[Plugin] PLY Importer

Jim

[mod=Jim:1caoabps]Mar, 2014. My .ply plugin has been adopted by SketchUp, and the code is being hosted on Github. It should soon be available in the Extensions Warehouse.

In the meantime, my original version can be downloaded here. Version 1.0.0, Plugins > jf_import_ply_file[/mod:1caoabps]

Mar 28, 2014 - v1.0.0

Release v1.0.0 in order to establish a release version reference point.

This exteniosn imports ASCII.ply files

This importer handles only vertices and faces.

Here's a model repository of .ply files -

Here are a few more .ply files.

Google search for ASCII .ply files.

Some .ply files are huge, and both the import and the resulting model may bring SketchUp to a "white screen" state.

For SketchUp 7+

thomthom

@jim said:

Some .ply files are huge, and both the import and the resulting model may bring SketchUp to a "white screen" state.

Performance is greatly improved if you create a PolygonMesh and use Entities.fill_from_mesh.

Jim

I need another me.

thomthom

jim2 = jim.clone

Jim

Ok, new version posted - uses PolygonMesh.

thomthom

hm...


while true
  jim.clone
end

Jim

Here's a reasonably-size example:

403 Forbidden

(www.cs.virginia.edu)

Moo.

notareal

Nice. Expecting to see some Chinese gardens with high poly dragons?

driven

import works,

and scrubs up, OK

but, how do you skin a cow on a Mac?

Hi,
this could be very handy, but the skinning is not working on mac? is it possible to tweak the code?

john

Jim

I don't understand SketchUp sometimes - my cow looked fine and was skinned on import. I did not need to do any cleanup.

driven

how do I revert to standard import to see if it bring faces?

john

thomthom

maybe the data is read somewhat differently on Mac..?

Jim

Line endings? Seems doubtful, but maybe.. will check.

thomthom

that - or interpretation of commas/periods depending on locale settings...
stabbing in the dark here

Jim

After reading the spec again, I'm surprised my "naive" implementation from 2006 works at all. I probably had the same thought then as I am having right now - it's hardly worth the effort for such an obscure file format. Good programming exercise, though.

driven

Hi again,

I certainly don't NEED it enough to warrant any effort, importing via MeshLab as either odj, dae or dxf is very painless on a mac, for the odd occasion that I'd want to.

the cow, which I copy pasted into a text file, re-named cow.ply is the only .ply I've had any success importing to SU and it won't open in MeshLad (I get a missing header message)

I'm more in need of 'skink-wrapping' of complex engineering geometry which I can't seem to find for Mac SU usage.

john

Jim

I re-wrote this so it should work with most ascii .ply files that have vertex and face elements. See first post for download.

driven

Hi Jim, thanks

I'll try it out later on and see if there's still a Mac issue, cheers

BTW have you ever had a play with Apanta Studio, the PC editor [that's now ported to Mac?]

john

driven

took longer to upload the Jpeg then to load into SU so that's very good, but I now have a request because I may have a use... can it import into a component, to save SU re-calculating all the faces?
came in so fast

Jim

If there is any geometry in the model (i.e. the model is not empty,) then the import is made in a Group. Will that work?

Glad to see it working.