Sketch-Up welds vertices during export/edit process

[chanz]

I am working on models for old game formats. Because I am rendering these using texture arrays in external programs, I need every vertex to be unique even if it shares the same XYZ and UV coordinates. Whenever I try to load an .obj exported form Sketchup, there are issues as some of the vertices have been welded together and this causes issues with the texture array interpolation over this triangle.

I tried three different OBJ import methods and they all seem to have the same result - and I don't think there is any work being done behind the scenes during import. I assume then it's during the export process that it thinks "hey, these two vertices are in the same place, why not combine them..."

How can I force Skecthup to not combine or weld the vertices and how can I make it export them? Essentially I want to be able to load an .obj and export it and have virtually the same result.

Thanks!