Edit exported 3D files, is there an extension that assists with this?

SketchUp Pro
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Need assistance finding an extension or something that allows editing of exported 3d files from sketchup

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What file format ?

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Dan, thank you for reaching out. Okay, first off, new to Sketchup, so please forgive. I am a knife designer, and I am making profiles of knives that need to be exported as .dwg or .dxf . Easy enough, after exporting, open the files and there are lines that do not connect, extra lines, lines of different colors… etc. So trying to fix the lines that do not connect.

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I tried reimport the dwg back into sketchup to edit them that way, worked but the scale had gone from a 12 inch knife to being imported to almost 12 feet in length??? not sure what that is about so reached out to the smart folks on this. hence, you.

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Generally be sure to read:

SketchUp User Guide:

And take note that:

During export, you may need to open the “Options…” sub-dialog from the file export browser dialog. The button is usually located somewhere on the lower right of the file browser dialog.

This is SketchUp 2015 (and earlier,) which did not yet use the MS Common Dialogs v6:

The “Options…” button is in the extreme lower right corner.

This is SketchUp 2016+ (Windows v6+ [Vista] & higher) with the file browse panes collapsed:

The “Options…” button is just to the right of the “Export” button.

This may be due to not using SketchUp’s inferencing system patiently enough. (You often need to wait a half second for the inferencing tooltip to popup before clicking.)

Make sure you are using SketchUp’s tool and inferencing correctly when modeling:

SketchUp User Guide:

This is often the extra 3D edges caused by the triangulation of SketchUp surfaces into export meshes. SketchUp internally can have surfaces made up of triangles, quads, and even faces when a higher count of vertices. But most import & export functions of most applications expect surface meshes of only triangles. So any quads (or faces with 4 or more vertices,) are broken up into triangles during the export process.

Also, in SketchUp, the viewport rendering can be set to soften and smooth these surface edges, so that the view looks smooth. You can see these “softened” edges if you check the menu item:
View > Hidden Geometry

So partly, some of these “extra lines” in the CAD export are not really “extra” at all. They are there inside SketchUp, but just “softened” by the SketchUp viewport. Others are the result of triangulation.

Not sure what this is as we cannot see the model as it is in CAD. If you have “Color By Layer” on in CAD, and there are lines on different layers, ie, SketchUp may have exported groups or components to there own individual layers during export.

This is definitely the result of not opening the “Options…” sub-dialog during the import, and setting the scale.

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Dan, thank you very very much. With your guidance and tooling around a bit this weekend I have figured pretty much everything out. I am working on it today to have things ready to send tomorrow, hopefully. Your assistance has been great, so, again thank you.

v/v/r E

I will leave this open, just in-case I need to reach out again. I hope that will be okay.

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Dan this picture is: white slide - Sketchup rendering saved and complete, black slide - is the .dwg after exporting from sketchup. Both slides are depicting the exact location on the model. I am correcting this by reimporting the model and making the corrections on the reimported version, then deleting the original render and reexporting. This all seems very unnecessary and is time consuming. I have been ensuring that the connections I am making are zoomed in, and actually connected. I am able to get a closed/complete line around my entire model, allowing for a surface/face to be painted but when we export it is showing broken lines… perplexed? Any problem solving on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys, v/r E

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In the CAD image it appears there are 3 colors to the curve. Does this indicate 3 different layers ?

SketchUp may export groups and components to different CAD layers.

Anyway, it looks like the curve is broken. Are all the curves (and segments) you show co-planar ?

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the colors I am going into entity info and exploding the knife outlines and making one group on layer zero then making it all one color for the water jet guys to use and see. Not sure on your co-planar, I am so new to this really flying by the seat of my pants.

Everything is on one layer.

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You should be careful NOT to explode SketchUp curves and arccurve entities, otherwise they will not export correctly to real curves and arcs in DWG.