Does anybody have experience working with both these options for simplfying an STL import? If so, did one work significantly better than the other?
I have a 20MB STL model from an external source that is very heavy and impossible to work with as is. I downloaded the Skimp trial and the way it simplified the mesh is sub-optimal at best.
I’m unable to trial Transmutr for now because of the system requirements (needs MacOS 12 and I’m on 11.7), so if someone has had good results with it for STL imports, I’d be curious to hear about your experience with it.
I rarely ever need to start from .stl files but when I do, I set import units to meters and choose not to merge coplanar faces. I then use CleanUp3 to merge the coplanar faces (I find it does a better job.) and things seem to work well enough.
The .stl is a model from someone else who exported it from Blender. I’ve also tried importing as .obj (via Skimp) for the same file, but it was almost twice the size and even messier with mostly missing faces. (I redid both imports using the scale/settings you advised.)
I tried running CleanUp on it but with the edge count at 634,266 and the face count at 422,819 it brought my poor old 2014 MacBook Pro to worse than a crawl. (I let it run for over 1/2 hour before force quitting).
I’m going to try playing more with Skimp’s import settings to see if I can find a reasonable trade off between file size/complexity and the resulting geometry.
Maybe it would be faster to make a new model of it in SketchUp.
Not really an option in this case. It’s a very complex organic model of a 3D-printed product — and pretty much impossible to replicate in SU.
I’ve tried playing with the Skimp import thresholds and tolerances and I think with a few more tries and a bit of manual clean-up I can get it to an acceptable place .
I have a new computer coming later this week so I may wait for that before losing too much more time.
Does anyone have opinions on which is better - Transmutr or Skimp? Both are expensive.
My prior not in-depth research led me to believe Transmutr was better for rendering purposes in that it would manage complex (PBR?) textures (and maybe proxies) and a render workflow better
while
Skimp was better at simplification of geometry and it had a much more elegant real-time process itself using a nice slider that would show the simplification in real-time.
Early on a dev from transmutr said in a forum that Skimps algorithm was superior but …way… later retracted that statement on a youtube comment video on the same topic.
For me, its hard to justify the cost when i would only need it maybe 1x or 2x a year… but that once every random time - it would be very useful!
For me, i mostly use universal importer or import into blender and and export to dae from there.
Everyone has their own threshold for ‘expensive’ - but a year for Transmuter (79€?) would be rolled into the cost of the job, written off on my taxes as a business expense, and not even close to the most expensive thing I will buy / subscribe to this year.
I use/sell both of them , although they have some overlap in functions , I think their purpose is slightly different.
I think of transmutr as being for converting non-SketchUp models - often for use in renders - it has some useful functions for handling PBR materials and working with paid assets from megascans.
It’s also has some CLI functionality for batch conversions and rules for how to make certain material decisions.
Skimp is great for making fast reductions and reducing the complexity of models directly inside of SketchUp.
You should take the entire context of my comment into consideration. I also said it would only be used maybe 1x or 2x in that year so the value of that use against almost $100 for once or twice… is expensive.
and nor would it be the most expensive thing i buy or rent per year but that misses the point.
Your summation is near the same as mine but it doesnt really leave me with one is better than the other but more so along the lines of the products are nearly the same only but slightly different. I guess maybe then that the real answer is one is likely fine with either product with both being near equal with only minor variations that may tweak a person one way or the other on those minor variations…
If the model was for 3d printing, and if you are a bit into 3d printing, and if you have the slicer Orcaslicer, you can simplify the model in the slicer, then export the resulting stl. Just add the model, right click the model, select simplify, and drag the sliders for how and how much to simplify. It works well for models that are too heavy otherwise to import into sketchup. And is free.
I use Skimp for 2 years now, but hardly use it it more than 10x a year, so I am not sure if I can’t justify the costs. Especially as I don’t use it for commercial use.
I however, have problems exporting fbx from SketchUp (to Blender) , so if Transmute or other importers would have that option as an extra, (or any other useful extras), I would consider to swap.