Tutorial for sketchup 7.0 and Pepakura Version 3 problems

Derrick266

When I first was doing my papercraft on sketchup I didnt realize I would run into these problems so many problems with pepakura with sketchup converting, problems in pepakura to finish it when I laid out everything to completing the 3d work to putting in the textures. I looked around and all over trying to find a tutorial or a fix to my problems but found nothing but halo helmet tutorials, so I managed to figure it out on my own. ( its important to update both programs a problem I had earlier was it didnt want to import so I had to redownload the update to sketchup and then it worked) First lets make a model and texture it * snaps fingers* oh good we have one already. Now lets export it to pepakura go to file > Export> 3d Model
make sure its KMZ format. Then open pepakura and open.

Since your model is already textured and made now you want to export it ( best to keep both programs open since you will be going left and right), but more problems soon to come for some parts of your model ( you may get lucky ) but for some of you there is a workaround. Now lets start pepakura ( With this tutorial I will show you some extra stuff this program has), but for right now lets get to the problems as you can see in picture 2 when you press unfold notice the 3D box on the left from the box on the right. some textures are missing plus the pieces dont connect in pepakura when tried and/or your missing flaps ( now you cannot manually add flaps in pepakura you can draw them in if you want to ) you still have to fix the textures though and it would be best to fix them in model than out of.

So what we are gonna do is go back to sketchup were gonna have to do a little of back and forthing but it will be worth it. Now go to the side thats causing the problem in sketchup click and highlight on the texture ( face) and right click go to reverse facesyou will have to import texture again and some on the off chance the texture reverses itself so you will have to edit it in your image app. Now lets test it out......and yes it works..

Now for harder models with complicated pieces like this you go to view then hidden geometry and click on any face you need. If that doesnt work you will need to reverse the whole entire piece.

( Dont worry this works just keep messing with it) sometimes you will have to put textures inside of the model pieces othe rtimes it would be good to reverse the whole thing or your lucky and just one piece. Well thats all I can tell you about these problems if you need anymore you can reply here or any new problem please put a tut on this forum and pass it around.

PS If anyone has any further problems that I didnt adress please reply here on this thread and ill see what I can do

Rob D

Hi Derrick

Thanks for your tutorial. I'll be sure to follow it when I'm next using PPK One point for people to note when buying PPK is that the paid for version is still limited. They try to get you to pay more for higher resolution textures, so be sure to check out their website properly before buying to see if this is ok for you.

Rob

jol

Pepakura is still the best (that I've found so far) when it comes to unfolding.
You don't need to purchase the hi res version if you are able to export the unfolded file to some other software that will work with the formats pepakura gives you.
I work with a lot of organic shapes and there is an lot of 'tidying up' that must be done to get a 3d to flatten out to a workable 2d design and it pays dividends to take the time on your sketchup drawing to get things as right as you can.

You need to be aware, that updates of Google Sketchup won't necessarily work with Pepakura, I've found this out to my frustration. There aren't many old files of sketchup around, mostly they are a direct link, so you need to back up that old file just in case things go pear shaped.

Posed on here as well about the same problems you are having..
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=25651

Gaieus

Down in the Hungarian forum, a member also had problems with Pepakura not opening SU-to-KMZ exports properly. It seems that the still available "Google Earth 4 (kmz" export from SU 6 works the best.

Note that SU 6 (Pro) is still available for download at Google and even if someone does not have a license for the pro version, after 8 hours it will gracefully degrade to the free version but that does have these kmz export options!