Help needed for teacher- exporting Sketchup to ogre. PLEASE

[amykrajnak]

Specs: Macbook OS 10.6, Sketchup 8
I am TOTALLY not a graphic designer, so a lot of the things mentioned on this page are WAY over my head!

I am a middle school teacher working this summer on a project where students can use Sketchup 8 to build their own 3D models for simulation software, but I need it in Ogre. I downloaded the files, put them in the plugin folder, and when I finish my model, I click on the Tools menu, hoping that the Ogre export button will work. I really, REALLY need someone who can share a screencast or YouTube video or provide SPECIFIC step by steps. I know how to identify a directory, change xml code, but I am unsure WHAT to change it to. PLease, please, please help if you can. Think of how cool it would be if I can have my 6-8th graders designing things on Sketchup that are used in a simulation! They'll love it!

[spacegaier]

Never used SketchUp so cannot really help, but there are some links that you might have already have looked at (I hope ):
http://www.ogre3d.org/tikiwiki/Sketchup+Exporter
http://www.di.unito.it/~nunnarif/sketchup_ogre_export/
http://www.rigsofrods.com/threads/87369 ... e-exporter
http://dundee.cs.queensu.ca/wiki/index. ... _with_Ogre

[amykrajnak]

Yes, I have tried them, but they're still a little "code-y" for me. Plus one's for Sketchup 7, I have 8. Thanks!

[Kojack]

I have no idea how Sketchup plugins work on macs (file paths, etc), so the only advice I can give is for the windows version.

First grab the sketchup exporter. There's a few around, most are based on my initial one but use an older user interface. I'd recommend the one from the ogre addons svn repository. If you don't feel like using svn, you can grab a zip of it here: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/25421952/sketchupexporter.zip

Extract all the files (there's only 6) into the sketchup plugin directory. For me, it's C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google SketchUp 8\Plugins
No idea where that is on a mac.

You'll need to install a mac version of the ogrexmlconverter file. Also no idea where this should go on a mac, or where to get a mac version besides compiling your own.

Now run sketchup. In the Tools menu there should be an entry near the bottom called Export To Ogre. Select that when you are ready to export a model. You should now see a big window appear with a heap of settings. If a little window appears with one text box asking for a name, then you have one of the other exporters, not my one.

Here's the settings in the export screen:
Export Style - should be set to Mesh. The other two options aren't implemented yet.
Export Name - give this the name you want the mesh exported as. The exporter will add .mesh to the end when it exports.
Export Materials - Tick this to export a material file. In the text box you need to put the path where you want the material to be saved.
Export Meshes - Tick this to export a mesh file. In the text box you need to put the path where you want the mesh to be saved.
Export Textures - Tick this to export textures. In the text box you need to put the path where you want the textures to be saved.
Run XML Converter - Tick this if you want the OgreXMLConverter to be run automatically. Without it, the exported mesh will be in only the .mesh.xml format, which ogre can't load. In the text box you need to put the path of the OgreXMLConverter. On my pc it would be: C:\OgreCommandLineTools\OgreXMLConverter.exe
Export Default Materials - Tick this to export definitions of the two default (front face and back face) materials.
Front Faces - Tick this to export front faces.
Back Faces - Tick this to export back faces.
Root Faces - Tick this to export faces that aren't part of a component or group (so faces that are just sitting in the scene directly).
Merge Child Components - This currently does nothing.
Selection Only - Tick this to make the exporter only export selected objects instead of the entire scene.
Scale - Click one of the scale buttons to match the units in your ogre application. It will fill the scale text box for you with the right scale.

Then click the export button at the bottom. With luck, that's all there is to it.

[madmarx]

What i did once, is export to collada and then convert in blender to ogre.
Best regards,

Pierre

[Kojack]

Sketchup lacks a lot of features that ogre supports, like lights, animation, advanced materials, etc. Texturing is hard too, it doesn't use uv mapping in the conventional way (it often distorts textures and saves them as separate images).
Loading the sketchup scene (via collada) in blender lets you do better texturing and set up lighting and stuff for a whole scene export.

[amykrajnak]

Thank you to everyone who responded. Basically it seems as though it will be an "at home" assignment for now.

[amykrajnak]

So I am revisiting this post. Any suggestions for creating a .scene file? I can successfully (on a PC) create a .mesh and material, but when I choose the DOTscene from the dropdown menu on the export window and click EXPORT, it does not generate a .scene file in the directory I have indicated.

Any suggestions besides going to Blender?

TIA

[Kojack]

The dot scene option in the sketchup exporter hasn't been implemented yet. It's something I was planning on doing years ago, but the sketchup api really pisses me off at times, so it's been on hold for a bit (well, years).

The easy way to get a scene could be to use Ogitor. Export the meshes from sketchup then use Ogitor to place them, add lights and terrain (or what ever else is needed) and save a scene.
http://www.ogitor.org

[arkeon]

Hi,

in fact I made a version of the sketchup exporter (from the last kojack version, about one year ago) which manage to export a dot scene from sketchup.
it can generate meshs by groups or components.

windows setup :
http://www.openspace3d.com/downloads/Sk ... for%20Ogre

for the sources (or manual install) :
https://arkeon.dyndns.org/svn-scol/trun ... ter/files/

you will have to copy the rb scripts to your sketchup plugin directory and certainly have to found a Mac version of the OgreXmlConverter to make it works.

please tell me if you can try it and how it works on Mac