Convert sketchup (*.skp) file to STL or OBJ

Question

I'm looking for the solutions to Convert sketchup (*.skp) file to STL or OBJ.

Is there a commandline tool to convert sketchup (*.skp) file to STL or OBJ? I'm looking for the tool supporting both windows and mac.

or

How to convert sketchup (*.skp) file to STL or OBJ in javascript?

Any clue or comment is appreciated.

Thanks, Jeffrey

Answer 1

AFAIK there is no command line tool to do it. Much less a Javascript tool.

SketchUp itself does have the capability, so you can create a Ruby plugin to do the export when SketchUp is opened. So you can have a .bat file or whatever the Mac equivalent is, and let it run SketchUp with your plugin.

Or you can roll your own conversion tool using the SketchUp SDK. http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/developer/su-api/ The SDK does not need the SketchUp installed, but on the other hand it does not have any built-in .OBJ export support, so you would need to implement the exporter yourself, only using the SDK for reading the SKP file. This might be quite involved.

Answer 2

SketchUp has an open source STL plugin which is accessible from the Extension Warehouse:

http://extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/sketchup-stl

The STL works for SketchUp Make (which is Free) and SketchUp Pro ($590). SketchUp Pro also includes a number of other export file formats, such as OBJ, 3DS, DAE, FBX, etc....

Answer 3

I know its not programatically, but last version of Sketchup has the option directly to export to OBJ file.

File Menu -> export -> 3D Model -> Then select from the dropdown of extensions the OBJ.