Plugin: OBJ Exporter

Dec 18, 2010 - TIG just released a new .obj exporter. TIG's plugins are usually solid, so I recommend trying TIG's. (TIG's OBJexporter on SketchUcation)
















2/5/2009 - Marten van der Honing sent me another .obj exporter that supports textures. See this post for download.


7/27/08


While the Pro version of SketchUp comes with the ability to export OBJ files, the free version does not.


This plugin was my attempt to write an OBJ exporter using SketchUp's Ruby API. My motivation was selfish curiosity more than anything, so when the plugin reached a state where it was able to export simple models, I lost interest.


There must have been a need for this exporter because some sites started linking here, and the plugin has now become one of my most downloaded - in spite of it's lack of features and abundance of flaws.


In it's current version, this exporter may or may not meet your needs:


Current "Features"

• Exports entire model.
• Exports top-level Groups and Instances only (not nested entities).
• Has trouble with complex Faces.

With the growing interest in this plugin, I have decided to take another look at improving it. It is difficult to give a time-frame for this work. The first thing I should do is actually sit down and read the specification of the OBJ file format. I am looking at the OBJ exporter which comes with Blender as an example (export_obj.py). I am also looking at the features of the Pro OBJ exporter for a feature comparison.


Finally, I want to thank everyone who has already helped me and given feedback - I can use all the help I can get.


Download


obj_export_1.1.rb

Very Basic Ruby 3ds to Obj converter

Here's a short Ruby code snippet. It's a very basic converter from .3ds (binary) to .obj (ascii). I wrote it as an exercise.

3ds2obj.rb

To use, open a command line:

3ds2obj.rb input.3ds > output.obj

Plugin: OBJ Importer

Update Dec 28, 2010 - TIG's OBJ Importer, based on this code, is likely a more robust plugin.

• This is a basic importer for .obj files.
• It works sometimes, but not all the time.
• The .obj needs to be fairly well formed.
  
• It does not support textures.
  
• SketchUp is unusable during import.
• larger files can take a long time.
  

obj_importer.rb




There are 2 options: Import and Import as Mesh

• Import reads the file and creates faces one by one.
  
• As Mesh allocates a Mesh object, and creates smoothed edges. It can be slightly faster.