Emailing Drawings

[walts]

When I send email of drawing it says theres no program to open it....am I saving it incorrectly?

[Dave R]

Are you e-mailing the SKP file to someone who doesn't have SketchUp installed?

If you are e-mailing drawings to others who aren't using SketchUp, you should use File>Export>2D... Choose either JPG or PNG for the file type and export that. Anyone should be able to look at those image types.

[hirschma]

Here's a great way to send someone a drawing, although it is a bit complicated. But compatibility is all but guaranteed.

This requires Adobe Acrobat Pro, FYI, something that a lot of folks have around, and Meshlab, which is Open Source.

1. Make a blank document and save it to PDF. I typically make mine 16:10, as that's the aspect ratio that I'm working at (so I make a custom 16"x10" doc, no margins, in Word). Open that in Acrobat Pro.

2. Go to SketchUp, select the parts of the model that you want to send (or the entire thing), and export as OBJ. I use the following options:

Export only current selection
Triangulate all faces
Export two-side faces
Swap YZ coordinates (Y is up)

3. In Meshlab, import the OBJ file, and choose Export Mesh As. Save it as a .U3D file. For this example, I choose no options.
4. Open your blank PDF in Acrobat Pro. Then do the following:

Choose Tools>Multimedia>3D Tool. You'll get a crosshair cursor.
Make your view port with this. I typically fill the entire screen.
Acrobat will pop up a file requester dialog. Enter the .U3D file path there. Select Advanced Options. Enter the following options:

Launch Settings: Enable When: The page content is opened.
3D: Background color: White
3D: Lighting Scheme: White Lights
3D: Rending Style: Solid (try playing with the other settings for your purposes)
3D: Show toolbar: (checked)

See attachment. It works in any recent Adobe Acrobat reader.

This file copyright Jonathan Hirschman, all rights reserved. Free to redistribute for non-commercial use.