Dear All,
I would like to import a Sketchup 3Dmodel ( SKP file) (e.g. Sparkfun MCP4725) in KiCAD 5 but it seems to be not possible?
Do you have a solution to convert SKP files in KicAD compatible files? ( STEP, IGES…)
Thanks ,
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You have to go ask the company who makes that proprietary software if they are willing to stop hijacking your creations and provide exports in standardized formats.
Maybe somebody else has reverse engineered the file format and made a converter to .STEP files.
That is a bit unfair because STEP is a solid model format while SketchUp doesn’t do solid models. Which means that converting to good STEP may be difficult.
A 3D CAD drawing program that does not do solid models?
Can that be taken seriously?
I think Blender also only does faces. For their purpose this may well be adequate, but for mechanical CAD it would be a real turnoff for me.
When I switched to Linux I was in need of a 3D drawing program.
I dabbled a bit in blender. It’s a wonderful program, but I had the Idea I had to “force it” do do CAD work. I think I ditched Sketchup because it did not run on Linux (maybe wine?). Later I started using FreeCAD. Back then it was a real pain to use but it has improved quite a lot in the last 6+ years, and even though there are still plenty of issues, it is quite usable.
FreeCAD can read some 20+ different file formats. You may be able to find a common file format for export in Sketchup, and import in FreeCAD (or Blender, or …) FreeCAD can generate 3D output that is compatible with KiCad. It also has the tools to do cleanup if the conversion is messy or incomplete.
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