Exporting from VW to Sketchup

[din]

Not sure if I posted this in the right place the first time, as I didn't get a reply in the Architect forum...

I know it's a less than ideal workflow, but we've been trying to find a reliable way to export from VW (2009) into Sketchup

so that we can add materials and render etc (we don't have Renderworks), and use Sketchup environmental plugins (such as IES). We are trying to ensure the VW windows and doors are retained as Sketchup components, and that other objects retain their VW classes as much as possible.

When I export as a DWG, the windows & doors come into Sketchup as components, but only the frame is visible - the mullions, transoms, door leaves and glazing are lost. When I have opened up the DWG in Autocad LT 2007, the mullion / transom / leaf geometry isn't visible, which suggests it's a VW export problem rather than a Sketchup import problem.

We've also tried exporting as a 3DS file (combining coplanar faces to avoid triangulation), and all the geometry and surfaces come into Sketchup. However walls come in as a single group with the doors and windows within broken down into individual planes and lines which isn't that useful.

Finally we've also tried importing as an IFC via the IFC2SKP plug-in, but this time although all the walls and doors came in a components, some of the walls were missing.

I think the 3D DWG is the best approach, but is it possible (or wise) to convert the windows and doors from VW plug-ins into 3D symbols before exporting, or is there a better method to export to Sketchup which retains all the window and door details?

One thought we have had is to export a 3D DWG first with the windows & doors class turned off, then follow on with a 3DS export of the walls with windows & doors on, which could then be extracted in Sketchup and pasted into the first drawing - a bit of a fiddly way I know!

[Mitchell Brooks]

din,

I think you are on the cutting edge of this process. There is no straight-forward way to export from VW to SU as far as I know.

If you are going to do a lot of this kind of thing, it might be better (less costly?) to get RW and do what you need to do there. OTOH, I don't know what SU environmental plugins are so I don't know if you can get what you need in RW in the end.

Best of luck with this.

[Eoin R]

Din

This issue has been raised before. You used to be able to export to Sketchup relatively easily via a 3DS export in VW2009 and prior. From that point on there is a bug which we have reported in that you can only export individual layers and not a complete model. Hopefully this should be sorted out in the next iteration of the software. For the time being we export each layer individually and then reassemble the model in Sketchup which is wasteful of time but works. We have tried the dwg export route into Sketchup without any success but maybe someone else can offer an idea how to do this.

[bcd]

Why not combine all the VW layers first in a duplicate file:

With Layer visibility Show/Snap/Modify Others

Select all

Group

Export 3DS

[din]

Think I might have this sorted out, using a series of exports to Sketchup. The 3D DWG seems to be the best way to export most of the VW geometry (since it retains classes for editing / control in Sketchup) but anything that doesn't export well is better exported seperately as a 3DS, then pasted back into the initial Sketchup model.

I've attached a couple of images showing the VW original model and the end result in Sketchup (apologies for the design - it's a work in progress!)

Here's the method I used - it's a bit of a hassle though!

- First, export from VW Top view as 3D DWG with all layers on but doors / windows classes turned off (worked ok in 2009)

- Imported this into Sketchup - each wall a component with a clear opening in it, but curved roof didn't import well ("degenerate faces"). VW classes retained as Sketchup layers.

- Re-exported roof only from VW as a 3DS - geometry imported into Sketchup more accurately.

- Turned off everything in VW model except for doors / windows class, and walls containing these - exported as a 3DS.

- Imported into Sketchup (separate file) - each wall came in as a single component containing windows. I opened each component, selected a wall face, then right click for "select same material" then "select bounding edges" to delete the walls and leave the windows and doors. Copied this into the original Sketchup file to place doors and windows in the openings.

The end result is useful for what we need in Sketchup - while the windows and doors aren't individually editable, they can be broken down further into individual components if you need to.

Also, when importing the DWG & 3DS into Sketchup, make sure "preserve drawing origin" is ticked - that way the geometry from extra 3DS files will import into their right place.