[Sketchup fan]

Dear Sirs,
I need to translate Sketchup pro files into mastercam x ( preferably step or Iges) files.
I would appreciate any help offered on this matter.

Thank you.

[subnoize]

Dear Sirs,
I need to translate Sketchup pro files into mastercam x ( preferably step or Iges) files.
I would appreciate any help offered on this matter.

Thank you.

We are having a real nightmare getting our designs out of SketchUp. We even paid the $400 for the pro version trying to get a cleaner export. It is a real mess and I feel for you. If you are using DXF, export without faces enabled. In the export dialog you will see a button saying "Options" at the bottom that you will have to click. In that menu you will turn everything off but the lines.

You will then need to convert all lines that will be single cuts into polylines in something like AutoCAD of equivalent package. Sketchup spits them out as individual lines!!!! I don't know if MasterCAM can do it for you. Some CAM packages will help you so maybe you are in luck. I don't use MasterCAM.

If you use 3DS export it goes a little better but if you are only using a CNC router (aka, 2D), you are in trouble again! You have to resolve the lines to polylines to generate the machining instructions to produce the g-code. I'd stick with DXF unless somebody else here has a better resolution! (I'm all ears!!)

SketchUp Pro is a great tool for people learning but it quickly turns into a nightmare because it does things so weird. One thing that is driving us nuts is the 1/64 resolution on the files makes our 3D milling have visible ridges in places. The ridges are not visible in SketchUp but are clearly visible in AutoCAD.

Go figure!

Hopefully I helped! If you figure out what I'm doing wrong I'd love to here about it. Otherwise we are redoing everything and starting over from scratch.

snz

[piratebrian]

At the bottom of this thread there is a Sketchup pro to Mastercam series of steps. http://www.cnczone.com/forums/genera...ml#post1494946