Connecting with the industry at BuildNZ
Our team spent the week at BuildNZ, New Zealand's biggest gathering for the construction industry, showing how SketchUp is helping architects, designers and builders turn ideas into buildings through workflows that stay connected end to end.
Live SketchUp demos
Hands-on sessions showing how modelling fits into the wider design and build process.
Reality capture on show
Trimble X9 and Ri hardware paired with SketchUp for scan-to-model workflows.
Broader BuildingPoint lineup
Tekla, Trimble Connect, ScaffPlan and IDEA StatiCa all featured alongside SketchUp.
Showing how SketchUp fits into a connected workflow
Alongside the SketchUp demos, people stopping by the stand could also get a look at how it sits within the wider BuildingPoint toolkit — Tekla, Trimble Connect, ScaffPlan and IDEA StatiCa all made an appearance, giving visitors a sense of how SketchUp connects into broader design, engineering and construction workflows rather than sitting on its own.
The event gave the team plenty of chances to talk shop with industry professionals, walk through real examples of SketchUp in use, and swap notes on how digital tools are lifting collaboration, accuracy and efficiency across the sector.
Representing BuildingPoint New Zealand on the stand were Theo Zentgraf, Hector Sarmiento, Josh Greenaway and Steve Kafritsas, who spent the event running demos, walking through practical workflows, and chatting with both long-time customers and businesses just starting to look at what's out there.
Plenty of SketchUp users know it as a design tool, but haven't yet come across scan-to-SketchUp workflows — bringing a captured point cloud straight into the model so you're working against real, measured site conditions.
Hector Sarmiento, on pairing SketchUp with reality captureBuilding relationships that outlast any one product
For Theo Zentgraf, the real value of a week like BuildNZ isn't just the demos — it's the chance to reconnect with customers and meet new ones as the technology keeps moving. Theo put it down to BuildingPoint's approach of acting as a genuine partner rather than just supplying the gear: staying involved and available so customers get real value out of whatever they've invested in, whether that's a 3D scanner, a total station, Tekla Structures, Tedds, SketchUp or IDEA StatiCa. With the pace things are changing, that hands-on approach is exactly what BuildNZ reinforced was needed.
ScaffPlan drew a steady crowd
ScaffPlan for SketchUp was another strong point of interest, with visitors curious to see scaffold design done inside a modelling environment they already know. Josh Greenaway said it's changing how customers approach that side of the job — using SketchUp as the base cuts down the time needed to build accurate scaffold models while keeping things consistent from one project to the next. The demo showed how pairing SketchUp's modelling with a purpose-built tool like ScaffPlan lets designers move from concept to a finished model faster, without giving up accuracy or consistency along the way.
Thanks for stopping by
BuildNZ was another good reminder of how much value there is in sitting down with the people shaping New Zealand's built environment, swapping notes on real workflows and seeing where the technology is headed next.
The conversations on the stand reinforced just how far SketchUp has moved beyond early-stage concept work. Paired with reality capture, plugged into tools like ScaffPlan, or connected into a bigger digital workflow, it's proving to be a flexible base that helps professionals work faster and with more confidence in the result.
Thanks to everyone who came by the BuildingPoint New Zealand stand — we're looking forward to picking the conversations back up and helping more designers, engineers and construction teams get more out of SketchUp and the technology around it.
Want to see SketchUp and the connected workflow in action?
Get in touch with our team for a walkthrough, or give us a call to chat with one of our specialists.
