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    [Plugin] FreeDXF Importer

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    • D Offline
      driven
      last edited by

      hi Jim, here's a mac screenshot,

      I've got an archive of these simple reduction gear dxf's and it opens them a threat...

      it's particularly useful being able to specify circle and arc segment counts, the v7 SU importer bought these in a such low quality, I couldn't use them.

      it splits out into layers, but doesn't group those items, I haven't read the script yet but is that addable?

      i.e. each layers geometry is also a group so it doesn't stick on first opening with all layers on.

      also does it do faces?, I'm not sure if this test file has any... a lot of them don't.

      cheers

      john


      enough to build a 3d  cycloidal drive...

      learn from the mistakes of others, you may not live long enough to make them all yourself...

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      • J Offline
        Jim
        last edited by

        @driven said:

        it splits out into layers, but doesn't group those items, I haven't read the script yet but is that addable? i.e. each layer's geometry is also a group so it doesn't stick on first opening with all layers on.

        Yes, I think it's addable. I was using SketchUp Pro's dxf importer as my example; which does not group geometry by layer. But it seems like a better way to import geometry seeing as cad layers are more like SketchUp Groups than SketchUp Layers. So would all entities in the group be on the cad layer, or just the group on the cad layer with the raw geom on Layer0?

        @driven said:

        also does it do faces?, I'm not sure if this test file has any... a lot of them don't.

        Not really yet. It does import 3DFACE entities, but I think they are not common in dxf's.

        I appreciate the feedback. (send test files.)

        Hi

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        • HumpmetwiceH Offline
          Humpmetwice
          last edited by

          By reading everything I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or its not able to import text yet? It would really be a helpful tool if it did!

          Thanks Kurt


          2011-07-11_201346.png


          2011-07-11_201529.png

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          • J Offline
            Jim
            last edited by

            Thanks Kurt. It should import text and mtext entities. I would be interested in testing your .dxf file, if possible.

            Hi

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            • HumpmetwiceH Offline
              Humpmetwice
              last edited by

              @jim said:

              Thanks Kurt. It should import text and mtext entities. I would be interested in testing your .dxf file, if possible.

              Hope this helps, I think its just the type of text we used but I'm not sure. I was thinking it was standard MTEXT but may have been wrong?


              B05-7947EP.dxf

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              • honoluludesktopH Offline
                honoluludesktop
                last edited by

                I just accidentally discovered that you can drag and drop some dxf files into IE and it will open to view. Jim's reference file opens, but humpmetwice's doesn't. Is it a Acad created file?


                temp.png

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                • J Offline
                  Jim
                  last edited by

                  @honoluludesktop said:

                  I just accidentally discovered that you can drag and drop some dxf files into IE and it will open to view. Jim's reference file opens, but humpmetwice's doesn't. Is it a Acad created file?

                  @HDT - Do you have AutoCAD installed, or a dxf/dwg viewer that enables the browser to display them using a add-on? (My guess.)

                  @Kurt - Thanks. This is what I get when importing your .dxf. It looks mostly OK, except the texts are not rotated (which I am aware but haven't fixed that yet.)

                  Untitled.png

                  Hi

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                  • honoluludesktopH Offline
                    honoluludesktop
                    last edited by

                    I have a old copy of volo, but it was a popup that prompted a activeX download to then open the dxf to view. Are they related?

                    Btw, Jim, do you know if the majority of the non text/dimension entities in your reference file are polylines?

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                    • HumpmetwiceH Offline
                      Humpmetwice
                      last edited by

                      @jim said:

                      @Kurt - Thanks. This is what I get when importing your .dxf. It looks mostly OK, except the texts are not rotated (which I am aware but haven't fixed that yet.)

                      Far more than what I get! I think I could work with that if you would tell me the secret to what I may be doing wrong. Is it the text we use?
                      Thanks Kurt

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                      • D Offline
                        driven
                        last edited by

                        when I first import and use zoom extents I get this
                        initial import

                        then in SU, I deleted the \A1; text, I did 'select-all' to changed the font to momo 12pt, moved a couple of overlaps and in 'parallel projection' & 'top view'
                        I get this.
                        on the mac
                        the text is on Layer0
                        the model and dim lines are on the text layer,
                        and the dimensionline layer is empty

                        john
                        @Kurt hope you don't mind me testing your file, consistency helps debugging...

                        learn from the mistakes of others, you may not live long enough to make them all yourself...

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                        • J Offline
                          Jim
                          last edited by

                          @John - Select "No" for the Screen Text option to use 3D text (well, 3D in only 2D.)

                          Hi

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                          • J Offline
                            Jim
                            last edited by

                            @unknownuser said:

                            @jim said:

                            @Kurt - Thanks. This is what I get when importing your .dxf. It looks mostly OK, except the texts are not rotated (which I am aware but haven't fixed that yet.)

                            Far more than what I get! I think I could work with that if you would tell me the secret to what I may be doing wrong. Is it the text we use?
                            Thanks Kurt

                            Just try the latest version. (This link is always the most recent.)

                            Hi

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                            • J Offline
                              Jim
                              last edited by

                              @driven said:

                              the text is on Layer0
                              the model and dim lines are on the text layer,
                              and the dimensionline layer is empty

                              Yes, this is similar to what I get when using SketchUp's Pro dxf importer.

                              (added text rotation, btw in latest. v0.6.1)

                              Hi

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                              • thomthomT Offline
                                thomthom
                                last edited by

                                I've been looking around at the various ruby based importers for SketchUp and I see that no one uses the Importer class. If this class is used the importer can be found in the native import list which would be very nice.
                                http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/importer.html

                                Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                                List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                                • D Offline
                                  Dekker
                                  last edited by

                                  It looks like the "inputbox.rb" plugin is no longer found in bitbucket 😞

                                  Any alternates available?

                                  EDIT: Never mind... Found it! For the reference of others, the source is located here: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=19103&p=347871&hilit=+inputbox.rb+#p347871

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                                  • J Offline
                                    Jim
                                    last edited by

                                    Sorry 'bout that, Dekker. I am haphazard with my plugins - but I'm glad you found inputbox.rb

                                    Any thoughts on the importer?

                                    Hi

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                                    • thomthomT Offline
                                      thomthom
                                      last edited by

                                      The link to inputbox.rb is dead.

                                      Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                                      List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                                      • thomthomT Offline
                                        thomthom
                                        last edited by

                                        Does it handle materials in any way?

                                        Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                                        List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                                        • J Offline
                                          Jim
                                          last edited by

                                          @thomthom said:

                                          Does it handle materials in any way?

                                          No. I don't remember seeing a "material" or "color" property for dxf entities. Isn't the color based on an entities' layer?

                                          Hi

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                                          • TIGT Offline
                                            TIG Moderator
                                            last edited by

                                            You are right.
                                            A DXF file gives objects layers, and those layers have colors.
                                            If you take the SKP layers the colors export as random colors.
                                            Even with similar SKPs newly made layers get unconnected colors.
                                            It's possible to rationalize a DXF by post processing it's text - I have a commercial tool I've written which uses the native DXF exporter, but where the client wanted all DXF layers to be consistently colored; so it has a 'lookup table' and ensures consistency by 'stream-editing' the DXF's text after it's made.
                                            Another way to have materials==colors is to export a custom made DXF but ignore the SKP's layers and using each material as if it were a DXF-layer... that way objects in the DXF are then grouped by each DXF 'layer' which is really made from the SKP's material-color rather than the proper SKP-layer...

                                            TIG

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