ArcScene SketchUp Plugin No longer Functions

[PaulVepraskas]

The Google Plugin has worked in all previous versions of ArcScene.  Cannot get it to work in 9.4. Is there a work around for exporting to SketchUp?

[PaulVepraskas]

I got the Plugin to work but not in ArcScene only in ArcMap.... You have to reinstall the plugin in ArcMAP and then it will work?

[NathanShephard]

Unfortunately, the Google SketchUp plug-in is no longer being actively supported by the SketchUp team.  We've spoken with them about it and they've been refocused on to other development tasks (instead of updating the plugin). So it's not going to be guaranteed to work with the latest releases of SketchUp or ArcGIS.  😞

The good news is that 9.4 still supports an update-3D-GIS-objects-using SketchUp workflow, just in a different way.  🙂

Here are the two main feature CREATION workflows, using 9.4:

(1) Starting with a SKP (or DAE/3DS/FLT) file
- Start editing in Scene or Globe (against a multipatch feature class)
  - If required, create an Edit Template for the multipatch layer
- Select the multipatch template in the Create Features window
  - This enables the Insert tool (for placing multipatch features)
- Click in the view where you want the 3D model to be placed
- When prompted, navigate to the source SKP file
- A new multipatch feature is created in the geodatabase (imported from the source 3D file), located at the point where you clicked
- Move / rotate / scale the new multipatch feature, as needed
- Optionally populate feature attributes, save edits

(2) Starting with a GIS feature (such as a building footprint)
- Use a feature attribute (such as bld height) to extrude the footprint into a block representation
- Use the 'Layer 3D to Feature Class' GP tool to create a multipatch feature class
- Select the multipatch feature/s you want to update, then use the 'Multipatch to COLLADA' GP tool to export them to DAE files
  -> Note: this tool is not in Beta 1
- Load and edit the COLLADA files in SketchUp (or some other application)
- Start Editing in Scene or Globe (against the applicable multipatch data)
- Select the feature whose geometry you want to update from the DAE
- Use the 3D Editor > Replace with Model command to switch out the existing block geometry with the more complex geometry (and optional textures) you created in the edited 3D model (COLLADA file).
- Save edits

Note that the second half of the Workflow 2, above, is how you could make improvements (eg: texture changes) to your multipatch features over the long haul.

And, in regards to your specific Q: "Is there a work-around for exporting to SketchUp? ", the answer is "Yes - at 9.4 we have enabled export to COLLADA, a format which SketchUp supports".

A lot of info to digest - hope it helps!

Thanks, Nathan.
3D Team, ESRI.

[JakubSisak]

Can TIN be exported to COLLADA in ArcGIS 10? 
Can ArcGIS 10 3D Analyst extension smooth TIN surfaces?
Does anyone really use 3D Analyst to create 3D buildings other then extruding footprints?
Initially, i thought there would be some groundbreaking improvements in the new 3D Analyst in terms of 3D editing and additional support for other 3D formats. Most importantly, i was hoping that to be able to export features to SketchUp, edit the model and be able to import it back while preserving the coordinate system information without having to manually place the model.
I use 9.3 and the SketchUp plugin (which works flawlessly) and if need be i can import SKP models into ArcScene, although they need to be georeferenced.  I can't see how the new version of ArcGIS would improve my existing work flow. In fact i now fear i will not be able to export TIN surfaces into sketchup.

[NathanShephard]

(1) Can TIN be exported to COLLADA in ArcGIS 10?
- Not directly, we only have direct export of multipatch features to COLLADA
- You can, however, simply use the 'Interpolate Polygon to Multipatch' GP tool to convert the TIN to a multipatch feature for a given polygon / extent (as a pre-processing step), and then convert that multipatch to DAE.

(2) Can ArcGIS 10 3D Analyst extension smooth TIN surfaces?
- Depends what you mean by smooth. There is new direct TIN-element editing functionality and tools inside 10 (eg: deleting TIN nodes, adding breaklines). And there are other functions (such as Decimate TIN nodes) for reducing the 'noise' in a TIN.  If you move to Terrain datasets (think "multi-resolution TIN's in the geodatabase"), then there are other options again.

(3) Does anyone really use 3D Analyst to create 3D buildings other then extruding footprints?
- Correct. Advanced building model construction (eg: texturing) is done using software such as SketchUp, Maya, etc.
- The creation of very accurate building footprints in projected coordinate space is what the GIS piece is all about. By extruding them to a general height, converting them to multipatches and doing the higher-end sculpting and painting of them using specialized editors such as SketchUp, you get great buildings in the correct location / coordinate space.  And each piece of software does what it does best.

(4) Most importantly, i was hoping that to be able to export features to SketchUp, edit the model and be able to import it back while preserving the co...
- This exact workflow is supported.  🙂
   (a) Select a multipatch feature and export it to a COLLADA file
      -> The multipatch can be made by: extruding footprints; draping polygons on TINs; using 3Dsymbols; etc
      -> Or the multipatch feature could have come from an imported SKP/3DS/FLT/DAE file from months/years ago
   (b) Import the DAE into SketchUp and edit as needed. Then save the file back to DAE or SKP 6.
   (c) Select the original multipatch (per step a), and use 'Replace with Model' to update the geometry
      -> There is no re-georeferencing of the model, it's placed it in the SAME LOCATION as the original.
      -> And you get to keep all feature attributes (eg: links to related Ownership tables, or Inspection Dates, etc)

Hope this helps explain it a bit better.  We're looking to get either a video or a whitepaper (with screenshots) available so users such as yourself can see how there's a workflow that will continue (even though Google are no longer able to support the plugin).

Let me know if you have any more Q's.  This is an important part of the 10 release for 3D, and we want it to meet your needs.

Thanks, Nathan.
3D Team

[JakubSisak]

Thanks Nathan,
Sounds straight forward... Will have to try once version 10 is out.

What i mean by smoothing.  I often work with TIN but do not care for the triangulated-like appearance. As an example, SketchUp uses Smooth Surface function for TIN and multi-face surfaces (Right click on Sanbox (TIN) select smooth) which provides the user with a dialog box and a slider that allows to adjust the smoothing factor. This way a really blocky and triangulated surface can be rendered smooth. Very nice feature. I was hoping for something similar to be added to 3D Analyst.

Even in version 10, only SKP 6 files are supported?

[JakubSisak]

(1) Can TIN be exported to COLLADA in ArcGIS 10?
- You can, however, simply use the 'Interpolate Polygon to Multipatch' GP tool to convert the TIN to a multipatch feature for a given polygon / extent (as a pre-processing step), and then convert that multipatch to DAE.

I tried it and the initial result appears very strange.  The whole surface has to be exploded, all faces selected and painted with a uniform color, then grouped and softened as required.  Strange but works. Kind of.

I guess the question is how to make sure that the triangle faces in TIN translate accurately to the multipatch. I suppose this is controled by the 'Strip Size'. The tool help states:
The Maximum Triangle Strip Size value must be 3 or larger.  The recommended range is between 128 and 2048.


The default setting is 1024 but at this setting the resulting multipatch is much 'simpler' than the original TIN.  Is 2048 the maximum strip size. What is the recommended setting if i would like an identical 'wire mesh' as I have in the TIN.

[NathanShephard]

It should always be the full resolution of the TIN. The option you mention is basically for internal optimizations of the triangle strips that reconstruct the whole object - it should make as many parts as needed (with a max of, say, 1024 vertices per part).

Does the multipatch feature LOOK the same as the TIN inside ArcScene before you convert it to COLLADA? 
-> If not, then it sounds like a data-specific bug, so you should log a bug through Tech Support to get it into the bug tracking system.
-> If it looks OK as a multipatch, but then NOT OK as an imported COLLADA element in SketchUp, then it's possible there's a bug with our COLLADA exporter...

I just checked with some local data here using 10.0 Final and it was working as expected.  Note that I (out of habit) always select the imported object in SketchUp and 'Explode' it. I doubt that is part of your problem, but figured I would mention it.

Thanks, Nathan.

[JakubSisak]

Thanks Nathan.
It worked. It takes a bunch of steps but the final result is the same as with the old Sketchup 6 extension. Yes, I exploded the group, applied a uniform color to all surfaces and it was good.
My next question is about exporting vector (point, polygon, polyline) data from ArcGIS to SketchUp. Naturaly, I thought export to KMZ then import to sketchup would work but the files exported from ArcGIS fail to import to Sketchup. (But do open fine in Google Earth) - Any Ideas?  I also tried DXF and DWG export from ArcGIS but the scale is wrong and i would have to scale manually in SketchUp. Sketchup 5 used to import shapefiles natively but that is no longer available. The are some ruby scripts but they don't work...

[KatieCrosta]

Can someone tell me where to find the plugin needed to convert ArcGIS to SketchUp?