×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

SketchUp to SW

SketchUp to SW

RE: SketchUp to SW

(OP)
ctopher

I searched too. Just like the thread you gave as an example, they really aren't moving geometry from one to the other.

That topic would have been a good application to bring up in the SW forums multi-body discussion though.

Still looking.  

TOP
CSWP, BSSE
www.engtran.com  www.niswug.org
www.linkedin.com/in/engineeringtransport

"Node news is good news."

RE: SketchUp to SW

I worked for a company while I was still in school that couldn't afford a large Eng department. But I convinced them to buy SketchUp.

It works great for layouts, architectural designs and mockups.
But it is annoying to make anything dynamic, mechanical (moving) or impossible to do analysis (obviously no FEA).
I had an old sandblast room that was really small, and we were re-servicing it hold some new equipment (compressors and tanks). There were height restrictions, old mountings on the walls, out-croppings etc. It took me about an hour to model the room exactly how it was so we could easily throw different pieces of equipment in and orient them so the guys could work inside.
The work I do in SW now, would be impossible in SketchUp; or at least not worth the time I would have to spend modelling what I need to model.

If you mean migrating all your files over? I'm not sure, never tried.

Devon Murray, EIT [Mechanical]
Solidworks 2011 SP 2.0

RE: SketchUp to SW

Sketchup is a polygon modeler, you can use them as underlays but there is no easy way to get usable geometry in Solidworks. That's not to say it can't be useful.. just not to take Sketchup models straight in and further detail directly on them.

Certified SolidWorks Professional

RE: SketchUp to SW

(OP)
Well my problem is getting SketchUp to SW. From my foray into the link CBL provided it was apparent that Sketchup geometry is very similar to an STL import but perhaps, rougher. It would be usable from the standpoint of being a skeleton on which to build SW geometry.

There are importers that claim to go to and from SW to Sketchup. I am just interested in whether anyone here has actually done from Sketchup to SW. this and if so with what.

I am not interested in modeling in Sketchup.  

TOP
CSWP, BSSE
www.engtran.com  www.niswug.org
www.linkedin.com/in/engineeringtransport

"Node news is good news."

RE: SketchUp to SW

(OP)
ctopher,

Thats the same software CBL pointed me to. The trial version of Sycode's software didn't work correctly in SW2009. In fact it hosed the SW display requiring a reboot. Okina also has software that works (supposedly) on the SketchUp side. I am looking for people that have actually done it, but that isn't looking too hopeful at the moment.  

TOP
CSWP, BSSE
www.engtran.com  www.niswug.org
www.linkedin.com/in/engineeringtransport

"Node news is good news."

RE: SketchUp to SW

Some experience. We worked with micro computer pcbs that had been described in Sketchup. I ended up redoing them in SWX using the dimensions and such from the SKups.
It's sort of crude, kind of like asking if anyone has ridden their tricycle to work recently.
"not since 3rd grade"

--
Hardie "Crashj" Johnson
SW 2011 SP 2.0
HP Pavillion Elite HPE
W7 Pro, Nvidia Quaddro FX580

 

RE: SketchUp to SW

(OP)
To summarize what I have found out:

1. The Sycode SW addin doesn't seem to work right, at least not on my system SW2009 on XP 64-bit
2. The Sycode addin results in a triangulated mesh result in SW. It is one way translation.
3. Okino claims to have an addin that will read SW into SketchUp, but it has not been tested.
4. dxf interchange is possible
5. A 2 screen data interchange is possible, but painful.
6. SketchUp uses a proprietary binary file format.
7. SketchUp changes what can and can't be translated from year to year.  

TOP
CSWP, BSSE
www.engtran.com  www.niswug.org
www.linkedin.com/in/engineeringtransport

"Node news is good news."

RE: SketchUp to SW

(OP)
CBL,

I saw that when I downloaded your link previously. They have this to say about the SW to SketchUp converter

Quote (sycode):

SKP Export for SolidWorks tessellates the solid bodies in a SolidWorks part or assembly document into individual triangular meshes. These meshes are then exported to an SKP file as mesh objects. The level of tessellation can be controlled by adjusting the resolution slider in the SKP Export for SolidWorks options dialog box.

So no NURBS export, very similar to an STL export.

What kind of luck have you had with either the importer or the exporter?

TOP
CSWP, BSSE
www.engtran.com  www.niswug.org
www.linkedin.com/in/engineeringtransport

"Node news is good news."

RE: SketchUp to SW

Somewhere between extremely little and none!

It would be very handy to have a true NURBS converter because my boss uses Sketchup to make concept graphics (for sales and client) for quotes.

It's been much quicker and more accurate to simply recreate in SW, but measuring the SU model for basic sizes.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources