I'm trying to make a small Ruby script that batch converts .skp files to other formats...

Could someone show sample code on how to open .skp file and then export it as .dae? I tried this but for some reason it's not working (.dae file has different content than original .skp file):

model = Sketchup.active_model
model.import "C;/skp_files/example.skp"
model.export "C;/dae_files/example.dae"

"A GOOD OBJ exporter typically makes copies all of the linked image-files either in the same folder as the OBJ, OR better in a subfolder called Images or XXX_Images or XXX_Textures, where XXX is the name of the OBJ file"

I couldn't agree more that that's the way is SHOULD be done. However, many programs, for example popular 3ds Max, don't do it that way by default. (Why not, I have no idea.)

When you save an object from 3ds Max in OBJ format (using default settings), linked image-files are NOT copied to the folder where OBJ and MTL files are saved. MTL file only contains links to original texture folder.

And when people try to open these files (in other computers) they can't see textures... And they keep filling forums with questions like "missing textures when opening OBJ file" (as seen in this thread also).

But hey, who cares, let's forget the whole thing!

Yeah that can be done of course - it's just not always very handy.

For exaple, a guy who originally created the 3d object might have stored his textures into folder like this:

C:\Documents and Settings\Leonardo\projects\maya\sci-fi\spaceships\enterprise\textures

Before I could place my textures in similar location, I would first have to create folder "Leonardo", then subfolder "projects", then subfolder "maya" etc. As I said, not very handy...

Programs like "Accutrans" and "Deep Exploration" have this "default textures folder" function. Or, if they can't find textures either in folder that is defined in MTL file or in "default textures folder" they ask the user "do you want to locate textures manually?".

I just thought that OBJ Importer could have some similar function... But maybe it's too much to ask all the features that are in commercial applications from a free plugin...

(Don't get me wrong, OBJ Importer is really really great plugin already just the way it is.)

Great plugin, thanks.

However, I have a problem with many OBJ files I try to import to SketchUp... Textures are missing.

From previous posts i realized that this is not actually a "bug" in OBJ importer. The reason is that many OBJ files are originally exported with "hard coded" texture paths (instead of relative pathing). So OBJ importer is trying to find textures from folder that doesn't exist in my computer...

But hey, maybe it could be possible to do something for this?

Maybe you could add a setting for "default textures folder", so that OBJ importer would always look for textures from that user-defined folder (and it's subfolders) when OBJ file is imported? Or maybe textures that are in the same folder with OBJ file (or in /Textures folder) could be automatically imported with OBJ file?

I know that this can be done by editing manually MTL file that comes with OBJ file, but that's too much "hacking" for me... Especially if I have to do this with every sigle OBJ file that I import to SketchUp...