Opening non-SketchUp STL files

Although importing stl files using the Ruby stl importer does take some time, when a model is not a solid after importing then a cleanup/healing operation is performed. This healing often takes far longer than the actual import.

Here’s your man import using a command-line converter. For comparison, the official SketchUp stl importer (much of which I also wrote) takes 240 seconds to import without calling the healing function.

I had left SketchUp trying to import the STL for at least 20 minutes before I force quit, so 15 seconds is certainly an improvement! Will the rest of the world get to use your converter? What was the file size of the SKP?

Yes as soon as I clean it up.

What was the file size of the SKP?

40.2 MB

Open file in Netfabb , cleaned and it reports solid but import to SU does not report solid. Model is " dirty" and needs clean up. Has a number of self intersecting faces. Decimated number of faces down to 5000 from ~ 50000 but will take some effort to remesh. STL format is dimensionless but Netfabb uses mm and model as reported herein is too small for SU will require scale change.

You can set the SketchUp STL importer to use meters. Then the model will come in at 1000x scale.

I downloaded the free version of Netfabb, can I export this into sketchup or import it into sketchup. If so…how?

You can export the stl file from netFabb ( drop down under the part tab) and then import it into Su even if you have free version. You will probably have to load the stl plugin into your version of SU if not done already. MeshLab will aslo open STL files and you can export that as dae from there which is format even free SU will import. I opened in MeshLab this AM did not find any duplicate faces, vertices or null faces. Found some sefl intersecting faces and when deleted broke model. trying to re-mesh faces went from 48708 to 100K plus so have to regroup.
. You can also try the meshmixer ( free )from autodesk or better yet upload to 3d warehouse and see if imaterialise can get it solid for you.
BTW thanks Jim did not think about that. :smile:

Took Jims suggestion, imported to SU and came in as solid, using solid inspector it reported as solid, Tigs solid solver found problem but corrected and it reported solid, re check with solid inspector reported solid.

Reduced file size tripod_10161144.skp (2.5 MB)

for mac users there a QuickLook generator plugin for 3D model mesh file formats (.off, .obj, .mesh, .wrl), that also does some .stl’s


Mesh.qlgenerator download…

Five years after the fact… I’d like to comment that Trimble should never have claimed that that particular Ruby script was compatible with SketchUp 8; it is NOT. It may (or not) be compatible with any LATER versions of SketchUp, but it is NOT compatible with 8.

SketchUp 8 hasn’t been supported for nearly a decade. Extensions like the stl importer have been, though, and have gotten updates over the years. Expecting a current version of an extension to work in an ancient version of SketchUp isn’t realistic.

By the way, your profile says you are using the Free (Web) version of SketchUp 8 which has never existed.

My profile says that because that’s the only halfway rational choices I was offered in the profile creation dialog.

So if it isn’t currently supported, why proclaim that it IS supported? I can’t think that this importer has seen any significant updating over the years; have you actually looked inside it? It’s nearly empty.

I use Sketchup 8 for very good reasons. Thanks for asking. I also use a text editor that hasn’t been updated for more than twenty years. It’s still the best text editor anywhere out there.

BTW… you’re clearly pretty young if you think of ten-year-old software as “ancient”.

Also BTW… I’ve been a software engineer since 1984. I have a pretty fair clue what I’m doing.

No one has claimed that SketchUp 8 isn’t supported. As I wrote, it hasn’t been supported for nearly 10 years. I don’t know where you would get the idea that it is.

I’ve been using SketchUp for 18 years. By software standards, SketchUp 8 is ancient.

YOU claimed that SketchUp 8 isn’t supported. TRIMBLE claimed that it IS. Note the “Sketchup Compatibility” section on this page:

https://extensions.sketchup.com/extension/412723d4-1f7a-4a5f-b866-281a3e223337/sketch-up-stl

You mistake that for support. This is a waste of time. Sorry I got involved.

Trimble claims Sketchup 8 compatibility. It is not compatible with Sketchup 8.

Trimble is wrong. Again.

Nuff sed.

Here is a screen recording I just made, of me using the extension you linked to, to export an STL file:

Can you see if there was something I did different, that will explain why it works for me?

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Interesting. Other than the obvious UI differences (I use a very different drawing template and remove the toolbar), my SketchUp revision is slightly different from yours; I’m on 8.0.3117, while you’re on 8.0.16846.

Oh. Yes. I’m not using the Pro version, I’m using the free version. That probably makes all the difference in the world.

I think that it shouldn’t matter. I’ll try to get a SketchUp 8 Free installer to try that.

When you installed the extension in Preferences, did you then get the Export STL option in the File menu?

I thought for a moment that your 8.0.3 was later than my 8.0.1, but it could be the last part is the build number. Making yours be 2117 and mine 16846. That could mean there were fixes that affected the STL exporter, after your build and before mine.

Looking at the release notes I see that the installing extensions in Preferences wasn’t added until the second maintenance release of SketchUp 8. Before that you would have unzipped the RBZ file, and copy the .rb and folder into here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google SketchUp 8\Plugins

Maybe that’s what you need to do, if you can’t find the later SketchUp 8 installer.

On startup I get the hard error:

“Error Loading File sketchup-stl.rb
uninitialized constant CommunityExtensions::STL::Translator”

I have only ever unzipped the RBZ into an RB file and dropped it into my plugins directory. That’s standard practice.

Just for reference, a different Ruby script “skp_to_dxf.rb” works fine for exporting to DXF format. I just want to get STL import functionality, and it seems so close I can nearly smell its breath but I’m not quite there.