Autodesk A360 Export to Sketchup - physical materials not included

[balunist]

Would it be possible to include the physical materials defined in my Fusion 360 design in the exported Sketchup file (skp)?

Thanks in advance!

[Phil.E]

Hi, thanks for posting.

Do you mean the physical materials that define mass and density, or do you mean how the part appears on screen?

Thanks,

[cekuhnen]

@Phil.E @balunist

I am sure he means the materials.

Fusion2SKP could also use an export mesh setting enhancement.

Sometimes the SKP models Fusion exports are a disaster as you have

no control over meshing.

The ability to import SKP and export to SKP is glorious for Fusion making

it a perfect modeler for architects that use Fusion.

[Phil.E]

@cekuhnen

From what I found, Sketchup does not have the concept of mass. It only knows volume. Can you explain how our exports could convey this information if Sketchup doesn't know about it? Or was I only finding old information? These were articles from 2016, with experts advising people to figure mass by using volume and density - manually.

Thanks,

[balunist]

Phil,
>From what I can tell Sketchup does not provide the ability to define mass
and density. Components do have a property called material. I'm not using
the Pro version which may be different.

The model I'm exporting from Fusion 360 has both the Physical Materials and
the Appearance set to the same. When importing the exported model to
Sketchup the appearance is either uni-material or not set at all.
Thanks!
Bill

[Phil.E]

@balunist

Thanks for more details.

I want to log an improvement to the Fusion export. However I have limited understanding of the workflow, the desired results, and how Sketchup works. 

Unfortunately I still need a better understanding.

When you use "material" in Sketchup, do you use it for appearances, or for mass calculations? Is there a property shown that indicates mass/weight of objects in Sketchup based on their "material"?

Thanks,

[cekuhnen]

@Phil.E @balunist

hi Phill,

sketchip is a pretty low level polygon modeler and like other polygon modeler you can texture faces and complete objects via materials that can include solid color or texture values.

translated to fusion in sketchup materials are what in fusion we define through the appearance dialog.

we are not using real physical material descriptions like steel plastic etc in sketchup.

Sketchup is sadly very popular because it is quite easy to learn but what most people don’t rlealize is how crippled and limited that app is.

It is used a lot in architecture and 9nterior Design while you can also use it for furniture design and other areas.

what makes sketchup so popular in architecture is that fact that there is a large online library of models and even companies offer their prosucts

as 3d models to put into an architecture space or such.

i have my students a test run in fusion and they are caughing at sketchup now since they realized how much better fusion is for modeling of objects to walls and spaces

since fusion is also significantly more logical and more productive than AutoCad which offers 3d capabilities but in such an outdated manner that it makes it a bad choice

hence the push to revit.

the fact however remains that sketchup remains being used s lot because how cheap it is and fortunately fusion can make desings we can export to sketchup or even revit later.

the only thing missing for the sketchup export is the ability to define the mesh quality. Often sketchup exports from fusion are pretty crude.

and maybe fusion components could be exported as sketchup components since they both work the same in each app.

i hope this helps a little to get an understanding of how we use fusion and sketchup together

[balunist]

I won't claim to be a Sketchup expert but I don't think that include the
mass as a property. Components, Groups, and Bodies are painted with a
selected material. I think the bigger questions might be what Sketchup do
when loading a SKP if a material, Physical or Appearance, is not currently
known. Does it add it to the list of available materials.

Sorry, I answered your question with more questions. 😞

[Phil.E]

@cekuhnen

Great info. I can log the improvement now.

Regarding appearances, there is no way for Sketchup to display many of the materials Fusion uses, exactly as Fusion does. The technology is proprietary. Especially the solid wood textures.

What would be a likely solution would be similar to STEP import to Fusion, where component structure and names are preserved but appearances are approximate. I'll put it in the hopper now.

Thanks all!

[cekuhnen]

@Phil.E

ehat I forgot to say is while sketchup will remain for some time it seems Fusion is a better option for creating the assets

not always does a company also offer the furniture and fixture models and often interrior and architecture studnets are

pretty Bad at modleing because they mainly focus on 2d plans and 3d walls.

so with ink using fusion we try to generate a new generation of Design studnets that posses better 3d skills which i think

sre a must have today to be more compete8ve and fusion sofar for us was a terrific choice.

psrticlualry in fusrnitur Design studnets have a blast.

the idea and vision is that through this studnets also will introduce their further workplaces to fusion opening up more

areas where us could be used well and of course for AD also as a market.

during class fusion also showed to be a much better Design explorstion tool than sketchup because of how direct and parametric modeling

can be faster in the long run for Design adjustments which in sketchup is a major pain in the ##$%@$}£.

m ah in the industry see cad as the last step to execute and not also as an explorative process which is why we promote fusion so much.

[cekuhnen]

@balunist @Phil.E

I did a quick test and Fusion SKP exporter ignores Fusion apperances (per face applied) a lot.

This is simply I assume an exporter issue I am sure.

The Thea Render exporter exports all materials perfectly and on a per face basis.

Phill, 3D wood or volumetric procedural materials are any a no go when you want to transfer

data. In Blender 3D I render my 3D wood into 2D images for UV texturing in other apps if needed.

There is no other way. To make this work SketchUp and Fusion would need to use the same 3D wood material.