Public Beta for Obj, SolidWorks, STEP, and FBX importers

ashraf

A feature request:
Would it be possible (for the FBX plugin) to write on import the second UV channel as a custom attribute and then for the fbx exporter to also capture that custom attribute and write it back as a second UV channel?

The problem with this, is that while we are in control of the import process, the export process is done using the FBX exporter created by Google which we have no control over

ashraf

@notareal said:

Adding fbx camera to SU view support would give some more value. There are situations when cameras must match.

Adding Camera import is not difficult, we thought be able to add in future updates of the plugin

Pixero

@ashraf said:

@pixero said:

A feature request:
Would it be possible (for the FBX plugin) to write on import the second UV channel as a custom attribute and then for the fbx exporter to also capture that custom attribute and write it back as a second UV channel?

The problem with this, is that while we are in control of the import process, the export process is done using the FBX exporter created by Google which we have no control over

I thought you had a fbx exporter plugin too? Or maybe you could write one that did support these kind of things?

ashraf

@pixero said:

I thought you had a fbx exporter plugin too? Or maybe you could write one that did support these kind of things?

We have an FBX exporter that we use in SimLab Composer, but we did not release one for SketchUp, The current new plug-ins are only importers.

jsteacy

I bought a model off of http://www.modelplusmodel.com, the .obj file won't import into sketchup. Once I select the file and hit open simlab obj importer crashes, though it doesn't crash sketchup. the model I purchased does come with a .fbx file so I'm going to download the fbx importer tonight, and try that once I get the trial code.

ashraf

If you can share the obj file please send it to support@simlab-soft.com we will test it and let you know why it is crashing the importer

jsteacy

Ashraf, I just sent you a PM

jsteacy

tfdesign

Oooh! A Solidworks importer??

How about a Solidworks exporter??!

Or even just SAT?

ashraf

@jsteacy said:

Ashraf, I just sent you a PM
jsteacy

I saw the file, the problem is due to the fact that the file uses negative indexes for the faces.
This is something that we should address before the release.

Thanks for the models

thomthom

@ashraf said:

@fletch said:

Impressive. How long, exactly, did it take to import the dragon object? Can SU even handlethat dragon file in all it's high-poly glory?

The operation almost took 15 minutes, 5 of which where consumed by SketchUp after importing the object, my guess is that SU works on building a detailed bounding box and verifies the object is correct.
After that the object is usable is SU, it is not very responsive, you need to wait for your actions to be executed, but you still can work with it.

I think it's SU's auto-merge feature that takes time. The more entities already in the entities collection the holder it takes to add the next entities. What method are you using to build the geometry? Entities.fill_from_mesh is by far the quickest.
http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/entities.html#fill_from_mesh

@unknownuser said:

The fill_from_mesh method is used to add faces and edges to the collection of entities from a PolygonMesh. It requires that the entities collection to be filled is empty. It has higher performance than add_faces_from_mesh, but does less error checking as it builds the geometry.

ashraf

Yes we are using fill, not add. We noticed that opening a file in SketchUp is much faster than importing it. So the next version will add an open option, It is a good practice to use the open option with the largest model in the scene

thomthom

Open Option?

ashraf

try importing a large SkechUp file, and compare it to opening the same file.
Open takes much less time for the same file.
So we are planning to take a advantage of this in the next version of the importer.

jsteacy

Ashraf,

I tried the .fbx importer with the same models from that website, it brings in the geometry but does not import the textures.

jsteacy

ashraf

The problem with the obj file was already fixed, and it will be included in the release

paulower

Fantastic.

You have not thought about making a plugin to import of *.max to SketchUp?

I think there not is still an importe *.max to SU.

notareal

@paulower said:

Fantastic.

You have not thought about making a plugin to import of *.max to SketchUp?

I think there not is still an importe *.max to SU.

For that you would need installed Max... just like Deep Explorer needs. For my understanding a stand alone converter (without Max installed) is impossible to create.

ashraf

@notareal said:

For that you would need installed Max

Yes this is correct and I believe that this reduces the value of the solution, if you have MAX already installed, then you can convert the files to OBJ or FBX.

ashraf

SimLab team is really thankful for the great feedback and suggestions, for downloading and testing the importers.

We are working on finalizing the plugins based on this feedback. The beta period for the plugins will end by the end of the month, and we plan for a release early in September.

Frederik

I'm somehow surprised...
Does this mean that you're going to release the plugin with new features even before you've tested it in a second beta-test campaign...??

Can you please shed some lights about what new options you will have made with the final version...??

Thanks in advance...