused component definition keeps every nested texture, sub-definition and tag it referenced — so a single deleted block dragged from 3D Warehouse can silently carry megabytes of hidden material data that never shows in the model.

Handling Components – Groups

• No Processing: Hidden Components or Groups
• Handler: Component has been removed but still exists in Window -> Trays -> Component
• Treatment: Groups have been deleted but the data is still saved in sektchup files, Groups attribute data is not seen in the sketchup interface, but the deleted groups data is still saved.
• SketchUp’s native Purge only removes one level of nesting per pass — if an unused component contained other unused sub-components, you often have to purge twice to fully flatten the definition list. The 3dshouse tool loops the purge so a single click clears every level at once.

Material handling:

• Materials are not used in the model, usually the material will include a texture image, which makes the file size quite heavy.
• Purge only frees materials that aren’t painted on any face, edge or component — a material left active in the Materials browser “In Model” list but applied to a hidden or off-screen edge will survive the purge, which is the usual reason a “clean” file still loads slowly.

Processing Tags:

• Empty tags have no objects attached.
• The default “Untagged” tag (the old Layer 0) can never be purged or deleted — only the custom tags you added are removed, so don’t expect the tag count to drop to zero.

Handling Style:

• Drawing process, if you choose to add another style, sketchup will continue to save the styles you have added.
• Keep only the style you are using in the sketchup file.

How to purge manually in SketchUp:

• Open Window -> Model Info -> Statistics, then click Purge Unused at the bottom. The Statistics tab also lists the live entity count, which is handy for confirming the file actually got lighter after purging.
• From SketchUp 2025 onward the app can prompt you to purge unused entities automatically every time you save, so on current versions much of this cleanup happens on save by default.

How to use:

• Click icons to automatic remove all unused Objects.