Export PDF with textures from sketchup?
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Hi everyone,
The question is simple: has anyone exported a PDF with textures from SketchUp?
I know that it's even specified in the help file that this is impossible; that the PDF export is a strictly vector matter.
But if you were to do this, what would be your workflow? I'm curious especially in the case where the PDF would be further processed, eg. placing it into InDesign layout and getting a final poster.
One option is to get the PDF from SketchUp, open it in Illustrator, place the textures there and proceed. The other, I guess, is using Layout with its hybrid rendering engine (although I'm not sure how exactly that works). Both approaches require a man-in-the-middle program though.
Could this be done by a plugin? Does such plugin already exist? I'd be really eager to have one for SketchUp 8
(please don't blame me for not keeping up )I guess I answered my own question, but I would still like to hear your workflow tips.
//edit: also, how is the 'shadows in pdf' issue already 10 years old? https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sketchup-pro/pCHfcBz0ibg
ridiculous -
You can do this with Sketchup 2014 and layout using "hybrid" rendering.
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A SketchUp exported PDF is a vector file used for graphical purposes.
It will miss some of what you might see on the screen...If you want a PDF 'image' with textures etc as they appear on-screen, then there are several free or inexpensive PDF 'printer' tools available, which will add a PDF-Printer to your Printers list... which will in turn make a PDF instead of a paper copy when you 'print' something using it...
Look for ones like PDF995, CutePDF, PDFcreator, PDFfill etc etc...
Google for more...
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Are you really talking about just having a pdf image of the SU output? Since Mac prints pdfs, I never thought about it much. We have the option to print a pdf picture or to export a vector pdf. or
"especially in the case where the PDF would be further processed, eg. placing it into InDesign layout and getting a final poster."
Here do you mean you want to be able to manipulate the textures, as textures or patterns, in another SW? Is that possible?
However in the first case above, I would think you have more control if you export as png and then translate THAT to a pdf.
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@pbacot said:
However in the first case above, I would think you have more control if you export as png and then translate THAT to a pdf.
that's how i do it.
for whatever reasons, i don't use layout for my presentations/proposals.. i do it all in pages.app. (i also use numbers.app a lot)..
i think it comes down to while yes, layout is integrated with sketchup and that's cool etc.. pages/iwork is integrated with the OS/ecosystem and that's even cooler and more beneficial.
anyway- it's 2D pngs out of sketchup then compiled as pdf in pages.
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Keynote /iWork has some nice features too, even if you aren't doing a slideshow.
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@pbacot said:
[..] do you mean you want to be able to manipulate the textures, as textures or patterns, in another SW? Is that possible?
basically, yes.
i tried out the Layout's hybrid rendering again, and it's pretty close to what i would like, but the only flaw it has is that the textures (and colors!) are rendered in arbitrary regions in the pdf, overlapping (or underlying) the pdf's lines.
I was hoping each 'closed face' in the pdf would have its own texture, so in a time crunch i could, say, swap every second floor's texture...The main advantages I see is the ability to edit in post processing, and being able to print at both A4 and A1 formats with textures downscaled appropriately and having the crisp vector output.
(or am I behind and in 2014 edition of Sketchup & Layout this already works as I would like it to?)
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