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    [Plugin] Import STL files

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    • H Offline
      Howard leslie
      last edited by

      Didier,
      If possible, could you adjust your script so it mines down into all groups and components and converts all data in a model to *.stl ??? (or a *.sat file ???)
      Additionally, all stl objects are to retain the sketchup group and component names.
      ...........
      I know TIG has produced several very useful scripts with this mining ability that dig down into all groups and components.
      Some of his code could possibly help ???
      ............
      This would make your script so much more useful
      Anything you can do, hugely appreciated.

      Regards
      Howard L'

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      • Didier BurD Offline
        Didier Bur
        last edited by

        Hi
        I'll see what I can do. Code exists also in su2pov for instance so it is just a question of time (which is hard to find these days for me...)
        Regards,

        DB

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        • C Offline
          casey344
          last edited by

          First, thank you for posting the utility - getting this to work will save us so much time.

          My STL file is not importing properly. I get the prompt to specify scale then a jumbled version of what I am importing. See image below.

          I am using Sketchup 7.0. Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

          Thank you.


          Screen Snaper Image.jpg

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          • Didier BurD Offline
            Didier Bur
            last edited by

            Hi,

            @unknownuser said:

            I am using Sketchup 7.0. Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

            Not at all. It can be aproblem with SU7, or a problem with the STL file. Post it here so I can check it.
            Regards,

            DB

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            • C Offline
              casey344
              last edited by

              Thanks for offering to help.

              You should be able to pick it up here ...

              Link to file:
              https://download.yousendit.com/bVlCSXR3Mm1wTVYzZUE9PQ

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              • Didier BurD Offline
                Didier Bur
                last edited by

                AAARGGHHHH 71 Mb !
                Downloading it now, but I guess the file is too big for SU...

                DB

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                • C Offline
                  casey344
                  last edited by

                  Sorry, not my doing. 😕

                  Manufacturer sent it that way.

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                  • J Offline
                    jwelin
                    last edited by

                    Thanks for the work on this plugin. I have a three questions:

                    Is there a limit to the level of nested groups/components it exports?

                    The exported STL seems to be incompatible with some applications. Rhino sees the geometry, for instance, while Magics does not. Also an SU2stl generated stl, opened in Rhino and resaved as an STL is much smaller in file size. Would you like to see examples?

                    Is there a way to call this plugin from another? I have a need to batch export.

                    John Welin
                    architectural model maker
                    Chicago, USA

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                    • Didier BurD Offline
                      Didier Bur
                      last edited by

                      Hi,

                      @unknownuser said:

                      The exported STL seems to be incompatible with some applications

                      There are several STL formats which slightly differ in their syntax. The one I have choosen to export is the most standard one, as defined here for instance:
                      http://www.gom.com/CONTAINER/files/sp_stl_en.pdf
                      or here:
                      http://mech.fsv.cvut.cz/~dr/papers/Lisbon04/node2.html
                      Maybe some applications do not support every kind of STL ?

                      @unknownuser said:

                      an SU2stl generated stl, opened in Rhino and resaved as an STL is much smaller in file size

                      I don't have Rhino, but I suppose that it saves an STL in the binary format, while my script saves it in ASCII (text), which is 8 times bigger (average). You can see the same differences between an ascii dxf and a binary dxf (dxb) for instance.

                      @unknownuser said:

                      Is there a limit to the level of nested groups

                      No. Not tested here but as a recursive method is involved, there should be no limits.
                      Components are NOT supported, groups are.

                      @unknownuser said:

                      Is there a way to call this plugin from another?

                      Unfortunately no.

                      Regards,

                      DB

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                      • thomthomT Offline
                        thomthom
                        last edited by

                        @didier bur said:

                        @unknownuser said:

                        Is there a limit to the level of nested groups

                        No. Not tested here but as a recursive method is involved, there should be no limits.
                        Components are NOT supported, groups are.

                        I found that recursive methods might cause SU to bugsplat. http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=15585&p=120726 I had a method that looped over entities to find connected entities which used a recursive method. Had to change it to an iterative method.

                        Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                        List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                        • Didier BurD Offline
                          Didier Bur
                          last edited by

                          @unknownuser said:

                          I found that recursive methods might cause SU to bugsplat.

                          Bad news 😞

                          DB

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                          • thomthomT Offline
                            thomthom
                            last edited by

                            Mind you, it happens when you do many recursions. When crawling geometry you quickly end up with hundreds iterations. So if the script never goes that deep you're ok. But it's something to be aware of.

                            Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                            List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                            • N Offline
                              NewOne
                              last edited by

                              When exporting STL from SolidWorks, here is an option to put all geometry in same file or to create separate file for each part. Mr. Didier Bur, could this script to be modified in a manner that allows multiple file selection and each geometry to be made group (or component if there are more identical parts) ? Or to specify a folder where stl part files are located?

                              Thank you.

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                              • Didier BurD Offline
                                Didier Bur
                                last edited by

                                Dropped into the to-do list 😉

                                DB

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                                • GaieusG Offline
                                  Gaieus
                                  last edited by

                                  bump
                                  (sorry Dider - no practical reason just testing some moderation stuff)

                                  Gai...

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                                  • S Offline
                                    stefkeB
                                    last edited by

                                    Minor improvement:

                                    On line 54 you call the "openpanel" method when exporting. This should be "savepanel", so the user gets the correct dialog displayed. Still works on Windows but not on OSX, where you need to point to an already existing file.

                                    Also, the default "." file location could be replaced with ENV['USER'] or ENV['HOME'] or preferably the current file folder, as to make it more convenient. With 'USER' it works much better for me on OSX.

                                    (I refer to the unscrambled file, obviously, not the compacted one -- maybe the reason why people think it is a binary file)

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                                    • Didier BurD Offline
                                      Didier Bur
                                      last edited by

                                      Hi,
                                      @stefkeB: I'm using openpanel when importing, and savepanel when exporting. So I don't understand what you're talking about, propably you have an old version, because the latest one is v1.3. (Nov 2009) and is scrambled in a RBS file (so unreadable).

                                      DB

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                                      • thomthomT Offline
                                        thomthom
                                        last edited by

                                        I've been looking around at the various ruby based importers for SketchUp and I see that no one uses the Importer class. If this class is used the importer can be found in the native import list which would be very nice.
                                        http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/importer.html

                                        Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                                        List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                                        • charly2008C Offline
                                          charly2008
                                          last edited by

                                          Hi Didier,

                                          I have tried the tool in Sketchup 8. The Unit support appears and I can choose my unit but then nothing happens. I've attached the stl files which I downloaded from Internet.

                                          Charly


                                          knot.zip


                                          brain-gear.zip

                                          He who makes no mistakes, makes nothing

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                                          • Didier BurD Offline
                                            Didier Bur
                                            last edited by

                                            Hi Charly,
                                            Your files are binary STL files. The script cannot read such files, but only ASCII STL format.
                                            You can convert binary STL's to ASCII with Meshlab (free) for instance.
                                            Regards,

                                            DB

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