STL Exporters for SketchUp

I had a couple recent comments asking about exporting STL files from SketchUp. I know of 3 plug-ins that can export .stl files.

• CADSpan - provides several 3D printing tools in addition to .stl exporting.
• Guitar Lists's DXF/STL Exporter
  
• Dider Bur's STL Exporter. Search for "stl" on the page.
  

I have not had a need to try any of these yet and so I can not offer any comment on how well they work.

SketchUp STL Importer

This importer lets you import both ASCII and binary STL files into SketchUp.
It automatically detects the type of .stl file and imports accordingly.

To import a .stl file, go to the File > Import menu, and select STL Importer. Optionally press the Options button to select the units, then select the file to import.

License

The STL Importer is free software licensed under the GPL.

Installation

Download the attachment from below, and copy it to your SketchUp/Plugins folder.

For Windows, this would be located here:

C:\Program Files\Google\Google Sketchup 7\Plugins\

For Mac, this would be located here:

/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/plugins/

Restart SketchUp.

Here are 3 sources of interesting .stl files to try:

[1] http://www.georgehart.com/
[2] http://www.cs.duke.edu/~edels/Tubes/
[3] http://www.thingiverse.com/


[ Download ] STL Importer.

Scripts for LSS Toolbar

The scripts for the LSS Toolbar can be found together on this page.

http://lss2008.livejournal.com/21855.html

LSS Toolbar 1.0

kirill has released a great looking toolbar to go with his suite of vertex-y editing tools.

The toolbar, available here, does not include the individual scripts it controls, which need downloaded separately. I was not able to locate a single download for the plug-ins - they are posted individually in various posts on the blog.

Plugin: .ply file importer for Sketchup

I have updated the .ply file importer I wrote to be faster, but more importantly to actually work. Ha!

When I say it's faster, I mean within the context of SkechUp - meaning some .ply file are absolutely huge and SketchUp will likely "white-screen" on some imports. You will have the opportunity to cancel after seeing the polygon count.

It supports vertex and face elements only. Most other elements do not make much sense in SketchUp.

[ Download .ply file importer by me ]

OpenSCAD - The Programmers Solid 3D CAD Modeller

OpenSCAD is not an interactive modeller. Instead it is something like a 3D-compiler that reads in a script file that describes the object and renders the 3D model from this script file (see examples below). This gives you (the designer) full control over the modelling process and enables you to easily change any step in the modelling process or make designes that are defined by configurable parameters.

OpenSCAD - The Programmers Solid 3D CAD Modeller

Twilight Render 1.3 Released

Updates include...

• Change where any light is aiming by selecting the light, right-clicking, and choosing Twilight->'Set Light Target' from the context menu. Then click on a point to have the light aim at that point.
• A new 'eyedropper' selector for selecting lights in the Light Editor
• A bell sound when your render is complete
• Several 'auto-saving' options for saving your render periodically, automatically when finished, or manually
• Use SketchyReplay recordings in your animations, as well as 'real-time' SketchyPhysics simulations.
• Save a snapshot of your SketchUp view to the exact dimensions and position as your render

As well as a couple bug fixes.

[ TwighlightRender.com ]