[Plugin] DXF_export v0.0.4 (2011-10-28)

joergber

dereeei:
I recognized too that my unit detection was not fool proof and added a listbox ...

It seems that we are working on similar tasks ...
since I came across the same problems than you.
Currently the exporter exports all connected entities of the current selection.
So selecting a contour of a object will export the whole thing

I am in the process of developing some kind of peprocessing tools ...
The first one will be a drop tool where you can select any face of a model and it will be copied to z=0 and rotated to ground plane.

But I'm neither familiar with Ruby nor Sketchup toolbars ...
So this will take some time

Thanks again for your feedback!

We read!
Jörg

derei

@joergber
Why don't you simply use selected entities to build the dxf? Is more simpler for start... You can iterate trough all selected and check what are they. If there are edges only, use them to build a dxf. If there are also faces, add to dxf the edges that build that face.
Because selecting a face is simple by double clicking. Usually a tool that selects a face, will select only a planar face, not a curved one (like a cylinder). To select that, I think you have to take into consideration the edge smoothing angle. So, I'm guessing that double click on a smooth face is pretty fast to not require a select tool (for now, at least).

Thanks for still working on it

Gumleguf

Sorry for the late reply.

No, I haven't disabled "Display units format" and it still opens in inches:

Gumleguf

Hi Jörg,

Maybe I'm doing something wrong but here's one problem I have.

1. I create a 100mm x 100mm rectangle with some random circles, see attached file "Untitled.skp".

2. Using your fine tool I export it as "Untitled.dxf".

3. To print out my drawing I open the .dxf file in eDrawings (from Solidworks, version 12.2.0.110) and press the print button. I then see a windows where the drawing is scaled to 1:18.3926?

4. If I change the "Active sheet" setting "To scale (1 to 1)" the result is that the drawing get's massive big - you can only just see a small corner of a circle on an A4 sized paper.

Isn't that strange? And by the way, if I print out from step 3 the actual rectangle on paper is something like 137mm x 137mm and not 100mm x 100mm.

/Greg

Untitled.skp

Untitled.dxf

cgprosjekt

Hello Jörg!
Just wanted to thank you for a wonderful plugin. We have struggeled alot with exporting .dxf files with true circle to our CNC machine software. And yours works perfect so far.
You really made my day! Thanks

br
Lars

pumplerod

Sorry, I must be missing something. Does this .rb file install into:
"/Applications/Google\ SketchUp\ 8/SketchUp.app/Contents/Plugins/"

Doing this doesn't seem to work for me. Is there another plugins directory that SketchUp 8 uses?

TIG

@pumplerod said:

Sorry, I must be missing something. Does this .rb file install into:
"/Applications/Google\ SketchUp\ 8/SketchUp.app/Contents/Plugins/"
Doing this doesn't seem to work for me. Is there another plugins directory that SketchUp 8 uses?
You have it all wrong
There are many helpful posts on the forum - including how to install 'plugins'...
Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/plugins
On a MAC this folder is the one and only location for such scripts.
They'll auto-load from there, and the tool's activation/menu/usage/etc is then as indicated in each tool's notes...

sli21

hi all
i'm a newbie so hi to all!
im trying to export the side view of a 400mm*700mm egg shape component as a dxf. when i load it up in VCarvePro instead of getting the full view i just get the 400mm wide top view. what am i doing wrong - cheers
Scott

Gumleguf

Hi Scott,

Perhaps your shape is too advanced for the DXF_export tool to handle or there are errors in your drawing.

Try to upload your Sketchup model here and perhaps someone with a Sketchup Pro version could try to export it to dxf. If it also fails your drawing is bad, if it works the DXF_export tool doesn't support your model.

/Greg

sli21

thanks greg
i couldnt even work out how to attach a file earlier - lol. (still cant work it out!)
i drew a circle in a new document and exported - no worries.
somehow i changed the axis on my model so it was actually exporting the top view. does it export any particular view by default??

i rotated my model and off it went.

thanks for the quick reply - great
i also had troublesmoothing the edges toany acceptable level. i hope to create a toolpath for my cnc so would like to get it a lot smoother. maybe not possible with SU8 Free Vers.

regard scott

Gumleguf

Hi Scot,

You are welcome. Glad you solved your problem.

If yuo right click the circle in Sketchup you should be able to select properties and define the smoothing of the edge. Default value is pretty rough (12, or so) but just change it to whatever value you need.

/Greg

TIG

If it is an arc or circle you can make it initially with lots of segments [e.g. typing 72s gives it 72 segments] OR select it and use 'Entity Info' to adjust its segment count later. BUT once an arc is incorporated in a 3d object it's no longer editable like that, and so it will mean recreating that part later... so plan ahead. Unattached other 'curves' like Bezier etc can have their segmentation changed with the edit function within Fredo's BezierTools...

Gumleguf

Yeah, what TIG said. I don't have Sketchup here, so sorry I couldn't be more precise.

sli21

thanks guys
regards scott

derei

Nice fixing on this plugin. Thank you ! It's a very useful tool for me.
If I may, I would like to ask for some feature requests as follows:
.1 -save layers (I don't know if it does it now, but I had some edges distributed on layers and all of them were saved on Layer 0 in DXF)
.2 -Save As name of the selected object (Component/Group), or Parent's name (if I select raw geometry inside a Comp/Group)

optional (.3 -Bulk Save As separate files, if several Components/Groups are selected. Each one using its own name.)

Thank you very much !

derei

is this plugin still supported/developed ?

trizwiz

You rock for putting such a great plugin online for us! We just started using it and I don't understand it all yet but I have exported my first DXF and it worked well.

jeremy_rutman

can u provide a link for the dxf export plugin?
in chrome I do not see any evidence of a link or blocked popup

sipik

Здравствуйте, у меня ArtCam PRO 9 не открывает модель ...

robertWan

If the curves are grouped, the elements move after the export to DXF.
When there are no groups it's ok, but inconvenient, edition in SU is
troublesome.
Can anyone confirm these problems?

Robert

In CAM DXF Group

In CAM DXF no group

In SU