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    [Plugin] IGES Export - 27 February 2012

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    • thomthomT Offline
      thomthom
      last edited by

      Hi and welcome to the forum. πŸ˜„

      I had a quick scan through your plugin - got a couple of comments:
      .typename: Avoid at all cost! It's very slow to use! It has always bugged me that the API doc use it for its examples.

      I see you use attributes a lot - but they are all removed at the beginning of an export. Is that to keep track of entity information while you process the model? If so I'd suggest you use a Hash to keep track of entity data - instead of adding prosessing data to the model which will increase file size. In addition, attributes are slow - lots of string manipulation and lookups.

      I generally recommend people not to extend the base classes - due to the possibilities of conflict.

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

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      • thomthomT Offline
        thomthom
        last edited by

        You should mention that the exporter might erase stuff.

        And that it makes all groups and components unique!

        It is not expected behavior that an exporter modifies the model it exports.

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

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        • TIGT Offline
          TIG Moderator
          last edited by

          Exported data/files are not subject to an undo or an abort call...
          IF your exporter must change the model's data so it can work successfully, then the correct way to proceed is to satrt ALL of its actions after a Sketchup.active_model.start_operation('IGESexport') and after it's made the export use a closing Sketchup.active_model.abort_operation, which undoes ALL of the changes you have made to the model BUT leaves the external file[s] alone...
          That way you get your data exported correctly but the user gets no nasty surprises when he finds his model has be tampered with !
          πŸ€“

          TIG

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          • R Offline
            rainer.ochs
            last edited by

            Of course the exporter should not modify the model. It does it during work but afterwards undoes the changes. In V0.4 the undo was made a comment for testing, in V0.5 this is corrected.

            TIG: is there a difference whether I use "model.abort_operation" or "model.commit_operation" and "Sketchup.undo" as I do?

            thomthom: the exporter never was optimized for fast operation, I wanted to keep it simple. As I undo the changes it is no problem to adhere attributes to the entities, they never will be saved. IGES is constantly referring with pointers to its structural elements, keeping track with attributes was simpler to implement and more descriptive. I agree that hashes might be faster. But as the structure is still growing when I am going to implement splines I still prefer the more understandable approach.
            What do you recommend to use instead of "typename"?

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            • thomthomT Offline
              thomthom
              last edited by

              @rainer.ochs said:

              What do you recommend to use instead of "typename"?

              Use .is_a?( Sketchup::Face ) etc...

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

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              • Z Offline
                Zacchia
                last edited by

                I have some files in iges format I would like to import in SU, so an importer would also be nice to have...

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                • AnssiA Offline
                  Anssi
                  last edited by

                  One interesting part in this is that it creates "real" solid geometry out of SU "solids". Could it be expanded into the DXF format too? That would add a useful feature that the current DWG/DXF exporters lack.

                  Anssi

                  securi adversus homines, securi adversus deos rem difficillimam adsecuti sunt, ut illis ne voto quidem opus esset

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                  • R Offline
                    rainer.ochs
                    last edited by

                    @anssi said:

                    Could it be expanded into the DXF format too?

                    I got good results with HeeksCAD ( http://heeks.net) a freeware CAD program.
                    It can import iges and once in Heeks you can save it to step, dxf and stl.
                    The programs file converting is based on open cascade (http://www.opencascade.org) a very sophisticated system. As far as I have been testing, the results are reliable.

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                    • R Offline
                      rainer.ochs
                      last edited by

                      @zacchia said:

                      I have some files in iges format I would like to import in SU, so an importer would also be nice to have...

                      There is a description on http://eagleup.wordpress.com/?s=iges&searchbutton=go%21
                      on Importing a STEP or IGES file into Sketchup using FreeCAD and MeshLab.
                      file.step => FreeCAD => file.stl => MeshLab => file.dae => Sketchup => file.skp

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                      • Z Offline
                        Zacchia
                        last edited by

                        @rainer.ochs said:

                        There is a description on http://eagleup.wordpress.com/?s=iges&searchbutton=go%21
                        on Importing a STEP or IGES file into Sketchup using FreeCAD and MeshLab.
                        file.step => FreeCAD => file.stl => MeshLab => file.dae => Sketchup => file.skp

                        Thank you for this information, it works! I already knew meshlab, freecad not...

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                        • S Offline
                          sepo
                          last edited by

                          I tried to open .igs export from SU in Rhino. It bring geometry but geometry is broken. The model is made of separate surfs and some surfs (curved) are missing.

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                          • D Offline
                            DavidVT
                            last edited by

                            Nice addition!
                            I am struggling to find the size limit that will work.
                            I have a very complex model the size of an aircraft that seems to lockup everytime.

                            I test this with a small box and it works great.

                            Suggestions???

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                            • J Offline
                              jonorman
                              last edited by

                              This plugin is amazing. The possibility to export "solids" out of SU is for me close to the holy grale πŸ˜„ Thank you so much..

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                              • R Offline
                                rainer.ochs
                                last edited by

                                @davidvt said:

                                I am struggling to find the size limit that will work.
                                I have a very complex model the size of an aircraft that seems to lockup everytime.

                                @sepo said:

                                I tried to open .igs export from SU in Rhino. It bring geometry but geometry is broken.

                                I do not think, that the size itself is a problem. I usually scale my models in micron so I also have fairly big numbers and this worked fine. I think the problem is more the complexity. To convert from a face-model to solid it is very important that the outer shell has no gaps and no inner geometry. The exporter removes all parts it cannot convert to real shells.

                                Suggestion 1: Try redo to see what the exporter does to the model. If the parts are deleted there it is a problem with the geometry.

                                Suggestion 2: Try HeeksCAD to open the iges. If it is ok there, convert to step and import from there. If it is not ok the iges is the problem. Feel free to send me your model to the email that is given in the code.

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                                • G Offline
                                  gordon_smith
                                  last edited by

                                  I haven't tried the plugin yet, but it is very exciting. This could make sketchup much more useful for me. Where I work the mechanical engineers use Catia, and it would be awseome to be able to send them my drawings in a format that they can use.
                                  I also want to second the FreeCad & MeshLabs method as a great way to get IGES files into sketchup. πŸ‘

                                  Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.
                                  Thomas Huxley

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                                  • R Offline
                                    rainer.ochs
                                    last edited by

                                    @gordon_smith said:

                                    I also want to second the FreeCad & MeshLabs method as a great way to get IGES files into sketchup. πŸ‘

                                    There is also a direct importer plug-in for stl into sketchup:
                                    http://sketchuptips.blogspot.com/2010/03/sketchup-stl-importer-redo.html

                                    A direct export to stl can be found at http://www.guitar-list.com/download-software/convert-sketchup-skp-files-dxf-or-stl

                                    STL from other formats can be converted with FreeCAD or the above mentioned HeeksCAD.

                                    All of these tools do not segment the model into different objects and the exporter does not generate a solid.

                                    The importer generates a lot of nasty inner edges, but with a small tweeking of the script this can be fixed.

                                    Just add the following lines into main after the import:

                                               
                                    a = Array.new
                                    Sketchup.active_model.entities.each{|e|
                                    if (not e.deleted?) && (not e.hidden?)
                                      if e.is_a? Sketchup;;Edge
                                         if e.faces.size == 2
                                            if e.faces[0].normal == e.faces[1].normal
                                               a << e
                                            end
                                         end
                                      end
                                    end
                                    Sketchup.active_model.entities.erase_entities(a)
                                    }
                                    
                                    
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                                    • A Offline
                                      Adrian Berghorst
                                      last edited by

                                      This has helped me a LOT! Thank you very much.

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                                      • R Offline
                                        realwarder
                                        last edited by

                                        Great plugin. Helped me. Thank you!

                                        My model does export with one problem. If you want the file to test with, let me know.

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                                        • thomthomT Offline
                                          thomthom
                                          last edited by

                                          @realwarder said:

                                          My model does export with one problem. If you want the file to test with, let me know.

                                          You need to describe what this problem is. Otherwise it's completely impossible to know what is going on.

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

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                                          • R Offline
                                            realwarder
                                            last edited by

                                            @thomthom said:

                                            @realwarder said:

                                            My model does export with one problem. If you want the file to test with, let me know.

                                            You need to describe what this problem is. Otherwise it's completely impossible to know what is going on.

                                            The first problem I was having was a section that was a long PCB cutout shaped with half-circle ends and straight sides was exported as curved sides.

                                            I got around that by manually fixing in the destination CAD.

                                            Current issue is a metric sized drawing is exporting to inches. Not sure how this plugin determines the units.

                                            I.e. my PCB which is 72mm wide, after exporting to an IGS, imports as a 72" wide drawing.

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