[Plugin] PLY Importer

Jim · 4 Jan 2010, 13:05

[mod=Jim:1caoabps]Mar, 2014. My .ply plugin has been adopted by SketchUp, and the code is being hosted on Github. It should soon be available in the Extensions Warehouse.

In the meantime, my original version can be downloaded here. Version 1.0.0, Plugins > jf_import_ply_file[/mod:1caoabps]

Mar 28, 2014 - v1.0.0

Release v1.0.0 in order to establish a release version reference point.

This exteniosn imports ASCII.ply files

This importer handles only vertices and faces.

Here's a model repository of .ply files -

Here are a few more .ply files.

Google search for ASCII .ply files.

Some .ply files are huge, and both the import and the resulting model may bring SketchUp to a "white screen" state.

For SketchUp 7+

thomthom · 4 Jan 2010, 13:27

@jim said:

Some .ply files are huge, and both the import and the resulting model may bring SketchUp to a "white screen" state.

Performance is greatly improved if you create a PolygonMesh and use Entities.fill_from_mesh.

Jim · 4 Jan 2010, 13:32

I need another me.

thomthom · 4 Jan 2010, 13:39

jim2 = jim.clone

Jim · 4 Jan 2010, 13:48

Ok, new version posted - uses PolygonMesh.

thomthom · 4 Jan 2010, 13:50

hm...


while true
  jim.clone
end

Jim · 4 Jan 2010, 13:58

Here's a reasonably-size example:

403 Forbidden

(www.cs.virginia.edu)

Moo.

notareal · 4 Jan 2010, 16:36

Nice. Expecting to see some Chinese gardens with high poly dragons?

driven · 4 Jan 2010, 22:03

Hi,
this could be very handy, but the skinning is not working on mac? is it possible to tweak the code?

john

Jim · 4 Jan 2010, 22:14

I don't understand SketchUp sometimes - my cow looked fine and was skinned on import. I did not need to do any cleanup.

driven · 4 Jan 2010, 22:16

how do I revert to standard import to see if it bring faces?

john

thomthom · 4 Jan 2010, 22:25

maybe the data is read somewhat differently on Mac..?

Jim · 4 Jan 2010, 22:33

Line endings? Seems doubtful, but maybe.. will check.

thomthom · 4 Jan 2010, 22:48

that - or interpretation of commas/periods depending on locale settings...
stabbing in the dark here

Jim · 4 Jan 2010, 23:04

After reading the spec again, I'm surprised my "naive" implementation from 2006 works at all. I probably had the same thought then as I am having right now - it's hardly worth the effort for such an obscure file format. Good programming exercise, though.

driven · 4 Jan 2010, 23:46

Hi again,

I certainly don't NEED it enough to warrant any effort, importing via MeshLab as either odj, dae or dxf is very painless on a mac, for the odd occasion that I'd want to.

the cow, which I copy pasted into a text file, re-named cow.ply is the only .ply I've had any success importing to SU and it won't open in MeshLad (I get a missing header message)

I'm more in need of 'skink-wrapping' of complex engineering geometry which I can't seem to find for Mac SU usage.

john

Jim · 22 Mar 2010, 17:52

I re-wrote this so it should work with most ascii .ply files that have vertex and face elements. See first post for download.

driven · 22 Mar 2010, 18:14

Hi Jim, thanks

I'll try it out later on and see if there's still a Mac issue, cheers

BTW have you ever had a play with Apanta Studio, the PC editor [that's now ported to Mac?]

john

driven · 22 Mar 2010, 18:53

took longer to upload the Jpeg then to load into SU so that's very good, but I now have a request because I may have a use... can it import into a component, to save SU re-calculating all the faces?

Jim · 22 Mar 2010, 19:06

If there is any geometry in the model (i.e. the model is not empty,) then the import is made in a Group. Will that work?

Glad to see it working.