A dilemna
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I have >20 years of Sketchup Make experience and have made over 1800 models. Until now Make has met my needs very well.
Now I'm looking at several changes:
- .gtlf
- Leaving Win 7 behind for Win 11.
And have a couple of requirements:
- Open and occasional save of Make 2016 files.
- My files remain on my machine.
I am not keen on learning Blender unless it is my only path forward. Am I in a hopeless situation or will SU 2025 work for me?
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2025 will do everything 2016 does.
It uses a versionless saving format.
I’d trial it before committing to yearly costs.
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I don't understand your dilemma...
I'm also using Sketchup Make 2017.- I'm not familiar with 'gtlf'. I assume that you mean 'glTF'? I never used this format so far. Do you want to 'import from' or 'export to' this format? I understand that there are extensions that allow the exchange of models (both directions) with Sketchup. Do a search, both in the Extension Warehouse, and on Sketchucation. A good importer (for many formats) is the 'Universal Importer' extension that you can find on Sketchucation. For exports, look at the extension warehouse.
- Running Sketchup Make (2017) on a Windows 11 PC is no problem. I do it on two machines since quite long.
- Open and save Make 2016 files in Make 2017 shouldn't be a problem: Just select 'File|Save As...' in the menu, and select 'Sketchup version 2016 (.skp)*' in the dropdown box that is labeled 'Save as file' at the bottom of the dialog box. Opening a 2016 file in version 2017 is no problem, it works like opening any other SU 2017 file (menu 'File|Open...').
- Your files remain on your computer. Just save them to your harddisk.
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You should download and look at the SU - gLTF traslation that pCon Planner (free) has. It can also open and save current SU files and save back to SU v8. With this maybe you can just keep using Make 17, should run fine on Win11. I have no idea on what types of models you are making so just throwing out a suggestion. Good luck
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Thank you all for the information you shared, I appreciate it!
One last question: Is there a plug in that will convert each SU rectangle face into two triangles? SU -> Collada -> Blender didn't work very well because Blender wanted two triangles instead of SU's one face.
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Isn't triangulation of all faces a native feature when you export your Sketchup model to Collada? Normally, it should be available behind the 'Options...' button in the Sketchup 'Export Model' dialog.
Next, there are indeed separate extensions that offer similar functionality, but these may be beyond your needs. So, best is to start with the out-of-the-box feature, and see how it works for your specific requirements.
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