[Plugin] OBJexporter v3.0 20130131

krash88 · 24 Jan 2011, 18:14

Ok, I just remembered that Whaat's UV Tools exports to OBJ and all is good!

TIG · 24 Feb 2011, 16:57

This is v1.2 http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=294844#p294844
Distorted textures are exported as distorted 'unique texture' files and re-UV-mapped - just like the Pro OBJ-exporter.

TIG · 25 Feb 2011, 16:37

Here's v1.3 http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=294844#p294844
I recommend you upgrade - it fixes a glitch with some distorted textures 'flipping'.
Materials and textures that are applied within and on to Groups or Instances are now properly defined and UV-mapped.

agamemnus · 27 Feb 2011, 04:43

Your object exporter is better than Google's.

My ship model, with completely exploded pieces and 8 materials: Sketchup exports 35 groups making 35 materials in my program. Yours works correctly and exports 8 groups making 8 materials.

Just 3 (edit:4) items:

No dialog to set the name/directory or progress bar when it does so makes it a bit involved when I need the name to be different from the sketchup file name.
Your exporter rotates the object 90 degrees on the .. Y axis, I think.
I think for proper usage anything with a " " in the filename needs to be converted to "_".
Wellllllllllll ok, some things may not export properly. I'll pm you a link for a model that does not.

TIG · 27 Feb 2011, 10:30

@agamemnus said:

Your object exporter is better than Google's.

My ship model, with completely exploded pieces and 8 materials: Sketchup exports 35 groups making 35 materials in my program. Yours works correctly and exports 8 groups making 8 materials.

Just 3 (edit:4) items:

No dialog to set the name/directory or progress bar when it does so makes it a bit involved when I need the name to be different from the sketchup file name.

Your exporter rotates the object 90 degrees on the .. Y axis, I think.

I think for proper usage anything with a " " in the filename needs to be converted to "_".

Wellllllllllll ok, some things may not export properly. I'll pm you a link for a model that does not.

A dialog is next on the to-do-list... As are some other things like setting 'units', or 'selection only' versus 'all'.
The default is to swap Y & Z axes as many apps expect that from their OBJ import. My OBJimporter even has an option to swap them back as many 3rd party OBJs are swapped like this. The swap could become an option...
It's easy enough to remove the space in the file name...
I've looked at the SKP you PMd me... I can see that some triangulated faces on the sides of the 3D text are 'reversed' - which is perverse since the mesh is made from one bit of face initially. Also a few of the rectangular wall panels at the front aren't getting a material assigned to them - weird... I'll investigate further to see what's up... Anything major I've missed otherwise...

agamemnus · 27 Feb 2011, 18:31

Sent you a pm.

It is a bit of effort to rename " " parts of the file to "_", especially if I want to keep the source filename without spaces.

Another very good thing to add (which the Google one doesn't have) would be a way to specify the source directory. Sometimes I need the source directory to be the same for a set of models (because they use the same texture), and manually editing the material files after every model edit is a chore.

TIG · 28 Feb 2011, 12:39

Here's v1.4 http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=294844#p294844
It is recommended you upgrade to this version asap...
The new Filename now has spaces etc squeezed out.
Startup dialog added to allow Filename/Folder to be changed.
Glitches with reversals of some smoothed faces and materials occasionally missing from complex faces now addressed.
General speed and Status-Bar progress-reporting improved.

agamemnus · 1 Mar 2011, 04:58

Thanks, TIG.

McGyver · 11 Mar 2011, 15:33

As a user of SU's free version I thank you TIG, for this VERY helpful plugin! I had forgotten about it and the other day someone suggested I try it (a while ago I PMed TIG asking about it when in another thread he had mentioned he was working on it).
I tried it out and I have to say that based on what I used it for it seems to work BETTER than SU's native obj exporter! Thank you very much for spending your valuable time and efforts on making and sharing so many brilliant plugins. In this terrible economy many of us can not afford even the simplest things and these gifts of yours are priceless to those of us on a tight budget.
Thanks!

stefkeB · 13 Mar 2011, 21:24

Nice plugin. It does work to get SketchUp Free models into Unity3D. At work I have SketchUp Pro with good FBX export, but at home, for the kids, I am learning them to use the free version of SketchUp. This is a good script, although with some models there are waaay to many materials. I assume that the UV mapping is the culprit. But I can not complain, as this was a model from the 3D Warehouse.

TIG · 14 Mar 2011, 10:22

@stefkeb said:

Nice plugin. It does work to get SketchUp Free models into Unity3D. At work I have SketchUp Pro with good FBX export, but at home, for the kids, I am learning them to use the free version of SketchUp. This is a good script, although with some models there are waaay to many materials. I assume that the UV mapping is the culprit. But I can not complain, as this was a model from the 3D Warehouse.

OBJexporter creates one material & texture file for each material.
If that material has UV mapping it should only make the one file and map it within the code BUT if a texture has been UV mapped AND distorted then there insufficient points on a triangular face to cope so it makes a duplicated material using a distorted texture image file and normal mapping in lieu. The Pro exporter does a similar thing. If you have several distorted textures then you get one extra material for each one. It is possible to have a textured material that looks virtually the same as one that's not been mapped, BUT if there is the slightest distortion you will get a duplicated distorted material being exported... If you want to attach or PM the SKP [or point to the actual file] then I can check it out too....

TIG · 23 Mar 2011, 11:43

Here's v1.5
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=294844#p294844
It addresses a 'smooth-normal' issue where smoothed surfaces weren't getting exported properly.

McGyver · 24 Mar 2011, 01:40

Thank you for the update!!

Alienizer · 28 Mar 2011, 04:55

Thanks for this great plugin. Way better than Sketchup OBj Export.

I have one request, is it possible to also export back faces that have a color or material, and not those that don't? Say, instead of creating a new face for the back like SKP export do, can yours assing a new OBJ command? For example...

usemtl White
bf 9/9/9 10/10/10 11/11/11

bf for backface!

That way, we can load the obj and detect any back faces as oppose to treat them as a new face and have duplicate triangles!

I don't know if I make any sense?

Thanks

TIG · 28 Mar 2011, 09:34

Alienizer

The Pro OBJ exporter has a 'two-sided' face option BUT when you bring these into many app's the faces 'fight' as they are coplanar.
What happens is each face is effectively duplicated and one is reversed with the Back material applied to it.
An OBJ file must use 'f' to define a face, there's no 'bf' coding...
I've no plans to make a 2-sided version any time soon...

I suspect that you actually want a quick and lazy way to fix a sloppily modeled SKP, where you have some reversed faces with materials on their backs instead of their fronts... I have already written the very tool to fix that for you - 'FixReversedFaceMaterials' - it flips any faces with materials only on their backs and sorts out the material's mapping back onto the 'now-correctly-oriented-face' front etc... Read this and then download the script http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=264134#p264134

Alienizer · 28 Mar 2011, 22:26

Great! Thank you. I will use your other tool. What about a face with 2 materials where front and back are visible, say, the back is visible from a mirror when rendered?

FYI I found a simple model that does not convert properly. All faces are oriented correctly and it export fine with SKP obj export...
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=b4b51fe2bdeeeedf56c58b78d29fd8a9&prevstart=24

Thanks again TIG

TIG · 29 Mar 2011, 08:01

An OBJ file contains data for a face with a material.
If you want a back material you must make a second face that's reversed.
As most renderers etc expect 'solid' objects it is wise to model your SKP this way - e.g. make a window glass with two outward facing faces ~10mm apart as it would be in the real world [there are never 'single planes' in reality - all things, no matter how thin they are, have two faces each with a front, not one face with a front and a back!]

I am testing your problem Allosaurus SKP - it is complex with over 800,000 lines of code in the OBJ file. The OBJexporter isn't foolproof - I'll try to see where it might be failing...

TIG · 29 Mar 2011, 09:59

I found that my OBJexporter did make a correct OBJ version - which imported OK into other packages. It took ages to finish and the OBJ file was 22Mb! The Pro OBJ exporter is quicker because it's compiled etc... BUT mine is 'free'

There is a problem with my old clunky OBJimporter - it will import some of the faces flipped - it's an issue with smoothed normals.***

I suggest you try this quite new and free 'compiled' OBJimporter - it is much faster, and after some initial tweaking this version is now stable and it gave me a perfect re-import back into a SKP of Allo'... see here http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=316470#p316470 - read the thread to see how it's evolved... It could probably do with some better reporting in the Status-Bar, but otherwise I like it...

***As we now have this free 'compiled' OBJ 'FluidImporter', I probably won't bother doing any more work on my clunky version...

Alienizer · 29 Mar 2011, 19:50

I know you are right, and I do make my models that way, but, in the 3D warehouse, you are not going to find many that follows that rule! They all use an electron thin wall, and don't even know about front/back faces! Let alone paper thin glass (no thickness)!! That's why I try to get some 3ds files, then use AccuTrans3D to convert it to KMZ so that I can load it in SKP.

However, you're obj importer is by far the best of all! Thank you, and it's free!

Your renderer looks fantastic too. Great job, and thanks for taking the time to answer my post.

aapur · 31 Mar 2011, 09:18

i cannot get it into sketchup.

OS: Win 7
SU: 8

what should i do. (be detailed please)