Again, it's hard to give advice without knowing what the geometry is, or what the steel guy is trying to analyse.

"By default, Sketchup models are imported as a Mesh" this sounds useful though - and rhino is certainly a tool that's useful for modelling prior to FE analysis. Combined with being able to export as a .sat this may be your solution.

Your fabricator should really be able to tell you exactly what they require so that they can do whatever analysis they need to do in algor, otherwise i'd suggest it's a bit unfair on you! Prepping geometry for an FE analysis (especially for 2D or 3D meshes) can be tricky.

John,

It's been a while since I used algor, but i'd say it very much depends on what your metal fabricator needs to use it for.

Algor is a pretty sophisticated (though has a terrible interface) finite element analysis package. Back when I was using it, I mainly imported line elements (one dimensional) from sketchup/autocad via dxf to create various structures, then analyse them. However, I'm guessing that your contractor will be more interested in analysing either steel surfaces (2D, and given a thickness within algor) or very local connections in 3D? If that's the case then it's quite hard to import anything complicated from sketchup, because you need either 2D meshed surfaces, or a full 3D mesh.

As a kind of summary;

• 1D geometry (where each lines represents a beam/column etc) should be able to be imported via dxf

• 2D geometry if the surface is planar can be done by exporting the boundary via dxf, then meshing in algor (IIRC)

• 2D geometry if the surface is curvy might end up being a bit of a nightmare

• and 3D solid geometry - either rebuild the model in (for example) autocad using the solid modelling tools and export as an ACIS solid (.sat file) OR i have a feeling there are some tools floating around on the internet somewhere that will convert a closed group of faces in dwg to a solid meshed .sat file (unfortunately i don't know of a sketchup plugin that will do this)

Sorry, I'm not sure i've explained anything well at all there... it's hard to say anything concrete without knowing exactly what the contractor needs to analyse.

P.S. Just had a thought that if it's curvy 2D surfaces, then the subdivide and smooth plugin might help a great deal, as the 'subdivision' part is effectively meshing the surface.

err... hope that helps!