Importing SketchUp

[michaelk]

I keep thinking there has to be a way...

Is it possible to import 3D sketchup drawings as solids, rather than millions of 3D Polys? (same question with 3D dwgs that seem to import as millions of Mesh Objects.)

Or, once imported, is there a good way to create a solid using the 3D Polys as boundries?

And where to the SketchUp textures go when you import them?

michaelk

[jwlyon1]

I wish I knew!

My best solution is to be fanatical about grouping and components in the sketchup model prior to import. It makes assigning textures a lot easier in VW.

But my similar questions have also gone unanswered!

[Jeffrey W Ouellette]

Sorry guys, but the problem lies in the fact that SU is a surface modeler, NOT a solids modeler. While VW is a solids modeler, the SU source data, and the libraries that support import/translation, are surface model data. One of the given limitations of SketchUp.

[michaelk]

Thanks, Jeffrey.

I suspected something like that...

3 points of clarification:

Is there a way to use the surface as a limit for a solid? Like the fit to roof command does for walls - sort of a "extrude a polyline or polygon until you hit a surface" command.

Are the textures in a SU file importable?

I sometimes get dwg files that are mesh objects. Is there ever any benefit to mesh objects? In 2008 and earlier versions, too many mesh objects seemed to slow down rendering significantly.

Thanks

michaelk

[Jeffrey W Ouellette]

Textures do NOT import, I don't think they ever had. I don't think that functionality has ever been exposed/supplied by Google in the DLLs.