Google Sketchup -> Second Life export
SketchUp is great. Not only is it free, but it supports Ruby as a scripting language, and provides plenty of interesting APIs and reasonable (though not very well inter-linked) documentation too. It’s long been discussed, in conjunction with Google Earth, as a potential virtual world, and rival to Second Life. While it will be fascinating to see how that develops, and whether they become more comparable over time, what interested me much more in the short term was some way of getting 3D data from SketchUp into Second Life. Dave did this recently with PowerPoint, which and it reminded me just how much I wanted to do the same thing in SketchUp.
What I really wanted was SketchUp -> Second Life exporter. I didn’t want to buy SketchUp pro (though I thought about it), because even that wouldn’t solve my problem. More recently, I saw that Blender 2.4.2 makes it possible to import SketchUp’s (proprietary, binary) .kmz file format. This is cool and potentially very useful, especially when you consider the Prim.Blender project allows you to draw SL prims and export them. Ideally, it would also do the hard work of creating simple SL style prims from the complex 3D data. This is not an easy project though, as discussed at 3pointD recently.
Eventually I gave up my search for a basic SketchUp -> Second Life exporter and realised I was going to have to write one. I’m really not a Ruby guru, but I surprised myself by knocking something up in 20 lines and no time flat. Ok, so it’s not very good, and it doesn’t bring us any closer to the nirvana of complex models being automagically generated using the minimum number of prims, but it was so easy that I’m very surprised not to be able to find anyone else taking this approach already. (Perhaps someone will fill me in it has already been done and I’ve simply missed it.)
So, what is it?
What I wrote was a short Ruby plugin for SketchUp. It writes out basic model information to a text file, allowing it to be imported again (as a notecard) into Second Life. From there, an object parses the notecard and re-generates the model in-world. It does not support the full power of SketchUp by any means, and takes some judicious short-cuts to avoid generating zillions of prims. In erring very heavily on the side of simplicity, I’ve made something that you’ll either find delightful or frustrating. Each face in your SketchUp model, you end up with a flat, rectangular prim which represents the bounds of that face. Imagine if every face of every shape in SketchUp was simplified down to a rectangle which marked it extents. That’s what my script does. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start. The interesting bit of the Ruby plugin looks something like this…
model = Sketchup.active_model
file = File.new("/testfile", "w")
model.active_entities.each do |entity|
if entity.typename == "Face" #ignore everything but faces
# (e.g. we won't pay any attention to edges, points, etc)
face = entity.bounds # For now, make a rectangular prim
...
...
While it works very well for fairly basic models…
Something more complex ends up being made to look fairly ugly. Curves and non-regular faces are particularly badly hit…
Future developments will include colour/texture support, as well a bit more thought about the mapping between the SketchUp model and Second Life prims. I’m sure there are loads of things that can be done to improve it. I’m already enjoying it as a faster way to put simple things together though.
September 29th, 2006 at 14:33
I’m not aware of anyone trying to get SketchUp to export to SL, so you may be out there on your own. However, I’m sure there are plenty of people who will take a closer look at SketchUp if the conversion goes well; Blender’s UI is still considered it’s weak point (which makes me wonder why no one is creating a new UI; it’s open source after all).
September 29th, 2006 at 14:54
Simple SketchUp to Second Life Exporter
Andrew Reynolds over at eightbar (the blog of a few IBM researchers at the company’s Hursley installation) writes that he’s put together a crude version of an app that 3pointD has been looking for since earlier this summer: a tool to export…
September 29th, 2006 at 15:11
[...] eightbar Blog Archive Google Sketchup -> Second Life export (tags: secondlife sketchup) [...]
September 29th, 2006 at 16:29
I concur with csven’s comment about the Blender UI. As significant an achievement as prim.blender is, it still seems easier to model online in SL and archive the effort locally with OGLE and GL intercept.
SketchUP, on the other hand, offers some tremendous enhancements with its (largely) intuitive inference and snapping abilities, at least with the Pro version (haven’t tried the free version yet). This means that it is easy to extend a face of an object to line up perfectly with faces or points on other objects without requiring use of a grid or keying in values – my primary frustration with SL’s tools.
The challenge going forward might not only be the replication of more complex forms, but also working with SketchUP’s personality as a ’surface’ modeler versus the ’solid’ qualities of prims. While it should be easy to import a cube as a single prim instead of six, it may get a little hairier with other forms borne of SketchUP’s tendency to glom objects together (if one is not dilligent with the use of components and groups).
Still, this is a fantastic accomplishment – consider me both a drooling fanboy and potential beta tester!
September 29th, 2006 at 17:00
Thanks for the feedback everyone.
Some very insightful comments Chip. I’m hoping to at least be able to parse the SketchUp model into prims in the ideal cases (especially important for cylinders, as the above screenshots demonstrate). Even just working with faces, once you get used to thinking about how SketchUp works, is quite useful though.
I’m travelling next week, but I’ll try to get it into a state where some more people can have a play with it soon.
September 29th, 2006 at 17:43
Very cool.
September 29th, 2006 at 22:29
well done!
September 30th, 2006 at 02:48
Can You Downloade It Or Do You Have To Buy It To Play It And If Download How Do You
September 30th, 2006 at 18:20
I’m an enthusiastic SketchUp user, and I’d love to be able to use it for quickly building things that are difficult using Second Life’s native interface. Even simple output of faces would be great if this preserves the relative vertex points. My usual problem is building something composed of simple forms that meet at really odd angles, and SL’s lack of a simple way to abut objects to each other on faces or vertices means I spend an awful lot of time doing math, when I’d rather just have my objects snap to each other the way SketchUp does.
Looks like it’s time for me to poke around in the SketchUp Ruby API. If it’s really that simple, then this could be a fantastic way for me to generate some of the weird structures I love to build without spending hours pondering how to do it in the SL interface. Thanks for taking the time to write about your progress so far.
September 30th, 2006 at 21:17
Eleanor: I’m not entirely sure what you mean. Second Life (which is not really a game, but more of a virtual world) is available from secondlife.com, and you can ‘play’ for free.
Chandra: I am very much a beginner in Ruby (which is a lovely language by the way). I recently attended RailsConf Europe, which reignited my interest in both Rails and Ruby. My plugin doesn’t (yet) even handle faces at weird angles. When I’ve solved that one, I’ll put up an update. You should absolutely try out the SketchUp Ruby API. It seems pretty comprehensive, comes with lots of examples and is well documented. Let us know how you get on too!
October 1st, 2006 at 14:37
[...] chains between virtual spaces 01.10.2006 | tags: 3d, googleearth, secondlife, spatial, tools | # Its long been discussed, in conjunction with Google Earth, as a potential virtual world,it will be fascinating to see how that develops, and whether they become more comparable over time… [Google SketchUp -> Second Lifeexport] [...]
October 2nd, 2006 at 13:08
[...] Roo Reynolds: Google Sketchup -> Second Life export – “What I wrote was a short Ruby plugin for SketchUp. It writes out basic model information to a text file, allowing it to be imported again (as a notecard) into Second Life. From there, an object parses the notecard and re-generates the model in-world.“ [...]
October 3rd, 2006 at 05:25
Couldnt you build a component library of SL prims in Sketchup (cubes, cylinders, prisms etc)? The exporter could use these components to more effeciently build SL models, instead-of/in-addition-to just building SL polygon prims from the faces…
October 3rd, 2006 at 08:53
[...] Roo Reynolds, one of the very cool Emerging Technology guys from IBM Hursley (also one of our Metaverse Evangelists), recently posted on the eightbar blog about his SketchUp to Second Life exporting script. Along with others in the team, he’s been looking at ways to build objects more easily using simple desktop tools, rather than creating things entirely in-world. [...]
October 3rd, 2006 at 09:20
[...] Roo Reynolds, one of the very cool Emerging Technology guys from IBM Hursley (also one of IBM’s Metaverse Evangelists), recently posted on the eightbar blog about his SketchUp to Second Life exporting script. Along with others in the team, he’s been looking at ways to build objects more easily using simple desktop tools, rather than creating things entirely in-world. [...]
October 3rd, 2006 at 11:33
I have a site which currently houses SketchUp models for computer modders, but would be happy to add any generic models made for Second Life.
http://scc.jazzle.co.uk/
October 3rd, 2006 at 12:26
[...] Roo Reynolds, Metaverse Evangelist for IBM, created a basic exporter to get Sketchup Opbjects into Second Life. [...]
October 3rd, 2006 at 12:28
Wilfred: yeah. Using pre-canned prims would make life easier for the exporter in so many ways (I don’t know if you’ve ever used Prim.Blender, but it takes that approach). I wanted to make a generic exporter though, since It defeats the flexibility of SketchUp to enforce the use a palette of prims.
On the other hand, this Slashdot commenter is right. It is incomplete and it will be very hard to go beyond faces in cubes. The biggest problem (efficiently converting from vertices to prims) is no closer to being solved.
I’ll share some code once I’ve fixed the major bugs. F’rinstance, while rectangular faces are exported, it currently only works well if they are cleanly on the x y or z plane. Anything rotated ends up being represented by a bounding box due to a pretty naive implementation. No wonder it was fast to write. :-) I’m travelling this week, but when I get the time to fix the biggest problems I’ll put up an update.
October 3rd, 2006 at 14:31
[...] I heard interesting news today of an exporter plug-in for SketchUp (and a related LSL script, obviously) to import your 3D SketchUp models into Second Life. From what I can see, it works fairly well, but doesnt yet make use of any other prim shapes besides the cube. Ive briefly thought about attempting to create a SketchUp exporter in the past for this same purpose, but it didnt appear possible to make use of all of the complex prim functionality from the internal format that SketchUp provides without excessive mathematical analysis on the dimensions of the model to determine an appropriate prim type to use for individual sections. In other words, the exporter would have to be REALLY smart, or would need to gather input from the user in some way for this to be truly effective. Regardless, its still very cool! [...]
October 3rd, 2006 at 20:46
Can’t wait for this Andrew. Fairly new to SL I have been importing my real life fashion into the Metaverse. I am begging you please bring in the curves!!!
Thank you for your drive to create a cooler world!
Amazing !!!
October 4th, 2006 at 12:04
[...] Google does it agin with SketchUp – a 3D modelling app…. and with talk of a 2nd Life export it could mean the end of that in world editor… [...]
November 1st, 2006 at 07:29
[...] People are already experimenting with exporting from SketchUp and importing into Second Life and lots of folks are talking about it. I love what Tim O’Reilly also says: Real and virtual are definitely on a collision course. I’m hoping that we can get more interoperability between the two, so that the streams of innovation merge like hydrazine and liquid oxygen, fueling a rocket to the future. [...]
November 11th, 2006 at 21:27
[...] eightbar Blog Archive Google Sketchup -> Second Life export Using sketchup for second life import (tags: build design secondlife tutorial) Bookmark to: [...]
November 12th, 2006 at 23:15
[...] This is something the Prim.Blender project can’t do, requiring you to build with SL-aware prims within Blender instead. My SketchUp hack gets very slightly closer, but in a very crude and limited way (so crude and limited it is still not publicly available, despite having been Slashdotted). [...]
November 14th, 2006 at 02:34
[...] A related problem to watermarking shapes is… actually recognizing them. A possible application of the latter would be importing Sketchup models into SecondLife, which is still an open problem. A more ambitious application would be to convert volumetric 3D scans of objects directly into SL models. I have the gut feeling that it’s possible to attack both problems at once with the same tecnique: 3D wavelets. The idea is to design a set of wavelet signals capable of detecting shapes. In the case of SL, prims tortured to various levels would be used to build said wavelet base. Using it, it’s possible to decompose a complex shape into its constituent signals: filtering the result for the strongest values, we can build a prim representation of the object at varying levels of details. [...]
December 6th, 2006 at 20:50
How can I test this exporter out?
December 11th, 2006 at 22:36
I am more interested in using non-related software. I have used the
AutoDesk software before and all i can say is..in comparison to the SL editing program…SL’s is the worst that i’ve ever seen… thats mostly because I currently have a copy of 3ds Max9 which is one if not THE best all around 3d model creator and editor available to the public.
I just cannot stand the SL editing sytems single sighted editing…not to mention single polys cannot be touched so waht would only take on object takes 6… and i have no clue how to group objecs, while i havent worked with the system very long its been long enough to say i cansee why its free…well can be free
If anyone figures out how to Import models into SL from a different program please e-mail me @ Balltrocity@aim.com or just post it here, cause i dont always get all my e-mails
December 13th, 2006 at 16:37
I have also been looking all over for some kinda download link for this. As this blog seems to have the most recent posts I am posting here as well that if the exporter could be emailed to me, or a link to download it from that would be great. I am getting into building and would like to be able to not only do basic drafts external to the game but be able to upload atleast a framework to construct the actual building by.
And I understand that right now if I create 1 cube in Sketchup and import it into SL that I will get 6 flat cubes placed to form the 1 cube I made, but thats fine. Easier to edit then create.
December 16th, 2006 at 17:16
Where are the code lines? How do I download it / use it?
Thanks!
December 22nd, 2006 at 13:33
I really would like to try this. Can I download pls?
Thanks Mark
December 29th, 2006 at 17:39
[...] Sun and Reuters aren’t alone. Even business-to-business media firms are looking to launch virtual events in Second Life. Where does Google figure into all this? Some people think Google’s SketchUp could be used to create a rival world to Second Life. Will Google continue to stand on the sidelines of the fast-emerging MMORPG market or will 2007 be the year they also pay attention? Information Week: Get A Second Life [...]
January 6th, 2007 at 05:59
Would you be willing to share your ruby script so other might try and improve on it?
January 7th, 2007 at 06:23
Hey there! Could we talk plain English and let us know what we need to do to make it easier to design and build in Second Life please.
Roo’s original entry was what drew me to this discussion forum and I got lost along the way and I’m no wiser.
Pleae tell me what I need to do in Sketchup in order to export to Second Life.
CC
January 9th, 2007 at 11:09
Well, I am not a Ruby developer myself, nor a linden script one. I was a former C++ programmer, and I am quite fast to learn. I am experimenting with Google SketchUp in this period and I am interested to support you in your project to improve. In case you are interested, please, contact me. My SL name is Eadoin Welles
January 9th, 2007 at 11:15
[...] Agli appassionati di Second Life posso suggerire anche un plugin in Ruby per esportare i modelli di SketchUp per Second Life, il mondo virtuale della Linden Labs. postato da Cristian il marted 09 gennaio 2007 in: [...]
January 12th, 2007 at 02:37
I build and model with both Sketchup and as of late Second LIfe. I am very interesting in helping this move forward any way I can. I am aware of the challenges faced in creating prims(the standard name for basic shapes in Second Life) for large scale applications. I am interested in finding ways of building in Sketchup and getting an accurate fascimile in Second Life. If I can make a suggestion, the person at Google/Sketchup who wrote the kml exporter and someone from Linden labs involved in the builder interface would probably be able to advise enough on this topic to make an open source plug-in a reality.
Please let me know if there is anything I can do to advance this project.
January 17th, 2007 at 10:38
Also interested in trying this out. Please let me know (by mail perhaps?) if I can do anything to help test and debug this fascinating piece of work :)
January 25th, 2007 at 00:11
[...] SketchUp un fenomenale software di modellazione 3d che viene solitamente usato per disegnare gli edifici ed i paesaggi all’interno di Google Earth. Roo Reynolds ha scritto un utilissimo e semplicissimo plugin per Sketchup che permette di importare i modelli elaborati con il software all’interno del mondo virtuale di Second Life [...]
January 31st, 2007 at 14:39
If you export for Google earth 4 the “.kmz” file formate is just a zip file with a COLLADA (http://collada.org) model and a kml file. Hope this helps.
January 31st, 2007 at 17:44
Interesting. Thanks Jonathan
February 8th, 2007 at 17:11
Hello, I am an archtiect and I use SL frequently and I am have a hard time using SL modeling software. I use sketchup occaisionally but I would definately like use of this to import some of my building designs into SL.
Thanks
February 8th, 2007 at 23:15
You guys are great!
I too am an architect and don’t really want to relearn a different modeling software. I use Sketchup Pro and Revit, and now find SL as a great new entertainment medium, with great potential. So a google search turned up this page…
Keep it up, I’ll gladly pay you $1000 for the tool set…. I did say in SL$ didn’t I?
Are you all ready for Autodesk Island?
February 22nd, 2007 at 07:39
I have been watching this for a while, I am highly interested in some way to import from outside of Second life. I primarily use Cinema 4D and Maya, though I have played around with Sketch up here and there. I also would be willing to put some L$ towards a toolset.
February 22nd, 2007 at 18:12
i`m willing to pay good “real money” for a solution to import low prim to SL.
contact: wanted@view-ware-art.de
February 24th, 2007 at 15:43
Wow, I started my morning by doing a Google search using the words “mesh, Second Life and 3ds Max” and all of a sudden I’m here – discovering things like ScetchUp for the very first time. Originally all I wanted to do was find a way to test my skins and clothes on a Second life body mesh using Max, but now my mind has expanded to much much more after reading all this interesting information. Just downloaded ScetchUp and will try out your plugin – thanks for the effort!
February 26th, 2007 at 22:13
hi,
just theoretically:
to prevent undesired results, i would prefer or do it this way:
construct in max, use “STL Check” modifier (used after boolean and similar operations in the GameDev to prevent Errors in geometry (seperated vertex etc)), export as OBJ/DXF and user your way further…
i bet the geometry may be exported correctly then..
i ll give it a try later.
thanks for your work
regards
February 27th, 2007 at 20:15
[...] Link to eightbar Blog Archive Google Sketchup -> Second Life export [...]
March 7th, 2007 at 19:17
where can i get and try your plugin??
March 14th, 2007 at 12:49
Roo Ive almost cracked aVectorworks import, can we chat sometime?
March 16th, 2007 at 16:43
It’s a test. I’ll be back soon :)
March 22nd, 2007 at 21:21
[...] Andrew Reynolds entwickelte ein Plugin fr Google SketchUp mit eingeschrnkten bertragungsmglichkeiten und berichtet hier darber http://eightbar.co.uk/2006/09/29/google-sketchup-second-life-export/ [...]
March 29th, 2007 at 10:50
Where can I get and try your plugin?Can u send it?
March 30th, 2007 at 21:29
Hey Roo, this is really great work. I am part of a student group here at Marist College, and we would really be interested in having a go at the plugin and the possibilities it provides us with Sketch-up, for some 3D modeling projects. I was hoping you could email me a copy of the plugin, or point me in the correct direction of downloading it. Thanks again.
April 3rd, 2007 at 12:53
Hi Roo,
As many here I would really like to try your Ruby plug-in for Sketch Up. Is there some URL where I could download it ? Can you maybe send it to me ?
I cant stand for giving a try. It can definitely be nirvana.
Thank you very much.
April 5th, 2007 at 13:13
The site looks great ! Thanks for all your help ( past, present and future !)
April 7th, 2007 at 00:43
I search since I install SecondLife fpr a tool to convert Sketchup Objects for SecondLife.I found only yours bit where can I get it?
April 12th, 2007 at 17:04
Hi Roo, thanks for creating this useful and necessary tool. However, as many comments on this page indicate, the download for your plugin is impossible to find, at least on this page. Could you please put it somewhere clearly marked?
I’d like to learn more about Second Life’s fileformat for prims, so I might be able to create some useful tools for it as well.
Thank you in advance and keep up the good work!
April 13th, 2007 at 14:44
Is your plugin available for others to use? If so, I’d like very much to get a copy. Where can we purchase?
April 13th, 2007 at 14:46
I’m delighted about the interest, but I’m afraid it’s not available for download. It’s incomplete, and rather more likely to be frustrating rather than useful at this stage. I’ll update if this changes though.
April 15th, 2007 at 08:01
Dear Roo,
I think you are developing a very marketable tool. And if I were you I would get it to market ASAP. Not because of my own selfish reasons.. but you could sell this tool.. and by the looks of things you have really stirred up interest.
Alternatively.. make it free or open source, put your name all over it – and you will be remembered forever. (Brand building)
I am happy to Beta Test.
- ED
April 15th, 2007 at 23:43
[...] From Sketchup: [...]
May 9th, 2007 at 19:45
Now that textured prims are on the way, this should be much easier :)
May 10th, 2007 at 20:16
Anyone else starting to get sick of the media attention http://www.second-life.com is getting?
June 2nd, 2007 at 15:36
Hey!!
I’m a 3d modelor and ive been researching different programs to use in secondlife, (As they have now allowed the ability to import “displacement maps” into secondlife to apply to a special sculpt prim effectively allowing you to import models from maya,blender,3dmax, etc, into secondlife.
I read through this post hoping someone would have figured out a way to have google sketch up create the uv displacement map that is needed to import the model into SL.
if anyone knows of such a thing, or can develop it that’d be nice.
my email is crashadams@hotmail.com if anyone has info on that,
THANKS!!!!
SL: Crash Prefect
June 2nd, 2007 at 15:42
by the way,. the easiest way ive been able to shut down SL critics is point out that SL is essentially this:
The internet, cept 3D. (useful in mass marketing, advertising, gaming, etc)
also it is a very very customizable 3D game engine for more than just a small group of people, very large companies are currently scouting for talent to develop large gaming environments inside SL. I myself have been working full time in SL since 2004, (Yes that means I’ve not worked anywhere else pretty much the whole time).
June 5th, 2007 at 16:22
Roo,
I’d be interested in helping you develop this. Please email me to discuss.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:05
[...] To (Second) Live Or Not To (Second) Live, That’s The Question :-) Filed under: R&D, Practices, Market Research, Product Management, Partnerships, Futurists, Private Investment, Theories, Consulting, Design, Web 2.0, Open Source, Marketing, Innovation, Products, Creativity, Technology — consultaglobal @ 5:05 am I just read Eigthbar’s blog on porting Google SketchUp’s designs to SecondLife. [...]
June 20th, 2007 at 17:21
[...] Google Sketchup -> Second Life export how to take a model made in sketchup and export it into second life (tags: secondlife sketchup 3d Google ruby VirtualWorlds modeling googlemaps googlearth) [...]
June 27th, 2007 at 12:43
[...] Leggi l’articolosu: http://eightbar.co.uk/2006/09/29/google-sketchup-second-life-export/ Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
June 29th, 2007 at 01:31
[...] eightbar – Google Sketchup to Second Life export – Importing Google Sketchup objects into Second Life using Ruby. [...]
June 29th, 2007 at 16:07
While this project never got public, maybe its interesting to know that there is another project of a Google SketchUp to Second Life Exporter. The Project intents to go open source after finishing. For more information:
http://www.queo-blog.com/?cat=6
July 4th, 2007 at 15:57
…coming off the Tech Review piece. Keep us posted, Roo.
August 3rd, 2007 at 19:28
Great! Love to see how things will progress… I’ve fiddled a little with maya, blender and thought about Sketch Up but somehow inworld building is the easiest (to me) for the moment. In reply to some comments stating they’re lacking gap/align abilities in SL, I’m not here to commercially promote a product, but I’ve used Skid Primz who has those features for over a year and couldn’t live without it….
August 8th, 2007 at 23:21
As a designer rather than a techy, I look forward to the interoperability of SketchUp and SL. SlL Iis an ideal medium for client presentation, interaction, for potential demonstation models etc etc etc. Urban planning with ‘real life scenarios, the list is endless. It would be an earner too. I have plenty of potential for the interaction of these two great packages- come on you guys get the job done.
August 8th, 2007 at 23:23
As a postscript, wouldnt it be more efficient to design outworld and import- given the endless crashes and downtime experienced by us humble users?
August 14th, 2007 at 19:13
[...] Sul sito inglese http://eightbar.co.uk troverete larticolo Google Sketchup -> Second Life export che, oltre a spiegare come importare, offre un utilissimo tool per esportare in Secondlife. [...]
August 20th, 2007 at 08:56
ha… i was just thinking about this tonight, actually. i DL’d sketchup for the first time to draft a home i want to build in SL and was just itching for a post like this. i see this is old… new developments since then, maybe? i’m working on a square-ish modern home, so what is here would probably work fine, actually. the nice thing about being about to export from sketchup to blender is that you can then use blender to create baked in lighting. it’s a pain – you have to texture every face of every prim, but it looks fantastic in the end. the trouble is making sure your SL build is the same dimensions as your sketchup/blender build, and that’s almost worse. simply being able to preserve the dimensions and vertices would really be a big help. it’s not so hard to connect the dots, after all. :) i’d love more info on this.
September 5th, 2007 at 05:41
hi,nice to see your work.
but I want to know could you send me your full sourse code to me?
I’m a IBMer in eightbar group too^_^
I have to import some 3D model into Second life now.
Thanks a lot.
September 14th, 2007 at 17:26
Is this project still active and have you come any closer to releasing the Ruby scripts? Many folks, me included, are inerested in trying your tool, however imperfect it may be at the moment. Perhaps we can actually give you feedback that will help in your further development of it? I hope we can help you get this beyond the hype stage relatively soon!
October 3rd, 2007 at 18:55
hi i love google skechup! and making beautiful buildings in sl is much harder than in google skechup… i would love to try what you’ve invanted! so plz can you give a good explenation of how to do it… good buy! nico
October 11th, 2007 at 20:42
interesting, what is the progress? where i can download code/plug-in to try it out. best. ivan
November 1st, 2007 at 18:00
[...] read more | digg story [...]
December 8th, 2007 at 14:14
can you just put on the web instead of downloadeind it
January 9th, 2008 at 16:22
I’m sure you’ve heard this question a billion times, but out of nagging curiosity, I just have to ask. Whatever became of that Sketchup to SL exporter? Do you still pick at it here and there, or have you dropped this project all together? It just seems, as I’m sure the traffic to your blog post about this exporter can attest, that there’s a nice size market out there that would be happy to even pay for a tool like this. No matter, how simplified it is. I’m just curious, is the hiatus in development due to time or money, or is it just too complicated to pursue further? If it’s money, what if someone was to finance development? And ultimately, if you don’t do it, why don’t you think someone else has done it already. You even mention in your post, your own curiosity in why someone hasn’t already created an exporter (and this was two years ago), which precipitated your need to code it yourself. I’m sure there’s a big chunk of information that I’m missing here, but on the surface, after two years, you’d thinking importing into SL, from any 3rd party modeling program, would be standard practice by now. Could you please indulge me with your viewpoint, I would indebted.
January 15th, 2008 at 01:50
[...] Blender Sketchup Max Maya [...]
January 15th, 2008 at 04:12
[...] Blender Sketchup Max Maya [...]
January 26th, 2008 at 19:57
[...] Agli appassionati di Second Life posso suggerire anche un plugin in Ruby per esportare i modelli di SketchUp per Second Life, il mondo virtuale della Linden Labs. [...]
February 15th, 2008 at 09:02
[...] или так http://eightbar.co.uk/2006/09/29/google-sketchup-second-life-export/trackback/ . [...]
March 10th, 2008 at 19:20
Oh, I am SO all over this! I’l love to play with this tool.
April 21st, 2008 at 19:39
sl have a weakness in building mode, movement goes too fast and its not precise, the mesurment are also failing to the precision for inserting.
sl should concentrate also that to put a special forlder tag in the inventory for building only, not to mixed with others, and to be capable to create forlders and name true the builder or to do so in the chat accessing commnad like autocad.
June 24th, 2008 at 12:32
what is the maximum filesize that you can upload to second life? also are poeple then able to download it and edit it/take dimensions?
July 7th, 2008 at 22:45
Thats an quite interesting program. I am an fairly good SketchUp user, and have a couple of models that I might just want to place in SL. And to prevent to remodeling them with the SL builder, it might be handy to use this tool. If it evolves more, that is ^^;
Because the models I want to upload are far from simple, and vary in many textures and shapes. No point in using the exporter if it messes that all up. Anyway.. I really like the concept of this exporter.. and hope someone will continue on making this program work.
Thanks for sharing this information.
August 12th, 2008 at 10:34
i believe google will write the code for the exporter if enough people ask! so please email google and ask them to make the exporter.
September 8th, 2008 at 06:14
I think that sketchup will be the best and fast way to buid in Second Life.
Continue .. you have my support.
Eric
September 30th, 2008 at 21:46
i use sketchup and it rocks
October 24th, 2008 at 09:26
From Google Sketchup 6 Pro to Second Life
Use Henshin IV
http://e-i-consulting-second-life.blogspot.com/2008/10/from-google-sketchup-6-pro-to-second.html
December 4th, 2008 at 11:27
Hi There,
I have jsut been messing about in scetch up and wondered if you could do the very same thing and then googled it and came across you! Crack on I think its a genius idea!!! USer friendly and fun being able to work it into SL would make it brilliant…. You could charge money for a decent plugin I suspect and get rich
December 4th, 2008 at 18:02
That is soo cool, I really want something like that.
If you can make that work, you can shave my legs, wax my chest and use me as a surfboard. :)
Great work
December 9th, 2008 at 18:09
good job :)
January 29th, 2009 at 15:09
Hi, I am a researcher trying to make the most of what the SL environment can offer…now and in the future. I am specifically interested in developing and designing product in SL. At the moment it is very limited due to the lack of detail that can be achieved. I have looked at sketchup and wonder if this conversation has moved on to allow exporting into SL. All comments and guidance welcome. thanks.
February 1st, 2009 at 15:10
I was wondering, if it is going to be a difficulty writing an export mod from ‘SketchUp’ to ‘SecondLife’… would it be easier to export object files created from SketchUp to another external program? For exsample SketchUp to Blender?
February 8th, 2009 at 13:11
So where can i get this?
March 5th, 2009 at 11:21
can people acyually download this for real. please do so.
July 1st, 2009 at 21:39
I have used Blender to get from SketchUp Free to 3DS many times. If Blender will export to SL, that’s all you need, and Blender is free. If SL will import 3DS or there are free 3DS-to-SL converters, it’s extra steps, but still easy.
I hope this helps,
August
July 18th, 2009 at 06:22
This comment-posting software seems to be broken.
July 18th, 2009 at 06:24
Ok, not it’s not broken. Therefore …
This seems like a good place to announce that I have written a tool called Sketchlife, that can be used to model in SketchUp, and upload to Second Life using an easy, wizard-like process. It took a lot of time to get right, but I have also spent an enormous amount of time testing it, so it is by now quite a solid tool.
If you would like to get to know it, there is comprehensive information, including videos and detailed documentation of each of the tools, and the process, on the following website:
vrshed.com/sketchlife/
July 18th, 2009 at 06:25
Further on to the above …
In the context of this article and comment thread, I would like to say that:
- As Chip Poutine points out above, SketchUp is a state-of-the art tool with intuitive inferencing and snapping capabilities. It is available free, thanks to the financial mammoth that is Google: they bought it and made it free to help populate Google Earth with user-created content.
- Lining up prims in SL is a major nightmare.
- However, after doing some comparative assessment of SL and SketchUp, I came to the conclusion that any automatic conversion from SketchUp, or any other mesh-based too, into simple SL prims, is doomed to not work for a model of any non-trivial complexity (anything other than rectangles and certain types of triangles). What can be seen in the third image on the top of this page cannot be improved upon – using simple SL prims.
- Using sculpted prims for this can be made to work, but such a tool does not exist at this point in time.
- Hence Sketchlife was written to allow a user to re-express a mesh model using SL prims. Judgement and common sense are required in how the prims are placed – this is something that cannot be automated in software – but the models will appear in Second Life exactly as seen in SketchUp. Textures are supported, they will be mapped exactly, except for curved faces of cylinders, which will be mapped approximately only. However, note that most prims in buildings are Box-type prims.
- Sketchlife is aimed at buildings. Organic shapes are better made through the use of sculpties.
- This is similar to what Wilfred was talking about earlier in the thread, but the important thing to stress is that the tools used to make prims in SketchUp/Sketchlife are different and are much easier to use, than those found in the Second Life Viewer.
As an example of what can be done, I have imported the model of Saint Basil’s Cathedral from Google Earth/SketchUp into Second Life. Here is a screenshot of it inside Second Life:
http://vrshed.com/sketchlife/examples/vasiliy_018.jpg
Evgeni
(Mrs Brandi in SL)
July 18th, 2009 at 06:29
I couldn’t post the comment before, because of some problem with including a URL. Here should be a clickable one:
http://vrshed.com/sketchlife/index.html
Evgeni Sergeev
July 18th, 2009 at 06:30
(To anyone else who is experiencing difficulties posting here, it seems that comments are only accepted if they end with an extension like “.html”.)
July 20th, 2009 at 15:13
Evgeni Sergeev has worked out out a brilliant solution (called sketchlife) to this problem, by creating a set of free tools (ruby scripted plugins) that you simply load into sketchup, that enables the modeler to create equivalent prims that are then imported into second life…see the video at http://vrshed.com/sketchlife
Currently you need users need to pay for the service set to L$1 per prim + L$1 per each textured face on each prim inside Second Life.
The most impressive demonstration of the power of sketchlife is the increadible St. Basil’s Cathedral, originally modelled by Arrigo Silva and featured on Google Earth.
Teleport: click here (this is a SL-URL).
July 25th, 2009 at 13:31
Hi Anthony, just a note that I changed the price to L$1 per prim (no extra cost for texture) after some experimentation. It should now be cheap enough for everyone.
August 4th, 2009 at 17:44
Hi Ms Brandi, ive imported a couple of my new architectural designs into second life with your application, and it works like a charm…I can walk my clients through my virtual spaces now…without the hassle of learning SL modeling, which was seriously freaking me out.
cheers Bro!
August 4th, 2009 at 17:45
sorry Mrs Brandi….not Ms.
Hey if we import more polys using sketchlife do we get a discount?
August 5th, 2009 at 17:47
Any chance sketchlife can be supported on other grids as well, such as OS Grid which is based on open simulator?
August 11th, 2009 at 04:03
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjboDgzdh0A
i used sketchlife to model the University of Western Australian Arts Faculty to import into Second Life.
January 30th, 2010 at 21:57
Very nice, I love using Sketch up as well as other 3D programs but the export on most is so damn stressing it makes you want to punch your computer. Tack Wings 3d for example, every uv map I have made has turned out looking lick crap in Second Life and other programs you get lost in, some tack up to much space on your computer and the good ones do not let you export, convert, or import and a few are made for a sirten kind of computer. I knew that Sketch up pro could upload to SL but I don’t want to buy it ether as well as other 3D programs. I always wondered if there was a way to export Sketch up models to SL, I wanted to make a way myself but I do not have the skills to do so. I think it is pretty damn cool that you found a way to do it. I look forward to see how far you get with it. Good luck:)
February 7th, 2010 at 15:37
Hey check out my computer blog, yours is good too!
February 17th, 2010 at 17:59
This looks useful and very user friendly! Do you think it would be useful in the world of CAD or AutoCAD? As we do many CAD conversions for customers. http://www.pearl-scan.co.uk
February 26th, 2010 at 13:34
Well i know that this blog was made in 2006 but yes very nice.