[Plugin] KML Tools (2.0.0-beta) — updated 31.05.2013

SBMattingly

When using this tool that I just downloaded, I get a small window first that says "Loading correct elevation data failed. Internet Explorer 8 (or higher) required." I have IE 8 and SU 8.

Ruby console says the following: "fetching elevation from url: http://api.geonames.org/astergdemJSON?formatted=true&lat=37.355313&lng=-108.385784&username=demo&style=full&callback=returnJson
returned:
{"status":{"message":"the deaily limit of 30000 credits for demo has been exceeded. Please use an application specific account. Do not use the demo account for your application.","value":18}}

Please help. I would love for this plugin to work.

Stan

humbertoanastasia

Hi there! Thanks for the plugin.

I'm having an issue, though.

I try to export an object, the dialog box opens, everything ok, and then...
Sketchup and the plugin just stop working.
Any ideas??

Tanhks!

Aerilius

What happens? What does "stop working" do?
And it's good if you tell me the file size, as described anything larger than some hundred kilobytes will take long. There is no simple way to make it faster.

humbertoanastasia

Thanks for the reply.

In fact, after I read your post, I tried "cleaning" the file, and minimizing it to the sole part of the model i wish to export. And... It worked out fine!

Thanks, and congratulations on your job!

coda13

thank you very much!

Aerilius

**@thomthom said:

You're using a webdialog for the import - you can use the XML parsing capabilities of the web-browser:
http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_parser.asp
**

I'm working on a solution with a DOM xml parser.
It's more than 5 times faster than REXML (and probably much more in newer browsers).

Aerilius

A quick update for compatibility with SketchUp 2013. It was released so quickly.
This is the last version before 2.0

Aerilius

I have uploaded a beta version of KML Tools 2.0!
If you like, please help testing and give me feedback if files don't work with it.
The new version has

significant speed improvements, up to 7× faster import
a reliable xml parser and better support for nested kml structures
better error handling

kubark42

Just tried the beta, but it made no file output, just an empty directory. 1.4 works fine for me with the same workflow, so I'm either doing something wrong or it's not working on my model.

EDIT: Sorry, I should have included some info. This is OSX 10.8 running SU8. Model can be downloaded from https://www.dropbox.com/s/q5a1hzqvcwlc39u/Geo-fence.skp

kubark42

So this tool is really awesome, and almost exactly what I need. Thanks a million!

Time for a tiny bug report: when setting the altitude mode to absolute altitude, instead of adjusting the Z values to the true altitudes, the script just sets the altitudeMode field to "absolute". The result is that a model that was drawn on the surface is buried in the ground in Google Earth.

Aerilius

Thanks for the feedback! I'll check your file and fix it.

kubark42

Okay, figured out the second bug, and why I wasn't seeing it before:


    if facecolor
      @out.puts "  <Style>"
      @out.puts "    <LineStyle>"
      @out.puts "      <color>#{linecolor}</color>"
      @out.puts "      <colorMode>normal</colorMode>"
      @out.puts "      <width>1</width>"
      @out.puts "    </LineStyle>"
      @out.puts "    <PolyStyle>"
      @out.puts "      <color>#{facecolor}</color>"
      @out.puts "      <colorMode>normal</colorMode>"
      @out.puts "      <fill>1</fill>"
      @out.puts "      <outline>1</outline>"
      @out.puts "    </PolyStyle>"
      @out.puts "  </Style>"
      @out.puts "  <MultiGeometry>"
    end

only places the <MultiGeometry> tag if there is a facecolor. So moving " @out.puts " <MultiGeometry>"
" to right after the "end" solves the problem.

kubark42

Hi, Aerilius--

I found out why I was having altitude problems. I don't program in ruby, but it looks close enough to other languages iI do program that I was able to muddle through it and realize that Altitude is not an attribute in GeoReference, so get_attribute("GeoReference","Altitude") returns 0. By changing Altitude to ZValueCentered, I was able to get a negative value in inches that is seemingly correct for my elevation. I cannot find a definitive reference on this, and there is also ModelTranslationZ which has the identical value for me, so I'm unclear which is the appropriate way forward. However, both solve my problem. So in conclusion, I've replaced line 253 by @ground = -@model.get_attribute("GeoReference","ZValueCentered").to_f.to_m and that solved my problem.

Now I'm struggling with an odd error. For some reason when exporting a group to multigeometry the KML is missing the opening <MultiGeometry> tag, but it has the closing one. This causes an import error in KML until I manually add the XML tag.

EDIT: terrain_alt([0,0,0]).to_m doesn't seem to return any sensible values. I'm interested if you have an idea about this, too.

Kromaggs

I'm using Bash under Window to dynamically generate a ruby script. This script allow me to import a specific KML file in sketchup and when the import is done I would like to export my model to KMZ file. This is an extract of my ruby script


#----------------------------------------------------------
	# Impport du modèle KML.
	model = Sketchup.active_model	
	status = model.import inKML, false
	
	if status
		#----------------------------------------------------------
		# Suppression du modèle KML importé.
		#File.delete( inKML )

		#----------------------------------------------------------
		# Export du modèle au format KMZ.
		modelFile=File.basename( inKML, ".kml" )
		exportPath = exportDir + modelFile + ".kmz"
		model.export exportPath
		model.entities.clear!

		#Sketchup.undo
		#Sketchup.app_safe_shutdown
	end

But the import KML plugin seems to give back the control to my script while importing, so the exported KMZ is not complete because the KML is not completely imported.

Any idea about this problem ?

organicmotion

"File seems not to exist.
Please check that the file path does not contain Unicode characters. This is a limitation of SketchUp and its Ruby version."
Am I doing something wrong? Took the KMZ file from gps opened in Google earth saved as KML then tried to import into SU with the KMLtools and I get the error above..
any ideas anyone? Thanks, I am a beginner with SU

truga

It appears that KML Tools are not yet compatible with 2014. I get the message:

Error Loading File kmlDate.rb
Error: #<SyntaxError: C:/Users/truga/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2014/SketchUp/Plugins/kmlDate.rb:77: formal argument cannot be a global variable
...previewTimeLine") {|$kmlDateDlg, param|
...

etc.

borrel

@organicmotion said:

"File seems not to exist.
Please check that the file path does not contain Unicode characters. This is a limitation of SketchUp and its Ruby version."

I am getting the same problem (Mac OSX 10.9.2) with v 2013 and 2014 - with Google SketchUp 8.0.15157 - the old version works fine. Sad, because SU is a great tool for visualization AND a converter to make X3D files from GPS-GPX tracks thus: GPS tracker > GPX > KML (gpsbabel or GPS Viz) > SKP > VRML (WRL) > X3D (via aopt). See the models here: http://abdallah.hiof.no/drone/index.html

Gorin21

Hi,

great job with the plugin! I would like to know, if the functionality of adding timestamps can be included in next release? In 2.0 beta there is none, in the previous stable version, there is availability to add a timestamp.

Thanks for the reply,

Paul

BIANI patrick

Sir, would it be possible to have a detailed using your KML exporter of interesting tutorial.
I would like to export animations 'Keyframe' to Google earth to animate a plane flight or a vehicle path, but do not have your talent developer, looking for a simple tool that can help me in this regard,
thank you for your attention.
Patrick
patrickbiani13@gmail.com
http://www.wix.com/patrickbiani13/scan-service

BIANI patrick

Sir, I have installed your update (SketchUp 8 Pro), but I can not find anywhere in the menu can add Timespan, thank you for your help