Importing dxf files from Strata 3D
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I am a Danish sculptor and quite new to SU (Pro) I use the 3-d program Strata Design 3D for Mac and want to export some dxf files to SU. These files are originally imported from Adobe Illustrator to be extruded. That works fine. But they look peculiar in SU and apparently cannot be used for export in any way (by me - dummy). I also tried to export directly export some simple vector planes from Adobe Illustrator in dxf in order to extrude them in SU. That does not work either. It is a little hopeless because I need SU as an intermediate station in order to export files as STL for 3-D printing. Can anyone help me?
Frithioff Johansen <www.frit-johan.dk> post@frit-johan.dk -
Hi Frithioff,
Could you share such a dxf file (no matter how simple)? It's hard to tell what's going on there...
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@gaieus said:
Hi Frithioff,
Could you share such a dxf file (no matter how simple)? It's hard to tell what's going on there...
I may have a language problem: What do you mean by share the file? said the Danish dummy
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Attach it to the post (below the text area you are writing).
I cannot remember if dxf is an allowed attachment - if it isn't, put it in a zip file and attach that way.
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Frit, I saw a report you made of my last post (you actually reported it as spam)
Do not use the report button but the reply button, please (there was no attachment of course)
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Hi Frithioff,
did you try to export the model directly from Strata as DXF or Obj? For me it works fine.
Charly
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An OBJ export > SUp-import [using one of the free OBJ-importers] will preserve any 'textures' ... but when it's in DXF format it probably won't ?
What is it you want to get into your SKP - just the geometry or the geometry+textures ? -
@charly2008 said:
Hi Frithioff,
did you try to export the model directly from Strata as DXF or Obj? For me it works fine.
CharlyI tried to import 3-d objects directly from Strata dxf and 2-d planes in dxf in order to extrude.
Perhaps it has to do with the dxf reader preferences. I show the used ones. And the bad result in SU.
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@tig said:
An OBJ export > SUp-import [using one of the free OBJ-importers] will preserve any 'textures' ... but when it's in DXF format it probably won't ?
What is it you want to get into your SKP - just the geometry or the geometry+textures ?I only need some simple geometry to go on with in SU - which is quite new to me - but which I need as an intermediate station for exporting in STL for 3d printing.
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@charly2008 said:
Hi Frithioff,
did you try to export the model directly from Strata as DXF or Obj? For me it works fine.
Charly
A very simple example: how can I extrude figure in the attached file?
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If any object [like a facet] is very small [<~1mm] then SUp has a problem making it, so try using smaller units for the DXF export and larger units for the DXF import [options on the SUp dialog] - So mm >> m say.
You can always rescale stuff in the SKP later - very small facets can exist in a SKP... but it's the initial making of them that has problems... -
OK, so I got the below dxf file (zipped) from Fit (somehow he ended up with a PM) and imported it to SU and there is some interesting result there...
zero-one-blend-1 copy outline.dxf.zip
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Imported at 'meters' the outlines are pretty scrappy and although they'll take faces the edges are not draw well or consistently...
It would be easier to import an image and trace over it...
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@gaieus said:
OK, so I got the below dxf file (zipped) from Fit (somehow he ended up with a PM) and imported it to SU and there is some interesting result there...
Re: importing dxf files from Strata 3D
Sent: Tue Aug 16, 2011 2:14 pm
by frit-johanGaieus wrote:This file looks good to me - although true that I do not really know what exactly you are trying to achieve. However since I do not use Illustrator, it would be best to post these on the open forums, not in private messages so that others with more experience with the program can help better.It is a very simple file, just for this purpose. Made in Illustrator, exported to dxf. But if it looks good to you - just tell me how to extrude it, so it becomes 3-dimensional...
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Okay, first: the whole import comes in as a component. First right click on it and explode.
Then zoom in and redraw a line segment from endpoint to endpoint.
Now you end up with the shapes filled - however the hole in the letters is also filled.
There will be some clean-up needed here and there as you have double lines around these holes.
Once you clean up and separate the faces in the holes, you can right click > Erase them and then simply use the PushPull tool to extrude them.
In SketchUp, there is a 3D Text tool. Would that not be easier to draw your letters with?
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If you have a decent 'black and white' image of this text then why not save it as a PNG with the background fully transparent [no anti-aliasing].
Import that PNG into your SKP as an Image.
If you want it as a physical object [make it a reasonable size, you can always rescale things later] then use my ImageTrimmer tool [search the Plugins Index] which will cut out the forms automatically - end by choosing a simplify of ~2 so that the smooth curves get replicated and pixel-jaggedness is avoided.
You then have a component with geometry faces and the original material applied to them.
You can edit them using PushPull etc as desired........
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