How to put a SketchUp model on a website?

Al Hart

Here's a website with a SketchUp 3D model embedded in it: Embedded Model

lewislovedale

tallbridgeguy, the page you linked to is an interior model. I'm after producing an exterior model with as little necessity for plugins/downloads/complex controls as possible. Like the Nokia example one i posted earlier (http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/360/), which plays intuitively without asking any questions.

Basically, the model i have produced is a piece of agricultural equipment and not to generalise, i expect the majority of people who look at the website it will (hopefully) appear on will be less computer-savvy than most here, so it needs to be as simple as pie whilst looking very sexy. If that's possible.

I tried your link Al but unfortunately it just came up with this: http://img859.imageshack.us/f/screenshot20110423at115.png/ maybe incompatibility between mac and PC again. I'm also trying avoid a link but rather embedding the rotatable model or a series of renders that give that impression on the webpage.

Solo, is there any opportunity to see the iPad model you'd mentioned? It sounds like it's what i'm after and if so, i'll attempt to copy your method.

Thanks again.

tallbridgeguy

I found this site. Demicron and they have a free download.

http://www.demicron.com/index.html

Anybody use it?

3D examples.

http://www.demicron.com/gallery/mediterranean/mediterranean.html
http://www.demicron.com/gallery/perceuse/perceuse.html

Al Hart

Very impressive graphics and interaction.

I was looking to see if they had an interface to SketchUp. But before I got that rd I checked the price - $1,495.00 and was a bit put off.

Al

@tallbridgeguy said:

I found this site. Demicron and they have a free download.

http://www.demicron.com/index.html

Anybody use it?

3D examples.

http://www.demicron.com/gallery/mediterranean/mediterranean.html
http://www.demicron.com/gallery/perceuse/perceuse.html

Gaieus

They have a free version, too, but what I do not like is that it uses Java.

lewislovedale

Yeah i don't like the use of Java either, i'd also like to avoid the use of any visible interface. Again, i keep harking back to this example: http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/360/ of just a very simple, but great looking 360' rotation embedded into the webpage. I can't believe there is not a simple way to do this?

Solo mentioned rendering 100+ images around the model, which is fine, but how could they be pieced together to create a rotation like that?

Gaieus

@lewislovedale said:

Solo mentioned rendering 100+ images around the model, which is fine, but how could they be pieced together to create a rotation like that?

With that exact same SU Webexporter that would otherwise use images exported straight from SU.

Alan Fraser

A lot of that Nolia type stuff is done with Swift3D...which is probably far more than you need.
There is a cheap little script here that seems to fit the bill.

tallbridgeguy

Alan that looks like it might work and $10 bucks is cheap.

Has anybody here tried it?

s

Al Hart

It looks like a good solution.

I'll give it a try

Al Hart

Except for the difficulty trying to figure out the documentation, this does have a chance.

http://www.renderplus.com/htm/360-renders/sources/webpage.htm

Alan Fraser

Its going the wrong way!!
Nice Al. I rather like that built-in drop shadow effect it has.
Yes, from the comments on that thread, it didn't seem to be the most comprehensively documented piece of scripting.

Al Hart

@alan fraser said:

Its going the wrong way!!

I grabbed a 360-degree scene making script by wikii (creat360view.rb) , and modified it to save an image for each view. I just need to reverse the direction of the views.

The "trick" to using the SWF stuff is to modify their XML file (not try to use one with a different name), and then figure out how to put everything on a web page.

I will post more stuff when I get it all working properly.

ledisnomad

I've been following this discussion because I'd consider doing something similar. However, it would be great if it didn't even require Flash, like the most recent option under consideration. Something that is server-side, like PHP, would be better. I haven't done any web scripting for quite some time, but conceptually it is straight forward. Any PHP scripters out there?

Al Hart

When they first added the spinning models to the 3D Warehouse I looked at it and it was a Javascript/HTML only solution. I'll have to try to drag that up again.

ledisnomad

Java suffers from the same problem that Flash does: it requires the user to have a browswer plugin. Most people have them, even if they don't know it. However, I always prefer solutions that require next to nothing from the user. I generally only use interactive features on my website if I can make it server-side only. So far, these are all very good solutions, though.

Al Hart

not java, but javascript, which is probably more acceptable

ledisnomad

My bad. I misread your post. Yes, javascript is quite acceptable. That would be a great solution IMO. Thanks for clarifying and I hope you can find it!

Al Hart

Here is a sample. It should be easy to make it work. I'll try later

http://solar.physics.montana.edu/ypop/Intermission/Images/feb98eclipse_event1_j.html

This sample does't use a mouse. But I seem to remember one which did.

focpt

@solo said:

I just completed two of those for Wired magazine (this months issue) for iPad.

I used Thea render and 120 renders (BSD 1min 30sec each frame)

I submitted them in images, Liam one of our members is a Mac user and he did the compilation, not sure what sofware he used however.

Very cool Solo. Which graphics are they? I just downloaded the April Issue.