Hi all, i have a sketchup model file. How could i import it into houdini?
What are the steps required?

Thanks.

If you have the pro version of SketchUp, you can use the fbx exporter and use that to bring the file in to Houdini. Works very well for me.

I use Simon's quadrangulate tool (from houdini tools web site) to get rid of most of the tri's.



If you have trees in SketchUp, most use leaves as groups or components. If that is the case, each leaf will come in as an object. You will need to explode trees in to a single object then create a component out of that.

SketchUp components don't come across as proper instances (limitation of fbx?).

Hi, Thanks for the reply, i tried using FBX, but i failed,

I have attached the sketchup file, can you take a look at it?

I would also like to be able to do this. i have a dxf plugin to export dxfs form sketchup. Ive also tried collada.

it seems that houdini file formats such as dxf or COLLADA don't work when I'm using them.

I was hoping to do this with the free version of sketchup because we are doing open source non commercial CAD work and want to keep our processes open for everyone.

for this reason, FBX export out of sketchup isn't an option for us.

Recent (free) versions of sketchup will export .obj files.

I cant see this option from 2014, whereabouts?

I don't have 2014 in front of me but in 2013 it's under File/Export/3D Model, and look for “OBJ File” under the “Export Type” options.

SketchUp also has a tendency to produce geometry with inconsistently flipped surface normals. Triangulating all faces seems to help preserve better uniformity.

SketchUp 2014's Export > Obj options:

Oh yes you have to be very well aware in SketchUP which direction your prims are facing.

Btw it isn't SketchUP but it's the modellers who construct geometry with primitives with opposite winding on shared points causing inverted primitive normals. I have gotten models from most applications where prim normals were all over the place. This is a Modeller issue imho.

Nice thing in SketchUP is that they automatically support two sided shaders on primitive faces in OpenGL. Default is white for +ve and a bluish grey for backward -ve faces. As you model you really need to be aware of primitive orientation and that is why they have RMB menus on the primitives to control this, similar to Houdini's Facet SOP and it's auto orient feature. It's easy to spot back facing primitives if you don't slather your model up with materials.

If you download models from the warehouse, you get what you pay for. You have to apply a style that strips materials and then fix the prim orientation, or do it in Houdini with the Facet SOP orient faces option to make sure adjacent prime with shared points face the same direction. Or you will see the telltale black hour glasses all over as Mantra flips the shading normals across the primitive seams.

A little update that might help some people.
I used the free sketchup Make to export a fbx from a architectural model i received and imported it into Houdini 13.401.
It made a complex mess with about 2500 nulls called group and locator and what not.
A basic python script helped me select these all so i could delete them:

temp=hou.node(“/obj/geo”).glob(“*”)
for n in temp:
if n.type().name() == “null”:
n.setSelected(True)

What's left is a bunch of geo nodes that contain the actual geometry.
It has got tri's but it's definatelly workable.

Hope this might help someone someday.

Cheers