Export camera?

daforum · 15 Nov 2012, 17:02

I was wondering, is it possible to export the camera from SketchUp to use in other 3D apps like Blender, Maya, or LightWave?

Chris Fullmer · 15 Nov 2012, 17:07

Most definitely. Depending on the software you want, there might already be a plugin made to do it for you. I'm pretty sure blender has a camera exporter tool of some sort. I do not know about lightwave or Maya. But the cameras do export in .3ds format. So if you use that format, I know 3dsmax will use recognize the cameras. I'm sure Maya would and hopefully lightwave? If not, in theory a plugin could be developed. Its fairly easy to write the SketchUp portion of exporting the camera details. The hardest part is just figuring out how to write it to a format that the other software can read.

daforum · 15 Nov 2012, 17:16

Thanks Chris.
I'm not a plugin creator myself but just wanted to know if a plugin existed already.
It would be so useful as I would be able to go back and forth between SU and the other 3d apps.

I know LightWave doesn't recognize 3DS max files (i'm on a Mac too so not able to use 3DS Max as it's PC only)
Will have to see if Blender can do it, but i can't use Maya as I don't have it.

TIG · 15 Nov 2012, 22:38

As Chris says it's quite possible, provided that you know the exact format that the target app requires the data in...
I have personally made SKP scene camera-info and SKP scene location/sun/shadow exporters for Octane Render [available via their licensed users sketchup forum], so you can separately import 'nodes' for these two settings into your render settings if desired...
So making ones for other apps may not be so difficult...

daforum · 23 Nov 2012, 18:40

Hi TIG,

How could this be done for LightWave, Maya or Blender?

Chris Fullmer · 24 Nov 2012, 18:27

Well, the most basic way would be to use a script in SketchUp to see all the properties of the current camera, and then type those in manually into the software of your choice. Thhis plugin lets you do some of that:

http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27835

Looks like it shows camera location (the camera eye), camera direction and the "up" direction. Those data might be enough to enter into Maya, Lightwave and blender to then correctly match positions. BTW, those data shown are in inches, so you might have to convert them if you are not working in inches in your other softwares.

But if you want a more fully automated way to export a camera file for those software, that would require knowing what file format they can read. I know we have some blender users around. Maybe they know what format could be used for Blender. I'm not sure about Maya and Lightwave. I use neither of those. I do use 3dsmax though.

Chris Fullmer · 25 Nov 2012, 03:31

Poking around and it looks like both Maya and Lightwave support .dae files (collada). You might try taking your SketchUp model and exporting to those formats and the cameras should come along with it.

If you just want camera data, then do a "save-as" and delete everything out of the model, but leave the scenes in place. Then export the empty model. Maybe it will export camera data into an otherwise empty .dae file? That way you might be able to import that file, with just the camera infor into your existing Maya/Lightwave model.

Just some thoughts.

Chris

PS I would guess that blender will also work with the .dae file.

Chris Fullmer · 25 Nov 2012, 03:39

Hmm, just tried it and SketchUp doesn't appear to export scenes as cameras in .dae files? Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but that seemed like it should work. Guess not!

Chris

Chris Fullmer · 25 Nov 2012, 03:45

Sorry for the spamming....but I should say that a collada camera exporter could still be written, even though I'm not seeing that SketchUp's does it natively. That might be the best file format to use as it appears that many software can read it.

daforum · 3 Dec 2012, 12:11

@chris fullmer said:

Sorry for the spamming....but I should say that a collada camera exporter could still be written, even though I'm not seeing that SketchUp's does it natively. That might be the best file format to use as it appears that many software can read it.

Thanks for trying Chris, and you aren't spamming as any info on this subject is very useful.
I still don't know how to just export from Sketchup as .dae, as I'm using the free version.

The trick i learnt (as I'm not using the Pro version of Sketchup) was to:

export as Google Earth 4
rename to "archivo.zip" and open the zip. Inside is a .dae file.

Gaieus · 3 Dec 2012, 12:22

The free version can also export to dae. It may be called "Collada" in the exporter. There is an advantage of that exporter (as it has been re-written); it does not rename materials exported from SU therefore it's much easier to work with in 3rd party apps or when you make some changes in the model and re-export it for reloading in those apps (if they allow it of course)

Gaieus · 3 Dec 2012, 12:25

@chris fullmer said:

Hmm, just tried it and SketchUp doesn't appear to export scenes as cameras in .dae files? Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but that seemed like it should work. Guess not!

Chris

No, AFAIK it does not. When you export your model to GE, it can export camera settings but it's not the dae file that bears the info but the kml file one folder level up.

Chris Fullmer · 3 Dec 2012, 17:21

@gaieus said:

When you export your model to GE, it can export camera settings but it's not the dae file that bears the info but the kml file one folder level up.

Yeah, that was what I finally discovered. Maybe that's a good way to do it for GE, but that's not the right way to do it for collada.

But a separate ollada camera exporter could be written. I never did finish looking into it, but it seems pretty straightforward for a simple non-animated camera.