Import SketchUp And Google Earth Files Into Blender

Posted on by

house.pngAfter the announcement that Google was releasing SketchUp for free, there was an immediate hope that there would be a way to import models from the free version of SketchUp into Blender. Well, jms has got something that might be the answer.

jms posted a thread which describes three scripts that he has written that use SketchUp’s and Google Earth’s kml and kmz file types to import into Blender. His site has the full code for each as well as descriptions.

Be Sociable, Share!

    Twitter



    Please support us

    • Tio Ilmo

      Nice to heard about that!!! Today after working I will try this option at home.

      Thanks for BlenderNation administrator to improve the original announcement related to this subject with this important note.

      It answers my email sent yesterday.

      Thanks very much guys.

      Tio Ilmo

    • http://afecelis.gdlib.net afecelis

      Nice, but looks a bit complicated. I think the xml way would be cleaner.

    • http://www.moditory.com [t0rc]

      Neat; a lot of people use SketchUp. Seems as though the import process might be a little lengthy but I’m sure if enough individuals utilize the scripts, other solutions will turn up/evolve.

    • http://mattiesworld.gotdns.org mattie

      man, those blender devs keep amazing me ;)

    • Blackblender

      “Google SketchUp is free for personal use.”

      What happens if you sketch something in SketchUp and then import it into blender to render etc. can you use it for commercial purposes?

    • Antti T

      It’s sad that Google’s version is very limited incompared with original sketchup 5. Lot of useful tools are missing in Google’s version. Also the original supprted exporting 3ds, autoCad dwg, OBJ, VRML, etc. which would be easy to import on blender. Try out http://www.sketchup.com/?id=76 free demo and become sad….
      Anyway I still thing that skechup has the very best user interface for 3D program that I have seen. Sorry Blender. :) Would it be possible to have same kind of “fast sketching tool” for Blender also? It would be far more useful that just importing KMLs.

    • Toni

      Well he beat me to it.

    • LetterRip

      Blackblender,

      “What happens if you sketch something in SketchUp and then import it into blender to render etc. can you use it for commercial purposes?”

      I think it would be a violation of the sketchup license according to the Google sketchup FAQ.

      “4. What is the difference between Google SketchUp (free) and SketchUp Pro 5?
      While both offer the same basic features and have the same look and feel, SketchUp Pro 5 offers additional functionality: export capabilities, organic modeling tools (Sandbox), film set design tools, large format printing, and tech support. SketchUp Pro 5 is approved for commercial use. SketchUp (free)is not.”

      http://www.sketchup.com/index.php?id=1493#G4

      LetterRip

    • http://www.area42.de Bart

      Well as the author of the x3d exporter i will write a export script that works out of the box and can be bundled with Blender too. I know there is an existing one but it needs other libraries to run.

    • Richard

      Ok, Very glad to see this…I understand what it does, but being new to blender Im not sure how to use it…Where is the download zip?

    • http://www.blendernation.com etr9j

      There isn’t any (at least I didn’t see any). They are just the free scripts. Here is the long and simple explanation on how to use.

      You copy the text of the scripts in those windows on the site, paste them into a text editor like notepad, and name the file something like kmzmeshexport. Save it to the scripts folder in Blender (\.blender\scripts). It probably saved as kmzmeshexport.txt. Rename the file kmzmeshexport.py

      In Blender, go to the scripts window, then import, and it should be there to select.

      Did that help, or was that not what you were looking for?

    • http://jmsoler.free.fr jms

      LetterRip :
      We can suppose that there is plenty of free models on the web .

      etr9j :
      There is no zipped file but now you can find links to download normal python files on the english page too (they were located on the french page only, sorry) . Version with build in zipfile.py are available too (a bit older then the last one ) .

    • http://jmsoler.free.fr jms

      The [url=http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=66651]thread[/url] on blenderartist has been erased .

    • http://terrymorgan.net/download.htm hike1

      Google hijacked my Sketchup and made me update, now the kmz won’t import (wonder why the update?) But..

      http://members.optushome.com.au/antishreth/sketchup_ogre_export_v1_0_1.zip

      makes mesh.xml files except my mesh.xml
      blender importer says ‘no module named glob’

      I read you’re supposed to have blender 2.3 or
      python 2.3 for the mesh.xm. importer to work, anybody
      know about this?

    • http://jmsoler.free.fr jms

      By default, in Sketchup, the new file export in kmz format is made for ‘Google Earth 4′ ( it contains data in collada format but, in my tests, the blender’s collada import does not read this kind of collada data) . To obtain an export to old Google Earth format, choose it in the export menu, just under the default option. This choice gives a kmz file readable by the script .

    • http://bullet.sourceforge.net Erwin Coumans

      COLLADA 1.4 import/export should deal with Google Earth / Sketchup data.

      If not, please log a bug in the Bug Tracker of COLLADA 1.4 developer Illusoft:
      http://colladablender.illusoft.com/

    • takezo3001

      “It’s sad that Google’s version is very limited incompared with original sketchup 5. Lot of useful tools are missing in Google’s version. Also the original supprted exporting 3ds, autoCad dwg, OBJ, VRML, etc. which would be easy to import on blender. Try out http://www.sketchup.com/?id=76 free demo and become sad….
      ”

      Another Micro$0.00ft monopoly style…Except maybe on a smaller scale….For NOW!

      There is no reason whatsoever to remove the Import/Export function, other than to FORCE users to use YOUR format, with your software alone!{Increased funtion with the $$$ version, no doubt!}

      That reminds me when the Ultra-Crappy Realmedia player first came out! It was the WORST video format around, cornering the software community with a limited “Free” version with exclusive control of the file format’s limitations vers the $$$$ version!

      I appreciate them bringing out a great tool for free(When before it was for sale)but come on, this is 3D software we’re talkin’ about…It’s MEANT to be exported/imported into other 3D apps, for cryin’ out loud!

      Thank GOD for the open source community!
      *Winks at the Programming gods, at Blender!*

    • Felix John D’souza

      Reply me

    • http://www.blendernation.com Felix John D’souza

      Dear Sir,
      Please Reply

    • http://jmsoler.free.fr jms

      @Felix John D’souza

      ??

    • http://nortonrelease.com Alex

      Is there a tutorial on how to import SketchUp files to Blender?

    • Pingback: The Son Of Heaven

    • http://www.scottpetrovic.com/blog Scott Petrovic

      I just spent some time on getting Google Earth models into Blender. It was a little tricky, but here is the article
      http://www.scottpetrovic.com/blog/2010/01/unity3d-importing-google-earth-models-with-blender/

      It has an extra step afterwards on importing it into a game engine, so you can stop about half way through it.

    • http://www.largeformatreview.com Heidy Pawley

      Hi Some good interesting content on here. Nice work.