sketchucation logo sketchucation
    • Login
    ℹ️ Licensed Extensions | FredoBatch, ElevationProfile, FredoSketch, LayOps, MatSim and Pic2Shape will require license from Sept 1st More Info

    Solidworks export into SketchUp?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Extensions & Applications Discussions
    extensions
    20 Posts 9 Posters 29.7k Views 9 Watching
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • D Offline
      dangre
      last edited by

      I think I figured it out. I was not having much luck with that plugin but after messing with the .stl Solidworks settings I think I have it. I needed to set the Solidworks stl output options to ascii. The resultant model needs cleaning up due to the trangulation of stl but it works.
      Thanks to all...

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • D Offline
        dangre
        last edited by

        Yes, that plug-in does work, but the triangulation of stl is a real pain in the...
        I modeled a simple airfoil in Solidworks and stl converted it into hundreds of triangles which is not very user friendly. I guess I will seach for a 'cleaner' solution to import curved surfaces.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • sketch3d.deS Offline
          sketch3d.de
          last edited by

          @dangre said:

          Yes, that plug-in does work, but the triangulation of stl is a real pain in the...
          I modeled a simple airfoil in Solidworks and stl converted it into hundreds of triangles which is not very user friendly. I guess I will seach for a 'cleaner' solution to import curved surfaces.

          sure, STL means triangulation of facettes, simply needed because SU - as a mesh based surface modeler - cannot handle exact NURB spline based surfaces (and volumes neither).

          give ViaCAD 3D (OSX/Win) and it's ACIS .SAT filter a try: dynamic, feature-based NURBS surface and volume modeling with histroy tree and many vector-based CAD filters as IGES, STEP, DXF/DWG (which often need to be purchased w/ other products) for 99 U$ only... and does have a SU as well a Rhino import too 😉

          Norbert

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • C Offline
            cdubea
            last edited by

            If you have a copy of SolidWorks, you should have a copy of DWGEditor, their AutoCAD clone (it's a repackaged version of Intellicad). In SolidWorks export your file to an ACIS file. Open DWGEditor. Import the ACIS dile and save as a DWG. Open SketchUP and import the DWG. I find this works more reliably than Didier's STL importer.

            Let me know if you need further info.

            chris

            http:www.dubea.orgchris_small.jpg

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • D Offline
              dangre
              last edited by

              Had a chance to look at this again. I am able to open with DWGeditor. Let me have a look at the file and see if I can edit it as I would like. Thanks for the tip!!!!!

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • D Offline
                dangre
                last edited by

                Well, the SW to ACIS to DWGeditor to DWG to SketchUp worked but the geometry has a few 'holes' as it imports to SketchUp. The DWG file seems to be correct. I would attach the DWG file but I guess I can not attach DWG files here... I will play with the original geometry to see what is happening between SW and SU.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • pilouP Offline
                  pilou
                  last edited by

                  Of course transform nurbs in polygons is a little task 😉
                  Moi is perfect for that! as Remus said above (one of the best converter nurbs / OBJ)
                  Import : 3dm, igs, iges, Sat, stp, step, ai, eps, pdf
                  Export : 3dm, igs, iges, Sat, stp, step, stl, obj,3ds,lwo,fbx, SKP

                  Frenchy Pilou
                  Is beautiful that please without concept!
                  My Little site :)

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • W Offline
                    watkins
                    last edited by

                    Dear Dangre,

                    Try the following:

                    Export from SolidWorks as a .sat file
                    Import into your AutoCAD clone and scale x100
                    Export as a .dwg file and import into SU
                    Scale the imported model x0.01

                    SU doesn't like small features and so the scaling is important. Use Soften Edges to make the model more visually pleasing. I find that the above works well with Inventor. I do not know what the industry standard is but Inventor exports .sat models with 40 sided circles, giving holes a smooth appearance.

                    Hope this helps.
                    Bob

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • Jean LemireJ Offline
                      Jean Lemire
                      last edited by

                      Hi folks.

                      To correct the problem with triangulation after importing a STL file into SU, I tried this procedure:

                      1 - Export the SU model as a DWG file.

                      2 - In a new instance of SU, Import the DWG file with the option to merge coplanar faces set to on. This should eliminate unnecessary triangulation.

                      Just ideas.

                      Jean (Johnny) Lemire from Repentigny, Quebec, Canada.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • X Offline
                        xrok1
                        last edited by

                        @unknownuser said:

                        Of course transform nurbs in polygons is a little task 😉
                        Moi is perfect for that! as Remus said above (one of the best converter nurbs / OBJ)
                        Import : 3dm, igs, iges, Sat, stp, step, ai, eps, pdf
                        Export : 3dm, igs, iges, Sat, stp, step, stl, obj,3ds,lwo,fbx, SKP

                        is this still a current list of i/o formats or has it changed for ver2? i couldn't find a list on the moi3d site. also do you know whether or not if you buy 1 now you get ver.2 retail when its released?

                        “There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.”

                        http://www.Twilightrender.com try it!

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • R Offline
                          remus
                          last edited by

                          i know MoI v2 can export .skp, not sure about other formats though.

                          And i last time i checked, it was $100 for v1 then $100 to upgrade to v2 or $200 to just buy v2, so no price difference. From that id extrapolate that you wont get a free upgrade to v2 if you buy v1 now.

                          http://remusrendering.wordpress.com/

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • X Offline
                            xrok1
                            last edited by

                            i thought ver1 was $195?


                            Capture1.JPG

                            “There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.”

                            http://www.Twilightrender.com try it!

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • R Offline
                              remus
                              last edited by

                              sorry, thatll be $195 for v1 and $295 for v2 then, and $100 to upgrade from v1 to v2.

                              http://remusrendering.wordpress.com/

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • 1 / 1
                              • First post
                                Last post
                              Buy SketchPlus
                              Buy SUbD
                              Buy WrapR
                              Buy eBook
                              Buy Modelur
                              Buy Vertex Tools
                              Buy SketchCuisine
                              Buy FormFonts

                              Advertisement