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[as] > Projects > Sketchfab Uploader Plugin for SketchUp

Sketchfab Uploader Plugin for SketchUp

Upload your SketchUp models to the 3D viewing and sharing website Sketchfab

Description

I have been looking quite a while now for a way to share interactive 3D content from SketchUp on the web in a way that doesn’t require installing a browser plugin. While there were some Javascript- and Flash-based solutions, none of those appeared to be easy to work with. Other approaches, such as VRML (which is an export option in SketchUp Pro) always required the user to install a plugin. This is where WebGL comes in as a promising technology that is solely based on modern browser technology. Although not all browsers are able to display it (most notably IE and iOS-browsers are not willing to show anything), others like Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Opera are perfectly capable of rendering models very nicely. Below is a WebGL model of one of my projects (use your mouse to navigate it):

(for some colorful eye candy, try this one)

This is where Sketchfab comes in. This website lets anyone upload 3D models (up to 200 MB for free) and display them using WebGL. They even have a WordPress plugin to embed your models on your website (you can see it in action above). Since the main upload file format is COLLADA, it is easy for SketchUp users to upload their work there (the DAE and KMZ export format is natively supported in both the free and Pro version). What has been missing until now was a SketchUp plugin to makes this process more automatic.

The plugin that you can download and install from this page adds a menu item “Upload to Sketchfab” to the File menu in SketchUp. All you need to do before you can upload your models is register on their website and get a “secret API key” that links your uploads to your account. You can find that token on your personal dashboard page after registering.

After uploading your model, you can edit parameters, grab a thumbnail or adjust the default view on the Sketchfab website.

Downloads

You can now find this plugin in Trimble’s Extension Warehouse. For an easy install, browse to it from inside SketchUp (2013 or newer) and install it directly.

SketchUp Sketchfab uploader v.1.5 (RBZ for current SketchUp version) (18.79 kB, downloaded 2073 times) - PLEASE NOTE: Download the RBZ file. Then open SketchUp (v.8 M2 and above) and go to the Preferences dialog. On the Extensions tab, select "Install Extension..." and browse to the file.

SketchUp Sketchfab uploader v.1.5 (ZIP for any SketchUp version) (18.79 kB, downloaded 762 times) - PLEASE NOTE: Download the ZIP file and unzip it into the SketchUp plugin directory (usually at C:\Program Files\Google\SketchUp\Plugins\ in Windows or /Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp/SketchUp/Plugins/ on the mac). Keep the folder structure as it is in the ZIP file. Then re-start SketchUp and look for the new menu item in the File menu. If you are updating, just overwrite the old version of this plugin.

You can also find this plugin on GitHub.

Screenshots

Here’s a video (made by the Sketchfab folks) that shows the process in more detail:

Revision History

  • Version 1.4 (12/11/2012):
    - Support for updated API (incl. private/password functionailty)
    - Included SketchUp source tag in JSON
    - Exports edges by default now
    - Removed thumbnail upload (not supported anymore by API)
    - Better string cleaning on upload
  • Version 1.3 (7/20/2012):
    - Fixed filename problem to prevent permission issue
  • Version 1.2 (7/19/2012):
    - Uploads a thumbnail now
    - Provided more error checking
  • Version 1.1 (7/18/2012):
    - Changed json assembly to Ruby side – more reliable
    - Uploads large models now
  • Version 1.0 (7/13/2012):
    - First release
  • http://alexschreyer.net Alexander Schreyer

    I just updated the Sketchfab plugin to v.1.4.

  • Steve W

    I just installed the Sketchfab exporter and uploaded my first model (https://sketchfab.com/show/3mBdeTZSAnLPkWPkTBp6TGLOZGV ) , and it all worked very well. Great Job! Some questions/observations:

    1. (Very minor) In the menu for Sketchup upload, the first time I used it, when I pasted the API, the words “paste API here” remained and I had to delete manually. Any way to make the text automatically disappear when you paste the API?

    2. My model had 2 different components with different textures applied to each one. On the upload in Sketchfab, they appeared with one of the textures applied to both. Do I need to explode textured components before uploading?

    3. It looks like non-visible layers become visible in the upload?

    4. Colors on the model are very faded in the upload. Component textures mentioned in 2 above stayed strong. Any way to solve this?

    5. Any way to get light and shadow (from sun or lights, not the SSAO) in Sketchup model uploads?

    6. Sketchfab has a maximum file upload limit. How can Sketchup users determine the size of their uploaded files? Is it the same as the Sketchup .skp file size?

    7. The Sketchfab site says “Safari (you need to enable WebGL from develop mode in Safari)”, but above you say Safari doesn’t work. Can you clarify?

    Thanks for the exporter!

    • http://alexschreyer.net Alexander Schreyer

      Hi Steve, I very much like the hand-drawn trees in there! Let me answer your questions:

      1 – I’ll look into that. New version coming this week!

      2 – That might be a quirk in the COLLADA exporter in SketchUp. You could try that out using a “standard” DAE export and see if you still get the same problem. It usually is best if you apply materials inside groups if you have different materials. Explode helps, too, of course.

      3 – Hmm… interesting. Again, this is SketchUp’s COLLADA exporter.

      4 – This is SketchFab’s display. You could either apply textures everywhere or try my COLLADA hack (search “hack COLLADA” on my site)

      5 – That would be a great feature request in SketchFab. They can easily implement that in WebGL (even interactively).

      6 – At this point, it’s trial and error. I haven’t implemented that. I am also curious how they police this. After all, the DAE model gets encoded into a string in my uploader.

      6 – I’ll look at my wording, but I mean Safari on the Mac is OK but Safari on iOS (e.g. iPads) doesn’t support WebGL.

  • Monte

    Yes , all the tests are now there lol) thnx again

  • Monte

    Screen shot

    • http://alexschreyer.net Alexander Schreyer

      I see. Just cancel that dialog when it comes up. There’s nothing to download. It’s just a confirmation reply that says your model has uploaded. Your model will be on the SF dashboard.

  • Pablo Vidal

    …please help me, and forgive my ignorance.
    I can’t install that plugin, put the file .rbz in the plugins folder of SU, but the program not recognise him.
    What I can be doing wrong?

    thanks a lot!

  • Monte

    all is well now I get the dialog box ….thnx look forward to using this…great job

    • http://alexschreyer.net Alexander Schreyer

      Glad to hear it works…

      • Monte

        works except it doesn’t connect to site I sent you an Email with a screen shot

        • http://alexschreyer.net Alexander Schreyer

          Didn’t get the email. Upload the image here in your comment instead.

  • Monte

    version 1.2 does not work for me using Sketchup 8 pro on windows with chrome for browser I get the progress bar but no dialog box to input api key

    • http://alexschreyer.net Alexander Schreyer

      It is running well on my Win7+Su8Pro setup. I’ll upload a version (1.3) with more error checking today so that we at least get some feedback as to what went wrong. Please test again and tell me what it says…

      • http://alexschreyer.net Alexander Schreyer

        Just uploaded 1.3, which fixes the file permission problem. Please download it and try it out.

  • Monte

    I’m having the same problem as Stuart

  • Archimodeler

    Hello! I downloaded Sketchfab, put it in the plugins folder of Sketchup, but no Sketchfab option in my Sketchup. Any idea why?

    • Archimodeler

      Never mind, I figured it out :-)

  • http://alexschreyer.net Alexander Schreyer

    I just uploaded version 1.2 that also submits a thumbnail. Everything should now be working perfectly…

  • http://alexschreyer.net Alexander Schreyer

    Everyone: If you downloaded version 1.0, please update to version 1.1 – it fixes a bug with large models.

  • http://twitter.com/Stuart34791590 Stuart

    Alex, this is a great idea. Looking forward to using it.

    Having a problem getting it to work though. I have loaded extension using .rbz file and the ‘Upload to Sketchfab” function is listed under File menu. When I click to upload a file, i see a progress bar which reaches 100% but I don’t get the dialog box into which you need to enter the api-key.

    Any ideas? I am using SU8 Pro on Win 7.

    Cheers…Scotty

    • http://www.alexschreyer.net Alex

      Are you using it on a very large model? Have you tried a smaller one? The progressbar is the SU exporter that writes the model out to a temporary file after which SU reads it back in for the dialog. This might get a bit hairy with large models.

    • http://alexschreyer.net Alexander Schreyer

      Are you using it on a very large model? Have you tried a smaller one? The progressbar is the SU exporter that writes the model out to a temporary file after which SU reads it back in for the dialog. This might get a bit hairy with large models.

    • http://alexschreyer.net Alexander Schreyer

      I just uploaded version 1.1 that should fix this. Please try it out and let me know if you still have problems.