Any SketchUp users here?

Just looking for a SketchUp CAD aficionado. Anyone here?

Best,
Kelly

 

They have both. I have some very detailed files that could be very useful to me but they were created in SketchUp. I also have the STLs exported from same as that is an Export format available in SKP. The STLs have errors. Some many.

SKP might be OK for making pretty pictures, renderings and animation, but SKP isn't a good choice for tech work and by nature, won't convert well to the NURBS based CAD softwares that are. That said, there was an astonishing amount of work invested in these dimensionally accurate files, an especially impressive feat in SKP, but even more impressive is the amount of invested time to accurately reverse engineer the original parts.

I tried several solid model conversion programs but they were all a total mess. I finally concluded that the only way to get something useful from them was to correct the errors in the original source software so I downloaded the SKP free trial and used it to correct the modeling errors, so the mesh files were useful for technical work like generating toolpaths. Most of the errors were in the normal directions of faces within the models and that is relatively easy to fix in SKP, much more so than mesh editing softwares like MeshLab.

SKP does have a very impressive AI assisted tutorial/help function and in a few hours I was proficient enough to fix the modeling errors so they would export good/useable STLs.

However, these are very sophisticated models and being able to make some of the additional physical changes to the models would require me to buy a license and invest a large amount of time in learning the software. They eliminated their perpetual license options last year. The files require at least their Pro version which is $33/mo for a yearly subscription which isn't unreasonable relatively speaking but the amount of required learning time would not be reasonable.

I would never use SKP other than to manipulate these files, thus my taking a stab. I could post same on the SKP forum and could no doubt find someone, but the work would be a big ask.

Best,
Kelly

 

I just want to use the softwares to model useful objects not write them but inevitably, explanations for how to use them are rooted in how they work, moreover the mathematical rules/transformations they use to define and manipulate a solid object. It's easy to transform a solid to a surface but not the other way around. Once a solid is transformed to a surface, you lose virtually all record that defines and constrains its solid properties. Once converted to surface all you have is a point cloud that can serve as vertices for meshes.

I don't know much about SketchUp but in lay terms it's a surface modeler and all its output formats are surfaces and/or point clouds. All real objects and solid models have thickness, but these SKP files only show the outer skin. If they show the inner surface, that's all it is because if you section the part it's hollow with an inner and outer boundary that has no thickness, thus the need to fill that space for 3D printing. This is ok for visual stuff like graphics and animation, and some tech processes where a meshed surface definition is good enough. I use STLs in my CAM program to generate tool paths and they work fine for my purposes for that because a lot of the 3D machine operations work very similar to 3D printing slicing methods.

A meshed surface is just an approximation and when you try to convert it back to a solid, it becomes a crude approximation to the original solid and all the rules the solid transformation programs adhere to are no longer present.

I occasionally use FreeCad. It can import a surface file like an STL and export a solid like STEP. I tried a couple of its conversions of these STLs I had but they were not useful.

I haven't used Blender. I downloaded and used Meshlab. Other than very simple things like reducing mesh size, it's not very easy to use. If I did a lot of 3D printing, I'd probably need to become much better at repairing meshes, making them "water tight" as the 3D printer guys like to say, or in other words free of holes and errors in the surface mesh that cause programs that interpret the meshes to break down.

If I used 3D scans the mesh programs would also be useful but again, all you get is a point cloud and ultimately a meshed surface. People all tell me, why don't you just 3D scan the object (like an intake manifold) instead of all that modeling work. My reply is, have you ever done it? The only ones I have ever been able to use are those repaired and prepared by a knowledgeable person, the rest were a mess.

I haven't had the need because almost all the surfaces I use are created from models that I have made, and a good solid model will yield good surfaces almost every time. It's only when I get models and surfaces from someone else that I have to get into all of this as was/is the case with this instance.

It's amazing to me that someone went to all the work to completely model this engine in SKP. There would be no reason to include the internal parts except for things like exploded views an maybe animated themes on that.

Best,
Kelly