Sketch-Up to C4D

[skala67]

I was just wondering what formats Sketch-Up exported in. I am going to be importing models created in Sketch-Up into Cinema4D and want to make sure there is a compatible file type. (I do not have a copy of Sketch to check with, and will be getting the files from a client. Want to be able to tell them which type to export.)

 

thanks,

[lambros]

I think there is 3ds, dwg, obj, xsi, vrml and fbx support, so I guess everybody is covered

[STRAT]

do you have autocad?

[Ernest Burden III]

DXF

 

SketchUp (I don't have the new v5 yet) exports dwg, dxf, 3ds and vrml.

 

So your best bet is dxf, but sometimes exports fail in odd ways, so often I use 3ds export from SU to C4D. You do not absolutely have to explode blocks in SU, but it affects how the think imports, or whether it will export at all. Sometimes it will come into C4D as on connected object with many, many selection tags and materials, or it will come in as a long list of sub objects with fewer tags. The better layered the model, the better it will come in.

 

Then there's scale--find out the units the SU model is done in so you can be sure to set your units and the import multiplier correctly in C to get the model at the right scale. If its an American client then they will likely export in inches, so the import filter would need to be set to 0.0833 so that you can work in feet in Cinema. Metric would be different, of course.