How to save drawing to be viewed only?

Gaieus · 2 Feb 2009, 18:02

No,you cannot open a kmz file in SU. A couple of other programs can do that (notably Google Earth whose "native" format it is).

What Jon mentioned above "in general" is that there's no "read only"solution for skp files although from time to time the need arises (also there's a SketchUp Viewer but it can only read "plain" skp files, too).

There are other apps that can present #D models (also exported from SU) in other formats like 3D pdf or Hypercosm etc. if you are interested.

remus · 2 Feb 2009, 18:23

What you can do, though, is render your model effectively useless for anything but looking at.

The easiest way to do that is to explode all groups/components and then do an intersect with model on everything.

Gaieus · 2 Feb 2009, 18:55

That's cruel. Imagine they explode you and then intersect. I's like vivisection!

But yeah, that's a way to make it worse than starting from scratch.

logscape · 2 Feb 2009, 20:25

Thanks everyone. very helpful.
Saving as a 3D pdf file, what standard program can show it in 3D?

Gaieus · 2 Feb 2009, 20:31

Adobe Reader 8 (or even 7?) and above (the latest is 9). See a direct plugin for SU here:
http://www.renderplus.com/pdf/pdf_product.htm
(not free but has a 30 day free trial so you can check if this would be good).

linea · 3 Feb 2009, 19:04

Sorry Logscape, in my early morning state I thought you could import a kmz into SU.

Arc · 4 Feb 2009, 05:42

http://hypercosm.com/
You can export sketchup model to html and view sketchup model in IE.

logscape · 4 Feb 2009, 07:27

Hi Arc. In my SU pro I can not export into html.how do I do that? Can the model be seen in 3D and then be orbit around it?

Gaieus · 4 Feb 2009, 07:40

If you install Hypercosm (it has a free version, too), there will be a html export option in the export file types pulldown. It will create a so called "Applet" which can (and during the export will) be embedded into a html file.

Anyone to be able to see it online in their browsers (IE and FF on Windows and Safari on Mac as far as I was informed during my last visit to the website) will need to download-install a browser plugin. Also, there is a standalone viewer for not embeded applets.

Alan Fraser · 4 Feb 2009, 22:23

There really has to be a way of password protecting a locked group...because all you'd then have to do it group the entire model and lock it.

As things stand, a locked object cannot be copied...and if you save it and then re-import it, it comes back in still locked....getting you nowhere. All that leaves is disabling CAD export.

logscape · 5 Feb 2009, 05:34

Alan,
are you saying there is a way to lock a group with a password? it sounds the simplest, rather than exporting drawings to other formats and hoping the person has a program that will open it. can you tell me how it's done?

johnsenior1973 · 5 Feb 2009, 05:43

Just make the drawing 600x400 so that it isn't worth saving by anybody.

I'd say it's pretty much impossible to make a drawing so that people can't copy it. Even if you go to the lengths of making it save disabled, anyone with a tiny knowledge of computers could just save a screenshot of it and get it that way.

IMO if a drawing is so precious to you that you don't want anyone else to have it, you don't share it.

remus · 5 Feb 2009, 07:51

Logscape, there isnt a way to password protect locked groups, i thnk alan was making a (rather good) feature suggestion.

Gaieus · 5 Feb 2009, 08:23

@logscape said:

Alan,
are you saying there is a way to lock a group with a password?

No, what he says there should be a way...

And yes, the problem is not only opening and editing a (still not possible, pasword protected) locked model but also exporting (at leat to vector format) should be disabled.

This feature request has recurrently arised (especially since the free version was firt released) already and I don't think it would be very hard to program.

Anssi · 5 Feb 2009, 18:39

@gaieus said:

@logscape said:

This feature request has recurrently arised (especially since the free version was firt released) already and I don't think it would be very hard to program.

I would guess that it is not as easy as it seems. SU would probably need a totally new, encrypted file format. I don't know if it is still so, but Adobe used to warn users of Acrobat that using the password-protection in it could rather easily be circumvented by third-party programmers.

Anssi

remus · 5 Feb 2009, 18:49

Theres been a new file format with each new version of SU. Could be tricky with people using older versions of SU though.

linea · 6 Feb 2009, 07:54

I tend not to give clients the model at all, they wouldn't know how to use SU anyway. Just give them an animation file.

MALAISE · 6 Feb 2009, 08:21

Hey, and what's about SU viewer ? Does it still exist ? ( I've downloaded the last version for a while)
That the way I send skp files to some customers, but animations possibilities are restrained.

MALAISE ( if that may help )

Gaieus · 6 Feb 2009, 08:24

For the SU Viewer you still need to send an skp file which could be opened in SU if someone wanted to change anything.