Interacting with a Sketchup file in another program

pigbite · 22 Sept 2010, 17:29

Hi,

I am new to the Sketchup dev world and am not sure what is possible with the API, plug-ins etc.

We are currently using Sketchup to model sun path and shadow activity on buildings for solar shading control applications. I am wondering if there is a way of embedding a Sketchup file in an external program (e.g. a web page) and maintaining the ability to animate it and see the effect of shadows. I know there is the web viewer but all that does is produce a set of screen shots. What I want to be able to do is allow the user to enter a date/time and see the effect of the shadows on a building. If possible I would then like to animate the model to show blinds raising/lowering in response to the sun.

Is anything like this possible? As a newbie to the forums please just let me know where the best place to repost this is and I will do so.

Many thanks in advance,

Jez.

Gaieus · 23 Sept 2010, 08:38

I am not sure about such a program but I am pretty sure that if there were one, SU could be used to generate the geometry but more or less that's all. You should then get it somehow to that web based app and configure that one to do what you want.

Such interactivity could be done in Flash or Java but that is completely outside of SketchUp's realm.

honoluludesktop · 23 Sept 2010, 08:55

Not the expert on this, but it's simple to make a SU plugin that can run other programs, read, and write externally files. SU can communicate with the outside world in this way. There are probably more sophisticated ways that others might be able to point out.