Posts made by rainer.ochs

If you send me the file I will have a look into.

As converting to solid indeed is not so straightforward my plug in first checks if it finds a closed shell. If there are objects that do not fit in that scheme, that is loose faces, edges or internal flaps, it tries to get rid of these - but this may result in undesirable changes to the model.
If after the modification there is still a shell it is exported.
Consider to use TIG's solid checker before.
Please note, that in your model the shapes are not smooth but facetted - thats the limitation here. As made more for MCAD only round shapes are converted to the appropriate shapes in the IGES.
Rainer

@micione said:

• Open with MOI

As already mentioned: Many importers do not import IGES correctly. Try: HeeksCAD and the IGES-Viewer, both work for me. Heeks also allows to save in STEP that is more likely to be imported in other programs.
If your model does not import correctly to HeeksCAD please send me your skp. If it does, the problem is the importer, not the exporter.
Rainer

@tmiehle said:

Is it possible to generate a list of the components which are buggy?

During export the model is changed and some parts are deleted as they cannot be exported. After the export the changes are undone, but it is possible with the redo function to see these again.

There is a new version of the plugin where I have further enhanced the checks epecially for EagleUp so less parts are deleted. Now all edges that connect to inner surfaces are deleted, so these inner objects also vanish. Please try V0.7

Rainer

@gordon_smith said:

I also want to second the FreeCad & MeshLabs method as a great way to get IGES files into sketchup.

There is also a direct importer plug-in for stl into sketchup:
http://sketchuptips.blogspot.com/2010/03/sketchup-stl-importer-redo.html

A direct export to stl can be found at http://www.guitar-list.com/download-software/convert-sketchup-skp-files-dxf-or-stl

STL from other formats can be converted with FreeCAD or the above mentioned HeeksCAD.

All of these tools do not segment the model into different objects and the exporter does not generate a solid.

The importer generates a lot of nasty inner edges, but with a small tweeking of the script this can be fixed.

Just add the following lines into main after the import:

           
a = Array.new
Sketchup.active_model.entities.each{|e|
if (not e.deleted?) && (not e.hidden?)
  if e.is_a? Sketchup;;Edge
     if e.faces.size == 2
        if e.faces[0].normal == e.faces[1].normal
           a << e
        end
     end
  end
end
Sketchup.active_model.entities.erase_entities(a)
}

@davidvt said:

I am struggling to find the size limit that will work.
I have a very complex model the size of an aircraft that seems to lockup everytime.

@sepo said:

I tried to open .igs export from SU in Rhino. It bring geometry but geometry is broken.

I do not think, that the size itself is a problem. I usually scale my models in micron so I also have fairly big numbers and this worked fine. I think the problem is more the complexity. To convert from a face-model to solid it is very important that the outer shell has no gaps and no inner geometry. The exporter removes all parts it cannot convert to real shells.

Suggestion 1: Try redo to see what the exporter does to the model. If the parts are deleted there it is a problem with the geometry.

Suggestion 2: Try HeeksCAD to open the iges. If it is ok there, convert to step and import from there. If it is not ok the iges is the problem. Feel free to send me your model to the email that is given in the code.

@zacchia said:

I have some files in iges format I would like to import in SU, so an importer would also be nice to have...

There is a description on http://eagleup.wordpress.com/?s=iges&searchbutton=go%21
on Importing a STEP or IGES file into Sketchup using FreeCAD and MeshLab.
file.step => FreeCAD => file.stl => MeshLab => file.dae => Sketchup => file.skp

@anssi said:

Could it be expanded into the DXF format too?

I got good results with HeeksCAD ( http://heeks.net) a freeware CAD program.
It can import iges and once in Heeks you can save it to step, dxf and stl.
The programs file converting is based on open cascade (http://www.opencascade.org) a very sophisticated system. As far as I have been testing, the results are reliable.

Of course the exporter should not modify the model. It does it during work but afterwards undoes the changes. In V0.4 the undo was made a comment for testing, in V0.5 this is corrected.

TIG: is there a difference whether I use "model.abort_operation" or "model.commit_operation" and "Sketchup.undo" as I do?

thomthom: the exporter never was optimized for fast operation, I wanted to keep it simple. As I undo the changes it is no problem to adhere attributes to the entities, they never will be saved. IGES is constantly referring with pointers to its structural elements, keeping track with attributes was simpler to implement and more descriptive. I agree that hashes might be faster. But as the structure is still growing when I am going to implement splines I still prefer the more understandable approach.
What do you recommend to use instead of "typename"?

If you have problems it may be an option to convert the iges to step with an apropriate program. I have done this for Autodesc Inventor that will not import the iges into solids but wireframes. Converted to step it works fine.
It is also a good idea to export one part at a time and not too many together. You then see what part causes the problems and I have the impression that complex collection of parts tend to be more difficult.

When sketchup is used to do mechanical CAD it is sometimes desirable to convert the models to a CAD format.
There are two standard exchange formats, step and iges, that are widely used. I have chosen iges as the format is much more manageable, though it is the older standard. There are tools available to convert from iges to step if required (I use the free HeeksCAD)

The plugin first does some checking if the model contains valid solid geometry. Only closed shells are recognized as solid geometry and exported. The parts are not allowed to have inner surfaces or dangling lines. Geometry that does not conform is deleted prior to export, a warning message is given.

The model is segmented into solid shapes and then these are exported into an iges file. All the changes to the model are undone afterwards.

Sketchup represents all geometry as faces and edges, curved geometry is smoothed for viewing, but internally it is still edgy. Iges however expects the shapes to be defined in their actual shape. Thus a solid in iges is usually represented as a collection of analytical shapes and spline surfaces.

There is no universal way to create this shapes from the sketchup faceted mesh. My exporter recognizes cylindrical and conical shapes and exports these as true cylindrical surfaces. All other geometry is exported as edgy facets.
This is the curved geometry that most often is present in mecanical parts.
Probably I will attempt to do some spline fitting in the future.

Install the exporter by copying the file into the plugins directory. There will be a new function added to the tools menu.

Update:
V 0.5 Undo-Bug corrected. The exporter manipulates the model, but now undoes the changes afterwards correctly.
V 0.6 deletes temp file. Removes inner faces instead of deleting the whole object. Clean exit if no filename or nothing to export
V 0.7 Delete edges that connect to inner surfaces before export

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iges_export V0.7