United3dArtists Archive

worldmaker · Post by **worldmaker** » 18 Mar 2010, 21:45

I'm trying to save time by importing objects from Google sketchup, but its free version only exports to the .dae format.

Any suggestions on how to convert into a suitable importable and editable form for TS6.6?

I need a detailed 3D Land Rover Defender to illustration solutions to a little problem and found various sources on sketchup.

No, before you ask, I'm not running win XP or higher so can't use TS7.61

clintonman · Post by **clintonman** » 19 Mar 2010, 02:01

maybe you can import to Blender and export as an obj file for truespace.

fahembree · Post by **fahembree** » 19 Mar 2010, 03:36

There is a plugin that will export obj format that ts (model) side can import.
See link:
http://sketchup.google.com/download/pre ... ugins.html"

fahembree · Post by **fahembree** » 19 Mar 2010, 03:54

I need to mention that for a complicate object such as a car you will probably need to use the explode command in
sketchup before exporting. Also the object will probably need to be textured in TS and it will probablly be made up of
triangles. See attached.

fahembree · Post by **fahembree** » 19 Mar 2010, 04:14

Attached is another import ( this one did not need to be exploded), but alot of the faces will need to be flipped.

worldmaker · Post by **worldmaker** » 19 Mar 2010, 07:17

fahembree wrote:There is a plugin that will export obj format that ts (model) side can import.
See link:
http://sketchup.google.com/download/pre ... ugins.html"

Thanks for that, but I've had to download the latest sketchup, and all the plugins on that page you referred me to were for sketchup 5 and earlier. Some of the models I've downloaded are post-5 versions and wouldn't be compatible.

worldmaker · Post by **worldmaker** » 19 Mar 2010, 07:20

fahembree wrote:I need to mention that for a complicate object such as a car you will probably need to use the explode command in
sketchup before exporting. Also the object will probably need to be textured in TS and it will probablly be made up of
triangles. See attached.

Ah, exploding.
I was wondering about that.

For your information I have found one possible solution - installed MeshLab to import the dae file that can be exported by sketchup, then exported the result to a trueSpace compatible format.

However it comes into trueSpace as one huge model, so your suggestion on exploding it is something I'll explore.

worldmaker · Post by **worldmaker** » 19 Mar 2010, 07:27

fahembree wrote:Attached is another import ( this one did not need to be exploded), but alot of the faces will need to be flipped.

Flipping Faces!!?? EEK!

I shall struggle as best I can, fortunately I have the original TS manual by my side when things get tricky.

worldmaker · Post by **worldmaker** » 19 Mar 2010, 07:56

clintonman wrote:maybe you can import to Blender and export as an obj file for truespace.

clintonman,

See above, found the simplest way, for now was with MeshLab.
But I'll try Blender over the weekend if I have time.

Thanks.

fahembree · Post by **fahembree** » 19 Mar 2010, 12:56

>>Thanks for that, but I've had to download the latest sketchup, and all the plugins on that page you referred me to were for sketchup 5 and earlier. Some of the models I've downloaded are post-5 versions and wouldn't be compatible.

The later versions of sketchup do not requires a plugin to export to obj format, its built in to the softare. See the file export

command

worldmaker · Post by **worldmaker** » 19 Mar 2010, 18:07

fahembree wrote:>>Thanks for that, but I've had to download the latest sketchup, and all the plugins on that page you referred me to were for sketchup 5 and earlier. Some of the models I've downloaded are post-5 versions and wouldn't be compatible.

The later versions of sketchup do not requires a plugin to export to obj format, its built in to the softare. See the file export command

Ah Homer Simpson would say: "Doh!"

Steinie · Post by **Steinie** » 19 Mar 2010, 18:13

I thought only the Pro version of Sketchup had .OBJ export.

http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/ ... wer=114387"

Is the newest version different?

splinters · Post by **splinters** » 19 Mar 2010, 18:31

No OBJ export in free version of Sketchup...you need a plug in but, as explained earlier, expect simple clean looking sketchup models to have lots of faces/triangulation when imported to tS. makes it very difficult to do further modelling on it...

Post by **danperk** » 19 Mar 2010, 18:47

Although it's a little convoluted, it's free...

You can export from SketchUp 7 as Collada (un-check triangulate faces), import Collada into free Daz Studio 3,
and export as OBJ.

EDIT: nevermind, the faces aren't welded.

EDIT 2: Interesting link for SketchUp OBJ exporters, Tut. is for Vue, but works with tS 6.6-7.x.

http://blog.chipp.com/converting-from-s ... -7-to-vue/"

worldmaker · Post by **worldmaker** » 20 Mar 2010, 06:07

Steinie wrote:I thought only the Pro version of Sketchup had .OBJ export.
http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/ ... wer=114387"
Is the newest version different?

Nope, I checked last night, and the free version I'm using doesn't have it.

But according to previous note the older sketchup v.5 does appear to have an .obj exporter, so I'll try that...

worldmaker · Post by **worldmaker** » 20 Mar 2010, 06:11

splinters wrote:No OBJ export in free version of Sketchup...you need a plug in but, as explained earlier, expect simple clean looking sketchup models to have lots of faces/triangulation when imported to tS. makes it very difficult to do further modelling on it...

Correct, very messy result and lots of errors, not a nice clean conversion. Grrrrrr!

worldmaker · Post by **worldmaker** » 20 Mar 2010, 06:15

danperk wrote:Although it's a little convoluted, it's free...

You can export from SketchUp 7 as Collada (un-check triangulate faces), import Collada into free Daz Studio 3,
and export as OBJ.

EDIT: nevermind, the faces aren't welded.

EDIT 2: Interesting link for SketchUp OBJ exporters, Tut. is for Vue, but works with tS 6.6-7.x.

http://blog.chipp.com/converting-from-s ... -7-to-vue/"

Hmmm, I think I have the free version of Vue somewhere, so may as well add that to the PC along with all the other "stepping stones" I have.

Oh, tried Blender last night, and that didn't work.

worldmaker · Post by **worldmaker** » 20 Mar 2010, 06:18

At this rate it'll be quicker to design my own, although it won't be exact or to scale I could cobble something together over the weekend.
But the experience certainly gives value to the argument for universal standards of data formats instead of all these proprietary file types.

Post by **danperk** » 20 Mar 2010, 06:48

worldmaker wrote:Hmmm, I think I have the free version of Vue somewhere, so may as well add that to the PC along with all the other "stepping stones" I have.

Oh, tried Blender last night, and that didn't work.

I think your missing the point, you can disregard the Vue part, the OBJ plug-ins allow you to export from Free SketchUp 7,
which can be imported with trueSpace.

worldmaker · Post by **worldmaker** » 20 Mar 2010, 07:32

danperk wrote:I think your missing the point, you can disregard the Vue part, the OBJ plug-ins allow you to export from Free SketchUp 7,
which can be imported with trueSpace.

Come on, give me a chance, it was only 6 in the morning here when I read it!

See what you mean now, will try later today.

Post by **danperk** » 20 Mar 2010, 08:58

Well I tried a test and it's probably not worth your time.

The OBJ export is VERY SLOW.

When I imported OBJ into tS I thought it had flipped faces but it was
missing geometry.

Seems to work with simple stuff but not complex meshes.

Khai · Post by **Khai** » 20 Mar 2010, 13:53

guys it's easy.

I use Sketchup (SU) as my main modeler to OBJ now.

the good news is, Free / Paid SU - no matter the Ruby scripts work.

register at Sketchucation : http://forums.sketchucation.com/"
goto the plugins forum and get the UVTools Beta http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtop ... it=uvtools"

that exports to OBJ cleanly and nicely. read the documentation tho. also there's TIG's OBJ Importer which is damned useful.

as to SU only exporting bad models. remember the addage : bad modeler, bad model. most of the warehouse models are built by ppl that are not modelers and have no idea of good modeling workflow.

I model the way I used to in tS4.3 and have no problems with exporting models from SU at all.

clintonman · Post by **clintonman** » 20 Mar 2010, 16:34

worldmaker wrote:
danperk wrote:...

Oh, tried Blender last night, and that didn't work.

That's too bad. Did it make an obj that truespace couldn't read or did it fail to load your dae properly?

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 20 Mar 2010, 19:14

Most problems you face with Sketchup is improper use.
Most models you get for free at some Sketchup forums or even
the warehouse were not built with Sketchup and therefore are already conversions.
I NEVER had any problems with sketchup pro and all my models were converted flawlessly.
if you dont own the pro verision Blender does do a good job.
Dont foreget my alltime suggestion of using Vue it reads the Collada files from a GOOD file without problems.
Dont forget to delete the backcolor afteryou import your models with the option and after spliting it up into materials
many files are not good and made outside of Sketchup.
Use Sketchup for what its good for like buildings and interiors and architecture in general.
Use a polygon modeler for characters and organic shapes and use nurbs tools like moi for props.....
Peter

worldmaker · Post by **worldmaker** » 21 Mar 2010, 07:39

danperk wrote:Well I tried a test and it's probably not worth your time.

The OBJ export is VERY SLOW.
When I imported OBJ into tS I thought it had flipped faces but it was
missing geometry.
Seems to work with simple stuff but not complex meshes.

danperk,

Yep, I get that image too, and yes, verrrrrrrrry slooooooooooow, took hours before I finally gave up on it.
Also had the problem that any time I clicked the mouse on my PC to change focus to do something else while waiting - it halted the exporter.

worldmaker · Post by **worldmaker** » 21 Mar 2010, 07:41

clintonman wrote:
worldmaker wrote:
danperk wrote:...

Oh, tried Blender last night, and that didn't work.

That's too bad. Did it make an obj that truespace couldn't read or did it fail to load your dae properly?

Erm, I tried a couple of times, never used Blender seriously - difficult to navigate around it - and both times it showed nothing, just seemed to halt or show no visible results. This was the Windows XP version on a dual core laptop.

worldmaker · Post by **worldmaker** » 21 Mar 2010, 07:49

RAYMAN wrote:Most problems you face with Sketchup is improper use.
Most models you get for free at some Sketchup forums or even
the warehouse were not built with Sketchup and therefore are already conversions.
I NEVER had any problems with sketchup pro and all my models were converted flawlessly.
if you dont own the pro verision Blender does do a good job.
Dont foreget my alltime suggestion of using Vue it reads the Collada files from a GOOD file without problems.
Dont forget to delete the backcolor afteryou import your models with the option and after spliting it up into materials
many files are not good and made outside of Sketchup.
Use Sketchup for what its good for like buildings and interiors and architecture in general.
Use a polygon modeler for characters and organic shapes and use nurbs tools like moi for props.....
Peter

Rayman,

I'm beginning to understand that a lot of the models there are just too good to be true for Sketchup. Google Warehouse appears to be a depository of more than Sketchup productions.
I can't afford the pro version so that situation is unavailable at the moment, although I do see it has 8 hours of free unlimited use for the trial version, so I can try that to carry out all the conversions I want.
I'm not sure about Vue. I have Vue 8 Pioneer, the free-to-use introductory version. Tried one import last night, but didn't see any result onscreen, so I'm not sure what happened there.

Unfortunately I don't have much time left before I drop this course of action and get back to the real world, or just knock up a quick outline of my own on TS.

nigec · Post by **nigec** » 21 Mar 2010, 13:58

Sketchup DAE end up huge in Blender maybe that's why you see nothing?, they work better in the 0lder 2.49 but you can end up with a lot of flipped faces on curved objects
Also with Blender 2.49 you need to set up a camera and lights again, for some reason the importer loses the original

There is a dae to 3ds convertor
http://forums.devshed.com/game-developm ... 19710.html"

Khai · Post by **Khai** » 21 Mar 2010, 14:15

erm

the UVTool's exporter works very well.

worldmaker · Post by **worldmaker** » 21 Mar 2010, 16:59

nigec wrote:Sketchup DAE end up huge in Blender maybe that's why you see nothing?, they work better in the 0lder 2.49 but you can end up with a lot of flipped faces on curved objects
Also with Blender 2.49 you need to set up a camera and lights again, for some reason the importer loses the original

Ah, that would explain why I didn't see anything, although I remember trying to zoom out after the second test, still saw nothing.

nigec wrote: There is a dae to 3ds convertor
http://forums.devshed.com/game-developm ... 19710.html"

Thanks for that, I already found that one in my searches, so many solutions so little time, and have it ready for testing if the rest don't work.

Currently trying out the trial version of Sketchup Pro 7, give you 8 hours of uninhibited use, which should be enough for my needs unless I crack the problem in some other fashion.

worldmaker · Post by **worldmaker** » 22 Mar 2010, 07:26

Further up-date to my experiences in 3D with Land Rover Defender models.

In all my efforts to try a conversion of various 3D models from Google Sketchup's 3D Warehouse none have come over in an easily editable form.

I've installed Sketchup Pro with its 8 hours of free use in Trial mode and extra export filters. This meant I've spent a miserable few hours over the weekend using it to try and export into other file formats (.obj, .dxf, etc) and see which would import easily into trueSpace.

Although the models can be converted and imported, .obj seems easiest, there are still a few issues:-
(1) lots of artifacts or false triangles.
(2) the entire object is still imported (and exported?) as a single object and cannot be reduced into individual parts.

Only other alternative I can think of is to break the models down into parts in Sketchup, export each part separately and reassemble the parts in trueSpace.

If I have time to spend on it.

An advantage is that I can create simpler collections of parts - only need one wheel not have to export a big model with all wheels, only one side door, to mirror copy once imported, etc.

I may be able to go back to the free Sketchup for this process, export to .dae format and convert through other processes.

United3dArtists Archive

Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?

Re: Import GoogleSketchup .dae files to 6.6?