LDraw .dat Importer for SketchUp

My simple .dat importer for Sketchup is now avalable on bitbucket.

It is very "prototype", but is still useful if you want to get difficult LDraw (Lego) parts into SketchUp.

This plugin could do a lot more, but I don't find a lot of time to work on it; which is why I create the bitbucket repo.

Small Lego Gallery

I created these images while writing the ldraw importer - sort of as a "screen test" for Lego parts in SketchUp. Nothing terribly interesting, but there they are.

I was going to post the model also, but I seem to have lost it. Oh well, here's Obi Wan and Luke's Landspeeder:

Importing Lego Sets in SketchUp

I'm testing a new feature for the LDraw/SketchUp system. Just enter a set # and the plugin downloads the parts list and imports all the parts from the Peeron inventory. Here's set 208-1, for example.

Little House, Dormer Build Sheet

This is a contact sheet built from images exported from A SketchUp model. The model is not mine and was importer using my SketchUp LDraw importer plugin. The plugin uses the STEP command in the LDraw file to create a new SketchUp::Layer for each Step.

With all the Layers in place, Scenes can be automatically added, and animations created using SketchUp's built-in animation features.

Model: Little House, Dormer

 

Lego (LDraw) Build Instructions in SketchUp

I've been playing around with Legos in SketchUp (again). I've added some cool features to the importer - like creating build steps on import, and color coding each step. Each step also gets its own Layer, so you can toggle them on/off as you like. I hope soon it will be possible to create high-quality build instructions right from SketchUp.



The exporter works alright the way it is, but I'm working on incorporating the same build-step system into that. The user would need to create a Layer for each Step in the build.

Once that is done, you should be able to use SketchUp for the entire lego design and build process. The exporter is LDraw compatable, so you can load the output into any other LDraw software you use.

I have some ideas about lego-specific tools for placing and rotating parts, but we'll see how that goes...

The updates are not ready yet, but hopefully soon (a week?)

Lego Minifig Image

Nathan got me started on my old LDraw lego importer, which got me looking at the plugin again. It's not bad, but there's always room for improvement.

 

Part No. 979 Rendered in Podium

Here are some great .ldr files to import.

Plugin: ldraw.rb

The ldraw.rb can import ldraw.org .dat files.

The ldraw format does not lend itself well to SketchUp. In a nutshell, ldraw was developed at a time when parts were created in a text editor by hand. So to make that easier, dozens (if not hundreds) of primitives were created upon which parts were built. So when you load an ldraw part into SketchUp, the parts are pretty heavy with nested components and duplicate edges. I might add an option to "explode primitives." That would create a single component per part, and take care of duplicate edges.

Another major problem is face orientation. Faces are drawn arbitrarily facing in or out.

Yet, if you need a complex part that already exists in ldraw, this plugin can be a time saver.

Download ldraw.rb


House With Porch by Jeff Stebel