[Plugin] OBJexporter v3.0 20130131

Dave R · 11 Aug 2012, 23:05

You shouldn't have two Plugins folders under Google SketchUp 8.

pilou · 23 Aug 2012, 08:00

There is no option inside the plugin for "weld" the commun edges between faces ?

And if exist in another plugin, the fact to export with the present plugin will not "unweld" them ?

pilou · 24 Aug 2012, 22:09

Does the OBJ export function from the SU Pro Version weld the edges for make volumes who can be subdivided in another 3D prog ?

chewbacca · 6 Sept 2012, 15:15

After moving the .rb file into my plugins folder, I am still unable to export to OBJ. Is the newest version of Sketchup not compatible with this plugin?

TIG · 6 Sept 2012, 15:59

It is fully compatible.
YOU must be doing something wrong.
After installing the file correctly in the Plugins folder and restarting Sketchup, the Exporter appears in the File menu... is this what's throwing you ?
Alternatively... if you don't have FULL security permissions to the Plugins folder, then you might have not installed it as you assume... is there a 'Compatibility Files' [or similar named] button-link in the Explorer Windows top bars ? If so click it...

Your report is not helpful - you assume we can deduce what is up from your bald statement that you are unable to export OBJ... Please consider the above and [re]read the tool's instructions.
Come back if you are still getting error messages etc...

spattija · 22 Sept 2012, 16:15

Thank you very much for your plugin!

Unfortunately, I tested it with some models downloaded form the 3D warehouse, and the resulting OBJ has some texture missing (materials have no map_Kd), although they show fine in sketchup.
Any idea? I attached a small polygon cut from the original model if you want to test

incriminated part of the model cut out

I'd appreciate some insights on it
Thank You!

TIG · 22 Sept 2012, 16:45

The model has been made sloppily - that's all.
If you use a Style with contrasting front/back default colors - say off-white/bright-blue, then view it in Monochrome mode you'll see some bright-blue faces - these are the ones that were not reversed properly and so they now have the material applied onto their backs, not the fron with is looking the wrong way.
An OBJ [and many other file formats] export will only include the faces' front material - in the case of the sample you provided that's the default off-white 'underneath' NOT the top which has a texture applied to the face's back, because it's made 'upside-down'

Find my Fix Reverse Face Material tool in the Plugins Index - that finds faces with materials on their backs and not fronts, reverses the face and remaps the back material onto the front face [that's by now facing the right way !]
After using the tool the model will appear no different, because the materials/textures will look the same - BUT re-view the model in Monochrome and you should see all faces in the default off-white, and it should then export properly with textured faces correctly oriented...

spattija · 22 Sept 2012, 16:59

Thank you very much for your quick reply,
but I still have problems with it: the fix reversed plugin says that zero faces have been fixed. re-exporting it produces the same, non textured model.
Any idea?

TIG · 22 Sept 2012, 17:20

OK - I see the issue.
The face you supplied IS modeled upside-down [I assume you can see this in Monochrome mode] and it has the required textured-material on its back NOT its front, BUT I see that the front material has been set to an 'off-white' material called "<auto>", that simply matches the default-material

If you select this material in the model-pane of the Materials Browser and delete it then the mis-oriented face [and any others using it] get the default-material applied instead and THEN you can use the FixReversedFaceMaterials tool to flip/swap things as I described... I just tried it and it works.

I'm not sure where this "<auto>" materials is used in the model otherwise, but I suspect that it's been used as the 'default-material' when someone was importing things from another app etc... If you do delete it then all faces that were using it become the 'default' material, which is an 'off-white' plain-color, so the overall appearance isn't going to change significantly anyway

spattija · 22 Sept 2012, 17:44

Simply... great!!!

Thank you so much TIG. I am a computer graphics researcher and I am going to use models from the warehouse as testing purposes for my current research topic. As you could have argued, I am not familiar with sketchup and its scripting, I am just using it for file format conversion. The warehouse is, above all, a great testbench, but models with wrong appearance make my tests useless.

So, once again, thank you!

NukeCreations · 3 Oct 2012, 22:19

Thanks for the link, really helped!

TIG · 8 Oct 2012, 09:26

Here is v2.7 http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=294844#p294844

Alpha now set as d= and Tr= for cross-platform compatibility.
Coords' d.p. increased for accuracy.
Option to Export 'Selection Only', if there is a selection.
Active_entities exported, allowing just the contents of a group/component being edited to be exported; or the whole model if the context is model.entities.

andybot · 8 Oct 2012, 09:58

Thanks TIG!! Great to know you continue development on this one. This is a supremely useful tool for me. Many thanks.

Andy

Judith · 8 Oct 2012, 15:58

Hello,
I'm using Google SketchUp to do my final year project of computer science.
I'm using the plugin objexporter to translate Google SketchUp format. to Obj, but when testing with some models I have found that depending on the composition of the model is called a method or another plugin. In the case of 3dwarehouse http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=c5fa9fa9f209780aaa261f49f4209a7d&prevstart=0 model to run the plugin calls a method objexporter deprecated (Sketchup :: group) and the program ends without performing conversion. Is there a version that fixes this problem?

Thank You.

TIG · 8 Oct 2012, 18:05

It is not an error.
There is a known fault in the API as it assumes that there can only ever be one instance of a group in the model. However it is possible to have more that one. The group.copy method ought to make the copy and auto-uniquify it, but some rogue scripts have messed with group.copy so some tools use alternative methods to duplicate groups and then use .make_unique on them - this works fine... but puts a spurious error message up in the Ruby Console.
But I am surprised you get these errors...
If you get other errors please post them.

It can take a while to export a complex form, so be patient - the Task Manager will show SketchUp is still working even if its screen whites-out and it is 'not responding'...

I am going to try your model - Saint Basils in Red Square is hardly a simple thing to start with !

I got no errors...
One of the issues I can see is that there are some textured-materials that have been mapped in a distorted way. Because OBJ format only uses 3 UVmapping points/normals the images have to be distorted to map then satisfactorily by three-points, this produces many files for these faces [>1440] These can be too many for some renderers [like Octane] that take in OBJ format. BUT it imports fine back into an empty SKP, into Blender etc so the OBJ file is [relatively] fine... The texture on the round arches on the center tower are distorted
If I use the Pro OBJexporter it's similar - there's about half the texture image files [it reuses very similar ones...], but the over all appearance is similar...

small08 · 8 Oct 2012, 22:11

This will go well with the new http://vivec3d.com/3d-ivy-generator-2012/ update. Now uses all cores!

Judith · 9 Oct 2012, 07:39

Thanks for your answer TIG. I tested with the model and if the conversion does take long though. The problem I commented in the previous post I came up with a model downloaded earlier. I attached so that you can try. In that case, does not convert google sketchup and reports with an error message. In ruby console the message (sketchup :: group deprecated method).

In my final year project of computer science,run google sketchup from a program created by me. With some models perform well the conversion (a. Obj), but appears white screen error.. To what can this be? I need to check whether the execution was successful and that message makes the result may not be correct because the conversion has been performed and the error message has gone.

Thank you so much!

Catedral.rar

TIG · 9 Oct 2012, 09:05

I looked at your latest Catedral SKP and see that there are several reversed faces, and single plane parts where the back face will not render properly as the back faces are not UVmapped, even if the renderer/importer used applied the front color to the back.
View it in Monochrome mode with the reversed faces in the Style set contracting as this example. My FixReversedFaceMaterials tool helps you 'flip' such faces whilst keeping the UVmapping of any textures on the now-front face to match...

Don't get too hung up about the 'error' - actually it's a 'warning' and the process completes fine - make_unique should never be needed on a group BUT it is needed so the API's warning is just wrong - it has been like that for years !

You refer to the 'white screen error' - this is NOT an error - when SketchUp does intensive processing [can even occur with it's native tools!] it becomes 'unresponsive' and it 'whites-out' BUT it is still processing - as the Task Manager will show... If you ask SketchUp to process millions of facets, materials etc you must expect it to take a while to finish. My OBJexporter is written in Ruby which is hardly an efficient tool. The Pro equivalent OBJexporter is a binary app that executes faster, but still takes a long time to finish. The latest version of my OBJexporter lets you export a selection so this could be much quicker when testing SKP for export to OBJ...

If you want to check that the OBJexport has finished - within the SKP using Ruby you can check to see that the active tool has changed to 'Select' ? Otherwise from the outside you need to see that SketchUp has stopped using any significant amount of processing memory etc...

sicksickisck · 23 Oct 2012, 13:14

smoothing groups ??!! export

TIG · 23 Oct 2012, 16:20

@sicksickisck said:

smoothing groups ??!! export
Cryptic.
It does create 'smooth surface' normal maps, if the object's faces are themselves 'smoothed'.
However, hidden lines keep sharp change of plane.
Most rendering apps know how to use/display such 'smoothed surfaces'...
In what app are you using the OBJ file?
Does that app have 'settings'?
Can you post a small example zipped SKP/OBJ/MTL/Textures set etc showing what you think is the issue...

Note that importing any OBJ back into SketchUp will ignore the facets 'smoothing' - unlike most 3rd-party renderings apps etc...

It works for me...