Pay for your SketchUp Pro--everyone wins! just an idea

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Exporting a SketchUp drawing to EPS format can only be done in the Pro version. They used to give you 8 hours of pro use as a trial, during which you could do lots of exports since you wouldn’t be doing your creation in Pro mode. But now they give you a flat 30 days.

If there are no other good workarounds, I thought that someone who invested in Pro could offer the export service on Fiverr. For example, 1 to 3 SketchUp files attached to a single email would be exported for a single gig.

Just a thought! :slight_smile:

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Why EPS as an export? It’s a file format that hasn’t been discussed much. Just curious.

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I get the impression that gf will support enough file formats that it will be no problem getting your design from sketchup make to gf.
I am liking fusion 360 more and more anyway.

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@marmak3261, a lot of people seem to be talking about using Illustrator or Inkscape to send the final file to the GF. Haven’t really looked into alternatives, to be honest.

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I haven’t used it, but there is a plugin for SketchUp that allows you to export directly to SVG format. It’s mentioned in this thread on the SketchUp forum:

Toward the bottom of the thread there is also a brief description of how you can use the Make version to export to a vector PDF, without needing the Pro version.

Perhaps I’m wrong, but I believe both of those formats can be used directly with the GF.

If not, you can definitely import either of those formats into Inkscape or Illustrator and go from there.

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To be more specific, what program needs an *.eps file for use? for further editing? I have just done the *.svg from Sketchup.

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EPS is an older format and not much used anymore. Illustrator will import/export a bunch of other formats, and Adobe invested a lot of time into trying to make PDF the standard (basically phasing out EPS).

If you want to use Illustrator you are better off looking for other formats that Sketchup will handle, but as mentioned, you are probably best off just exporting a SVG for direct use on the Glowforge.

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Thanks for the info on .eps, that’s good to know. I was barking up the wrong tree.

@johnawerner, I tried to install that plugin but got error messages when restarting SU. The PDF route sounds easier, but do you happen to have any information on getting the plugin to run?

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You can get an SVG exporter for sketchup, which works great with GF.

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Sorry, I haven’t used the plugin. I noticed in the forum thread that some people were having issues. But I was hopeful when a post from a few months ago reported success using the plugin with SketchUp Make 2015.

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I installed the SVG plugin earlier today. Did a very simple create of an object in Sketchup Make 2015, selected and exported an individual face in SVG format. Opened it in Inkscape. That much worked fine. Will get around to play with it more when I have the need. This is what I used. Sketchup SVG Outline Plugin by simonbeard

Here is a video on the use of the plugin once installed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brokv1ZAdCk

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That is the one I installed based on other discussions here, a bit more trouble to install than some but works great once in place.

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I have only tried the plug-in once so far. I had several faces arranged on a single plane in SketchUp, but when it exported that to SVG, the object outlines and their faces were all rendered sequentially and separately, with no regard for relative positioning in the source, rendering the result unusable. I suspect user error at this point, but haven’t had time to play with it since. Anyone else had better luck and/or some best practices to share?

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@rpegg, that’s what I needed! Thank you.

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Thanks for that info. I downloaded it and we converted our designs. Back to GRMakers to see how they turn out.

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