Google SketchUp for shipset modeling? |
At the initial release of Google SketchUp version 4, I was excited about how it could be used for making SE5 shipsets, but then I found that you needed the $400 pro version to export to anything but Google Maps format.
Today, though, I happened to go back to SketchUp and noticed that it's at version 6 - and lo and behold, while it doesn't have .X export even in the professional version, it DOES have an XML-based format called "Collada" (aka .DAE) and it appears that that option is in the free version as well...
I wonder... if there is a Collada -> X converter out there, we might be able to use this nifty program to make SE5 shipsets? 
Re: Google SketchUp for shipset modeling?
I haven't actually tried this, but Google came up with http://jmsoler.free.fr/didacticiel/blender/tutor/py_import_kml-kmz_en.htm
It suggests that, with some tinkering, Blender can import SketchUp's kmz files.
Only does up to kmz version 3.0, but a quick look inside a sketchup test file (kmz's are just zipped xml) says that that is 2.0. I think.
I'm not familiar with either program, but from what I saw in a quick test SketchUp looks pretty cool.
Re: Google SketchUp for shipset modeling?
Never mind, I must have misread the documentation - the Collada exporter is only in the Pro version
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