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Les
Joined: 29 Apr 2004
Posts: 44
Location: Portland, OR
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 Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 8:52 am Post subject: Sketchup |
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How about a plugin for Sketchup support in Seven.
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osx-addict
Joined: 28 Apr 2004
Posts: 18
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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| Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 2:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Even though Sketchup claims that it isnt a CAD product, I'm curious just how the two would plug-in together -- and why? I *think* that most things can be done in either program -- even though Sketchup claims be aim for the sketching crowd. |
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Nick
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 103
Location: Long Island, N.Y.
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| Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 2:18 pm Post subject: SketchUP and PowerCADD |
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PowerCADD and SketchUP are great neighbors.
Anything that improves their relationship would sharpen my design and production tools. |
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Bill Stanley
Joined: 15 Apr 2004
Posts: 315
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| Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 2:57 pm Post subject: |
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Gosh, if ES had a better idea of the problems that you are having now, or the issues that are presenting troubles it might be reasonable to develop a plan. Without knowing what the difficulties are it is just not possible to speculate about solutions. When we don’t understand the problem any solution is correct even if it is wrong.
Thanks in advance for the additional input.
Bill Stanley |
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ftribel
Joined: 14 Apr 2004
Posts: 263
Location: Paris, France
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| Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 3:13 pm Post subject: |
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From PC to Sketchup, two possibilities : through DWG or through image.
Untill now, each time I translated through DWG I lost time : I finally found easier to use JPG and redraw the main lines in sketchup.
When we use DWG, a single rectangle appears in Sketchup as 4 lines. A good improvement would be a kind of translator that helps sketchup to understand than a polygon is a polygon - and fill it directly.
Maybe with a good "layer to layer" program too. |
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Rob C
Joined: 14 Apr 2004
Posts: 533
Location: Southern Connecticut
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| Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 8:16 pm Post subject: PowerCADD and SketchUp |
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There was just an exchange on this in March (in the old BB) starting here:
http://www.designcommunity.com/powercadd/31388.html
Most of what I had to say started here:
http://www.designcommunity.com/powercadd/31428.html
In short, SketchUp doesn't accept anything but lines in 2D, but it does accept polygons in 3D (like Kohler's 3D DWG symbols, for example). If PC played a trick by allowing DWG out to be a 3D DWG (even though all the elements are flat and in one plane), perhaps SkUp could receive them. "While you're at it", I wondered if each layer in PC could be asigned a Z value in space so that layers in PC would import into SkUp as as a set of parallel planes in space with these flat drawings from each layer in each plane. That could be a time a useful time saver.
Rob |
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Bill Stanley
Joined: 15 Apr 2004
Posts: 315
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| Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 8:17 pm Post subject: |
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ftribel,
[Untill now, each time I translated through DWG I lost time]
I don't understand what the quote means. Could you elaborate? How did you loose time?
[/When we use DWG, a single rectangle appears in Sketchup as 4 lines.]
I believe you will find that when acad reads the file a polygon is a polygon. If you find anything different please advise.
Thanks.
Bill Stanley |
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Rob C
Joined: 14 Apr 2004
Posts: 533
Location: Southern Connecticut
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| Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 8:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Bill Stanley wrote: | ftribel,
I believe you will find that when acad reads the file a polygon is a polygon. If you find anything different please advise.
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Bill, it's not that the information isn't there from PowerCADD, it's what SketchUp takes in, ignores, and what it does with this stuff. I think you'll find, for example, that if you draw an X in PC and export it to SkUp, when you get to SkUp, its 4 lines now instead of 2 (broken at the intersection). It's all part of SkUp's operating method to make modeling easier on the user.
Rob[/quote] |
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Bill Stanley
Joined: 15 Apr 2004
Posts: 315
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| Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 9:23 pm Post subject: |
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Rob,
If SketchUp modifies the information that is receiving it then becomes almost impossible to predict the outcome. Even if the all of the change rules could be obtained which is highly unlikely the rules would be ever changing to accommodate some in house programming requirement.
Maybe the best bet in this case is to encourage SketchUp to introduce a no change flag that would allow the data to be received in the same form that it was sent. Guessing at someone’s data modifying algorithms and then applying trickery is a no-win and would never ever be satisfactory. It would be similar to building an expensive castle in the sand.
Thanks for the input.
Bill Stanley |
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Kevin
Site Admin
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 1144
Location: Eugene, Oregon
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| Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 9:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | When we use DWG, a single rectangle appears in Sketchup as 4 lines. A good improvement would be a kind of translator that helps sketchup to understand than a polygon is a polygon - and fill it directly. |
That's an improvement request that should be directed to the people who make Sketchup, not to Engineered Software.
Propaganda alert:
| Quote: | | It's all part of SkUp's operating method to make modeling easier on the user. |
Of course, I am also biased on this topic myself. But, also experienced. Because of the somewhat odd internal structure of DXF/DWG, reading in DXF/DWG polygons into lines is rather easier for a receiving 3D application than reading them into actual polygons. So this seems to be a case of making modeling easier for the programmer, not for the user.
If it were really easier for the user to have polygons disintegrate in SketchUp, then why would users be asking for it to be changed? |
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poolvibe
Joined: 16 Apr 2004
Posts: 349
Location: My Lair
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| Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 7:10 am Post subject: |
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Rob C
I know exactly what you are talking about. You basically have to redraw everything or at least retrace it all so you can begin extruding etc. I have found that I just import it and retrace or even start in sketchup and then move it to PC for the basic shapes etc....
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www.shouldbefree.net |
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Nick
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 103
Location: Long Island, N.Y.
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| Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 9:04 am Post subject: PowerCADD & SketchUP |
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"That's an improvement request that should be directed to the people who make Sketchup, not to Engineered Software."
Sounds reasonable.
There is a plug-in from SketchUp to ArchiCADD, perhaps if there are enough requests from PowerCADD users we might be able to get one as well.
SketchUp users contact:
support@sketchup.com |
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ftribel
Joined: 14 Apr 2004
Posts: 263
Location: Paris, France
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| Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 10:57 am Post subject: |
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| the good trick would be a direct export to sketchup format. If not, the better way is to redraw in sktechup, above an imported jpg file. Better than using dwg, and a lot faster (my experience). |
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Andy Caldwell
Joined: 14 Apr 2004
Posts: 85
Location: Sterling, VA
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| Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 2:28 pm Post subject: |
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Regarding SketchUp, I've found after a bit of experimentation with exporting from PowerCadd, that it's pretty painless to bring stuff in to SketchUp. It would be nice to get filled polygons when importing into SketchUp, but it's not critical.
By the way Bill, the DWG out of PowerCadd and into SketchUp is very accurate now, with no scaling required.
What I usually do in PowerCadd is create a new document, then I paste from my original document, into that new document, all the linework/objects I want ot bring into SketchUp. I ungroup everything, eliminating all groups / externals / symbols. With all the objects on one layer, I then group everything together. This avoids a problem where separate Grouped objects left in PowerCadd will get disconnected from each other when imported into SketchUp. The layers will translate into SketchUp, but I've found it easier to export with only one.
After imported into SketchUp I usually make sure the PowerCadd plan is grouped. Then it's just a matter of drawing new lines and rectangles, etc on top. You can snap to all the Powercadd linework that's been imported.
When PowerCadd is scriptable, it' will be easier to do all those pre DWG export steps.
Andy
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Andy Caldwell, AIA |
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Rob C
Joined: 14 Apr 2004
Posts: 533
Location: Southern Connecticut
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| Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 8:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Andy Caldwell wrote: | What I usually do in PowerCadd is create a new document, then I paste from my original document, into that new document, all the linework/objects I want ot bring into SketchUp. ...
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Yes, that all is almost exactly what I do.
| Quote: | | ...reading in DXF/DWG polygons into lines is rather easier for a receiving 3D application than reading them into actual polygons. |
Kevin: I agree that it is easier on the programmer, and you should know. More than just being easier, I think the Sketch Tech sees their product as one that the user is supposed to start their design in starting with a blank document, and co-operation with other programs means sending files out from SketchUp for more serious development in other programs. I suspect that bias means importing isn't considered as high a priority.
Rob |
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