Want to hire a freelance extension developer

Commercial and Collaborative Work
1

Hello,

I own Zip Kit Homes (zipkithomes.com). We build kit homes, and part of that is wood framed wall panels. We have an automated saw that cut’s each 2x6 and 2x4 stud. We use Sketchup for design. Our automated saw reads XML files, so we need to find a software developer that can write a Sketchup plugin that creates a cut list and puts it into an XML format our saw can read. We currently have to draw the house in sketchup then draw it again in a different software (no bueno).

Anyone interested?

Thanks!

Chris Jaussi
Email: chrisjaussi@gmail.com

2

Chris,

Checked out the Zip Kit Homes website … very impressive.

Meanwhile, have you tried exporting the SketchUp model as an STL file … and then converting the STL file to XML?

I know from experience that the SketchUp STL export works more or less flawlessly … so the issue would be the quality of the STL to XML conversion.

Just curious.

Regards,

E. Godsey

3

Chris,

Just had to respond to say that your work is impressive. Have spoken at length with a friend about the very model you have employed. Very good to see this workflow getting traction.

Keith

4

Hello,

It could work great to export the Sketchup Model to an STL file, the convent to an XML. I’m not a programmer so I don’t know if that would work.

To take a look, I’ve attached 2 files.

  • The file called “Targhee housing mirrored” is the output that our saw currently reads - from a bigger more complex job.

  • The file called “ZIPKIT TEST BUILD” is a basic sketchup model we would use to begin.

Is that enough information that you could see if this might work?

Take a look at the files.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

ZIPKIT TEST BUILD.skp (1.54 MB)

(Attachment targee housing mirrored 4.20.21.xml is missing)

5

Hello,

I think going from SketchUp to STL to XML could work great, but I’m not a developer so I don’t know for sure.

If you would like to send me your email address I could send you some sketchup and some XML files to take a look at.

Thanks!

6

your xml is missing.

@others: xml is not a geometric file, like STL. XML will contain data (whatever the data is). You cannot translate STL into XML as you would translate from one geometric format to another. A .xml file only tells you that the data in that file is xml formatted, like this:

<some_node_name>content</some_node_name>
7

Given that Collada is an XML file, would opening the STL in SketchUp and exporting as Collada solve the problem? At least the conversion from Collada to the custom automated saw file should be easier than going from STL.

8

@colin

given:

Makes me assume that the saw is not really looking for polygons (in a collada file), but data about which timber section to cut at which lengths, serialized as XML.

But, let’s wait for the actual xml upload.