Any news on Sketchup to Cheetah workflow?

Any news on Sketchup to Cheetah workflow?

I have read many threads about many conversion options including:

Autodesk FBX converter (Collada to FBX)
Using Blender
Using Sketchup Pro export

Since I am unwilling to buy Sketchup Pro, and the other methods do not seem to work for the 3D Warehouse Collada files (or the rename kmz as zip and open and use .dae method) I am here asking if anyone has found a way that works and does not cost an arm and a leg.

New converters? Tips on settings at any point in the chain? I know Martin has made Collada import a low priority, since there seem to be many flavors of Collada. Anything else in the C3D roadmap that might give hope?

Thanks!

have you tried this? (read all thread)

the SU model is flipped but you can solve it with Tools/Mirror in Polygon Mode (uncheck Duplicate Elements). not tested in 5.0 (some scripts need to be fixed, you can ask Hiroto) but it works fine with SU 7.1 and Cheetah 4.7...

hope it helps,
A

EDIT: i tried, the script is broken for the Material part (as expected) but works for geometry... i'm sure in few days we'll have an update from tg_jp

Thanks

Thanks SurfingAlien - I took a look at the thread. A bit confusing what needs to be changed in what script. But I will watch for an update.

Francois' corrections are for the OBJexporter for SketchUp you can find here (for reference and credits...). the new version i made following his suggestion is here (please note that i have made it for my personal use and it's a variation of the original one by the author, so please give credit to him (and Francois for corrections?) and link to the original file if you need to redistribute it... hope this is enough for respecting the author of the script :smile: )

the .obj (+mtl) files created work almost perfectly with Cheetah 4.7 (remember to mirror the model!), in 5.0 you have to recreate all the materials but the geometry is imported fine, once mirrored...

so far it's the best way I found to have freeSU->Cheetah3D with no additional cost

hope it helps...
A

So close

Well, not really. I had Cheetah 4.7 still, Sketchup 7.1.4870 to be exact, and I installed the script (in tools folder, it would not show up if dropped in plugins).

Loaded a model from the 3D Warehouse into Sketchup, used the script, left the 2 default checks in the choices.

Ended up with a 1.4Mb .obj and a 16kb .mtl file.

Started Cheetah 4.7 (tried twice) and the program quit before opening the file.

Anything else to do, or watch for? Do you think it is a Warehouse issue? Do I need to explode or ungroup before doing the Obj export?

(Thanks for the help by the way! Looking forward to this.)

And another thing

For what it's worth, the SU7toOBJnew files that I found in the other post do the same thing when trying to open or import the OBJ - program quits.

you have to use Hiroto's script to import .obj with materials, just trying to open the file with Cheetah or import it via File/Import doesn't work... thought you knew that, sorry :smile:

download and place it in your ...[username]/library/application support/cheetah3d/scripts/tool then restart C3D (for v4.7 only, in v.5.0 you have an UpdateMenu option...), you'll find it under Tools/Script/Tool script

see Hiroto's demo movie in the linked thread (basically you need to open a Console tab to see mats/shades selection corrispondences and manually locate the .jpg files of all your textures... if you made materials in SU and are using 4.7 - if you're in C3d 5.0 you'll get an error the geometry only)

let me/us know if you need more help...

cheers,
Alessandro

P.S.: I'd try with some simple models with few textures in the beginning...

Thanks

Thanks again. I did stumble right from the start this time with the scripts folder.

Yes, there is one in Application Support. But it is empty and putting the OBJ import.js there does not make it visible in C3D. You have to (at least I have to) put it in the scripts folder that is in the same folder as the C3D application itself. Don't know how it works in app support for others. It may depend on whether you have the C3D app in your main application folder or the user application folder.

So now I am taking everything step at a time.

OK it worked! Geometry imported, mirror works as expected.

But I do not see the materials. And I cannot quite follow what Hiroto is doing in the video to get the materials assigned. Several possibilities:

1) I did not export the obj from SU properly
2) It does not work with the warehouse model (although I see the materials in SU)
3) The script still does not work for materials in C3D 4.7 (although it works for you)
4) I am not doing the final reassign of materials properly (they did not come over as jpgs from SU, only a small .mtl file, so I don't have them)

But I am halfway there.

Ruby Console, .mtl, C3D console

Tried another OBJ export from SU and see "Writing Textures Failed" in the Ruby Console.

And I notice in both the .mtl file and in the console of C3D that the directory paths for the materials seem to reference the computer that the original model was created on. Unless there is a way to export those textures from Sketchup (I can't see it) I may be out of luck. But if it is a model that has all textures available locally as jpgs, I can see the principle involved. Am I more or less on the right track?

Leaving some breadcrumbs for the next one down this trail...

And I'll keep trying. Thanks to all scripters who got us this far!

domeboy said:

Thanks again. I did stumble right from the start this time with the scripts folder.

Yes, there is one in Application Support. But it is empty and putting the OBJ import.js there does not make it visible in C3D. You have to (at least I have to) put it in the scripts folder that is in the same folder as the C3D application itself. Don't know how it works in app support for others. It may depend on whether you have the C3D app in your main application folder or the user application folder.

Click to expand...

this once happened to me too... moving the script from the ApplSupp folder to, say, the desktop and back again did the trick (can't find a reason for that, you know sometimes computers are strange :tongue: )
btw using the script folder in application/cheetah is almost the same (the only differences are: no separation between built-in scripts and user ones AND a new C3D install or upgrade will overwrite the folder... so keep a backup copy of that)

domeboy said:

And I notice in both the .mtl file and in the console of C3D that the directory paths for the materials seem to reference the computer that the original model was created on. Unless there is a way to export those textures from Sketchup (I can't see it) I may be out of luck. But if it is a model that has all textures available locally as jpgs, I can see the principle involved. Am I more or less on the right track?

Click to expand...

if you get the geometry we're almost there... have you done the little tweak in line 2 of the exported .OBJ as suggested by Francois here?

what i'd suggest is forget about the warehouse model for now and try a VERY simple model to see if it works...

cheers,
A

Patience

Thanks for your patience.

I just tried the line 2 tweak (sorry I did not notice it before) and part of Hiroto's video became clear - it started prompting me for the texture files. If they had been there in the obj export I could have chosen them and then gone on to the next mystery - how he assigns each one to be the right number file for each object. I don't see where that number dropdown would be, but if I do as you suggest and start simple with my own model, maybe that will become clear.

don't worry domeboy, without Francois' help I wouldn't have find a solution by myself and probably i still would have been here trying...:smile:

anyway, i'm not sure about what you've been able to do and what's the problem now (sorry but english is not my native language so sometimes i get lost... ). forgive me if I'm going to repeat something you've already done/understand:

1) export the model from SU using the modified OBJexporter script: the .obj and .mtl files and all the .jpg textures should be in the same folder (done)
2) correct the .obj file in line 2 as suggested by Francois (done);
3) open Cheetah, launch OBJimport script, open a console tab, press "import" and select the .obj file (done);
4) while importing the model, n materials are created in C3D and you should be asked n times to locate the textures files, where n=number of materials in the model; every time you have to manually select the correct .jpg file for that material. when finished you should have the geometry (flipped) and n materials with textures in the mat tab but still no textures applied to the model (done?)
5) finally, you have to assign materials to the model. i'm not a SU guru so i usually have one single model which should receive every mat... drag&drop every material to the model then select every single mat in the Object Browser and change the Shade Selection property from "all" to 1,2,3,etc. following the info in the Console tab...
6)select the whole model in polygon mode (cmd+A) and flip it using Tools/Mirror, unchecking "Duplicate elements" and selecting the correct axis.

enjoy your SU model+mat imported into Cheetah for free points 5 and 6 can be inverted if you like...

i'd like to know how to change the OBJexporter to avoid the need of manually correct every .obj but i'm really a dummy about scripting :frown:

cheers,
A