In the old days, you could download a Warehouse 3d model directly into your project.
But now that we’re using Collada, a model downloads as a .zip and must be extracted and dealt with.
Can someone recommend the proper drive location to store these files?
Thank you,
Lance
What sort of models are you getting from the 3D Warehouse? If they are components to use in future projects I would import them into SketchUp and then save the components in a local collection. I’d sort them into collections by the types of objects. I would not bother to save the Collada files on my computer after I have created the SketchUp components.
Saving the .skp is certainly the way to go. Download the Collada, import that collada into a fresh SkechUp file, perform any clean up that is necessary, this also gives you a chance to correct any bad errors in the model or discard it if it’s beyond saving and might damage your main file. Then save that .skp file into a folder on your hard drive. Keep different folders for different types of collections organized in different folders, you can access those folders directly from within SketchUp using the components browser window.
Couple of tips:
Before saving the component as a separate file, Explode it. leave the outer wrapper off. When you import the .skp into a new file it will come in as a component called whatever the file name is. If you leave the top hierarchy wrapped as a component it will import double wrapped in a new file.
The objects relation to the world origin as saved will be the component axis when imported.
You can also simply drag and drop a .skp file from you file system into an open window of SketchUp, it will be imported as a component.
Thank you for the replies. If I understand correctly, once the 3D model is inside an .skp file, the model is safe.
My confusion stems from working with DAW programs (digital audio workstation), where an audio file used in a project requires separate storage; If it is lost from disc, it is no longer available for the project to access.
Once it is in SketchUp the Collada file is no longer needed.
What is it you are downloading and how are you using them?
Simple things like furniture and appliances.
BUT- I downloaded a 3D model of a door, extracted it, and there is a .dae file which I can’t get into my project! (drag and drop is not working).
Any suggestions?
You could make local collections for furniture and appliances and then save the components into them via the Components panel.
Why not use File>Import? That’s the way you’re supposed to import non SketchUp files into SketchUp.
Thank you for the tip. Using File>Import, I navigate to the folder, but it is empty. Of course, the folder actually does contain a .dae file, but Sketchup is not recognizing it.
From Collada, so far I have tried downloading file versions for “Collada” and “Sketchup 2019 Model,” both with the same results.
Did you select Collada or .dae as the import file type?
SketchUp 2017 won’t open SketchUp 2019 files. If it would, I would have suggested that instead of telling you to get the Collada file.
Oh, my goodness. I’ve never used that setting before, but that did the trick.
They call you sage for a reason!
I suppose you wouldn’t have if you’ve never imported a Collada file. Might be worth looking to see what other file types are available too.