How do I fix messy CAD (dwg,dxf) files imported into Sketchup?

Hello everyone. I’m Zach. I’ve been using Sketchup for quite a while but this is the first time posting a question in this forum. I’m wanting to know if there is a way to clean up CAD files I’m importing from various wood suppliers. Wood appliqués, corbels, decorative corners, etc… When imported into SU they are very “rough”, with jagged lines and messy edges. Is there a way to improve them? I’ve messed around with softening edges but haven’t been able to get any results that I’m happy with. Softening and hiding doesn’t square up corners and edges. I’ll attach a corner post that I would like to fix… Thank you all for your time… Much appreciated. Decorative Corner.skp (5.3 MB)

Probably the best thing would be to use the Dave Method and make a scaled up copy. Then run CleanUp3 on it. Of course you can’t run CleanUp3 in the web version.

Trying Cleanup on it now. If these are ready-made parts that you are planning to use, you might also consider making yourself simplified versions. All those manufacturing details like rounded corners just make the model unnecessarily heavy.
I predict that the heavy irregular triangulation will make any automatic optimizations likely to fail, except perhaps for coplanar faces.

EDIT: Cleanup did practically nothing to it. Those coplanar-looking faces are all a tad out of plane.

Thanks a ton for running it through Cleanup… Curious how it looks afterwards. I think you’re right on just drawing simplified versions of them. I would love to have some of the details of the carvings. It adds a lot visually, but not necessary.

Thank you Dave…

You’re welcome. Is it supposed to be a rustic piece?

After CleanUp.

This particular piece isn’t rustic. CleanUp certainly helped. I’m going to try drawing the post myself without the leaf carving and maybe dragging in just the carving portion of this model. That would at least give me a more accurate post even if the carving detail isn’t perfect… Thanks again.

Perhaps Skimp might be the right plugin to try on it.
An example DWG would tell us if the odd triangulation is already there or caused by the import function in SketchUp (for instance, if it is solid AutoCad geometry). It is the rounding or chamfering in the corners that looks particularly ugly as it has turned into small irregular triangles.

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How were these files made by the manufacturer? They look like 3D scans of actual real world objects, rather than modeled objects in a CAD program.

You might see if you get a better result importing the CAD file with import units set to Meters.

I’m not sure to be honest. I just downloaded them off the website.

I’ll try that now.

To think of it, I agree, you are quite probably correct.

Just trying to get the bottom of the same thing @Anssi was asking. The tessellation could be an artifact of the import process, this sometimes happens when importing an .step file for instance, but generally surfaces will be tessellated but still coplanar, or close, in that case. If the “roughness” is inherent to the file because of how it was created then there is not an import fix.

You would need to either use the file as it is, with potentially slight improvement, or redraw.

Ok. That’s what I’ll do… Many thanks to you guys for taking the time.

I think @Endlessfix is correct. I looked at both the 3D dxf mesh file and the .stl from the source and it does appear that the files were generated from a 3D scan. Make it pretty tough to use as if. If you have to have the detail in the carved area, I would suggest deleting the rest of the geometry. then create a new blank to add the carving geometry to.

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Hey Dave, Anssi, endless fix. Similar but slightly different scenario. This corbel seems to be an actual CAD drawing but it doesn’t have any faces, see through. Is there way to add faces to make this a solid component? Corbel.skp (554.2 KB)

Hey Dave, Anssi, endless fix. Similar but slightly different scenario. This corbel seems to be an actual CAD drawing but it doesn’t have any faces, see through. Is there way to add faces to make this a solid component? Corbel.skp (554.2 KB)

Where did you get that CAD file?

Instead of trying to fix that I think I would use the file as a reference and model it from scratch. It’s got bad geometry everywhere.

CAD file came from Enkeboll.