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Don't use Sketchup

Discussion in 'Suggestions' started by The Dude, Jan 3, 2014.

  1. The Dude

    The Dude Well-Known
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    I hate to burst your bubbles here, but I spent about 6 hours trying to get sketchup to run under wine and ultimately failed because my graphics driver and sketchup won't play nice together. I spent all this time because I wanted to build the routy router and the instructions to build it say, "Oh just open the 3D model and look at the photos". Well I don't use Windows and sketchup isn't available for Linux and so I was forced to go through the pain which wouldn't even be necessary if the model was uploaded into an open source format like blender.
     
  2. The Dude

    The Dude Well-Known
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    Ok so I spent a couple hours getting it exported to Blender. Here's how to do it:
    1. In Sketchup 2013, Select File->Export->.obj
    2. In Blender go to File->Import->Wavefront(.obj)

    Then you press "Home" key on your keyboard and search around for the object. It's there, but the scale and scene are all hosed so it's like a game to find the imported object. I found the routy and saved it as a .blend file and I will be uploading it shortly to the resources files.

    And here is the file http://www.openbuilds.com/resources/routy-router-3d-model-for-blender.18/
     
    #2 The Dude, Jan 3, 2014
    Last edited: Jan 3, 2014
  3. Mark Carew

    Mark Carew OpenBuilds Team
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    If you are exporting a solid model for importing to other programs you could try the Extension Warehouse for SU there is a large community writing ruby scripts that allow SU to become a very powerful tool in many ways. Browse around and see if there are some plugins that may help most are free.
    There is a STL export/importer that may do the trick as well. http://extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/sketchup-stl

    P.S. just found this and it looks like fun! :)
    http://extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/ar-media-plugin

    What would be nice is an open source file converter that will cross convert all (as many as possible) cad formats to and from one another.
     
  4. Jovian

    Jovian New
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    what about using FreeCad?
     
  5. Mark Carew

    Mark Carew OpenBuilds Team
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    Wait a minute @ADarkGerm I thought in another post you said you use 'Square paper & pencil' for cad? ;)
     
  6. The Dude

    The Dude Well-Known
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    Anything is better than Sketchup. Proprietary formats that only work on Window$ create headaches for those of us who don't have any Micro$oft operating systems within 15 miles of our homes.
     
  7. The Dude

    The Dude Well-Known
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    Well I'm just letting you all know that you're walking into a format war. It's like MS Office vs Openoffice. You can't build a viable community of volunteers and makers when you throw up a $600 barrier and the tools you use can be changed on a whim. Yes I realize you can get the crippled sketchup for free and it may work if you have windows/mac. Yes I realize it seems easy to use. This is the classic Microsoft tactic of Embrace, Extend, Extinguish. One day all your hard work will be useless when Sketchup decides it's no longer profitable for them to enable you. Oh you want to upgrade to windows 9? Well you have to get the new version of sketchup, oh and btw none of your work will be backwards compatible so the whole community you are a part of will have to get windows 9 and the new sketchup. See how that works?
     
  8. Mark Carew

    Mark Carew OpenBuilds Team
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    What are you using for a cad/cam?
    I see your point and I think with all the open source extensions made for SketchUp they would have a hard time at closing them off. In fact they have contacted several of the these coders and asked if they would be willing to incorporate some of their plugins in to SketchUp. This is where we get the SketchUp to STL plugin for instance. We are always on the lookout for an easy to use solution like SketchUp. There have been lots of attempts but none have come close to the widely acceptance that Sketchup has gained and for good reason, its great when you need a quick model-up of an idea. SketchUp also offers an open API and that allowed the coding of a cam solution SketchUcam which in turn allows us to work up parts right in SketchUp and export them to Gcode! I am not sure what more you could need in the way of a quick molder and a cam solution all in one but this has it and it does it very well. Maybe someday that will change and it works to our advantage to switch but until then it really does the job nicely for those who use it. As for it being crippled, a quick peak look into the 'plugins' extension manager will show you otherwise and that its a program that will continue to evolve and grow. To export DXFs to us in other CAD's check out this plugin.
    http://www.guitar-list.com/download-software/convert-sketchup-skp-files-dxf-or-stl
     
  9. The Dude

    The Dude Well-Known
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    Well I'm all for freedom of choice and if that's what you like then by all means... When you save to a format that is incompatible with any other program, it limits my choice of software.
     
    Mark Carew likes this.
  10. Tweakie

    Tweakie OpenBuilds Team
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    Perhaps everyone else will change the software they use so you have a compatible format. :D

    Tweakie.
     
  11. David the swarfer

    David the swarfer OpenBuilds Team
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    my notes to myself on using Sketchup in wine has this as the first line
    "do the regedit mod for HWok (search wine faq)"

    did you do that? this tells the OpenGL renderer that the hardware is ok and then Sketchup works.
    I am using Sketchup 8 on Ubuntu Studio 12 on a Gigabyte motherboard with Intel chipset.
    it currently has one annoyance in that the screen does not immediately update after some graphics operations, so I just roll the mouse wheel one click each way to force a zoom redraw. I expect this will be fixed in some update that I might bother to install, sometime.

    as a Linux user you already know you have to go the extra mile, it is part of the choice simply because it is free and not mainstream. a little regedit-ing is part of the package.
     
  12. TMG

    TMG New
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    Ah that is dope sh*t man... I've the luck I can use Solidworks or NX 9.0
     
    #12 TMG, Dec 22, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 23, 2014
  13. David the swarfer

    David the swarfer OpenBuilds Team
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    a better solution to the redraw issue is to change the launcher link to sketchup to read like this
    Code:
    env vblank_mode=0 WINEPREFIX="/home/username/.wine" wine C:\\Program\ Files\\Google\\Google\ SketchUp\ 8\\SketchUp.exe 
    the important bit is "env vblank_mode=0"
    which makes it redraw correctly.

    I have failed entirely to get Sketchup 2014/2015 to work under Linux (Ubuntu 12), but have since upgraded to Xubuntu 14.04 so will try again sometime.
     
  14. bdubu

    bdubu New
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    +1 for the open source file converter idea (or use of an open source standard format).
     
  15. brucewestfall

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    Just a word... I also use Blender extensively. Sketchup is a real pain to make operate. Thank you very much for posting a blender file here. Perhaps those who think it is no big deal to just go thru all those steps ( I can't get Sketchup to work on my ubuntu machine, plus it really isn't free...) Maybe you can export from Sketchup to obj or dxf for those of us unable to use certain proprietary software.

    Looking right now for a .blend file of the Ox. Just skp so far.

    :(
     
  16. brucewestfall

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    So, this took me about 3 seconds to open using 100% open source software thanks to "The Dude". This IS called OPENbuilds, right?? Screenshot from 2015-03-10 20:43:47.png
     
    David Arroyo likes this.
  17. The Dude

    The Dude Well-Known
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    Come to think of it, I reread this thread and recalled I had to borrow my grandma's laptop and run sketchup under windoze and export it. Maybe if all these people using sketchup just export it to a format like collada(.cde) or whatever then we can import it without requiring a windoze box. I think I just threw up a little in the back of my mouth
     
    David Arroyo likes this.
  18. The Dude

    The Dude Well-Known
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    Yes. I believe it's called BlenderCAM or BlenderCAD, something like that. I generated all my gcode for my routy using Blender
     
    JustinTime likes this.
  19. michaelgildow

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    I just started to build my CNC and I am looking for Gcode software. I read your notes about Blender CAM. Can I down load it for free?
     
  20. Nicola Bertellini

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    SketchUp is now available in beta as web application. Very well usable under any os.
    Using for fun on my android phone right now :)
     
    #20 Nicola Bertellini, Oct 19, 2016
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2016
    Mark Carew likes this.

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