Universal Scene Description Exporter for SketchUp

This plug-in adds the ability to export Pixar's Universal Scene Description files from SketchUp Pro. It has been tested with SketchUp Pro 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

It adds three options to the File->Export->3D Model menu:

• Pixar USD binary File (*.usd)
• Pixar USD ASCII File (*.usda)
• Pixar USDZ File (*.usdz)

There are also options on the export panel to conditionally export normals, curves, edges, and lines, as well as the ability to organize the USD as a single file or as a set of files that reference each other.

The usdz files this exporter writes out takes care to write out in a way that is compatible with Apple's ARKit 2, which is more constrained than the general usdz specification, but that support can be toggled on or off in the Options... dialog.

The exporter also leverages the new UsdPreviewSurface to support texture export from SketchUp.

Getting the Prebuilt Plugin for macOS

We are providing a pre-built version of the plug-in here. After downloading, you'll want to copy it into the PlugIns directory inside the SketchUp Pro app bundle. You can do this from the Terminal by the following. Note you will need to type an admin password, as that directory is probably write-protected.

sudo cp -rf USDExporter.plugin /Applications/SketchUp\ 2018/SketchUp.app/Contents/PlugIns/

Once you have copied it there, you should see the 3 USD export options under the File->Export->3D Model menu.

This build has been (lightly) tested on SketchUp 2019 (Version 19.2.221) on macOS 10.14.6, and was built with Xcode 10.3 (10G8)

Getting Help

Need help understanding certain concepts in USD? See Getting Help with USD or visit the forum.

If you are experiencing undocumented problems with the software, please file a bug.

Supported Platforms

SketchUp Pro runs on macOS and Windows, but this plug-in is currently only supported on macOS.

This plug-in was developed on macOS but care has been taken to make sure that, as much as possible, it should be straightforward to port to Windows. Both SketchUp's SDK (developer account required) on Windows and macOS contain an example plug-in called skp_to_xml, which this plug-in took inspiration from, so if someone wants to port this to Windows they should just need to look in the SDK/samples/skp_to_xml/win/ and in the USD SketchUp Mac folder here and do the equivalent for Windows.

Dependencies

Getting and Building the Code

1. Install prerequisites (see Dependencies for required versions)

Note: to build this plug-in you will need a SketchUp Developer/Trimble account and an Apple Developer account.

The rest of these instructions assume you have a Mac with Xcode and SketchUp Pro installed.

2. Download the USD source code

You can download source code archives from GitHub or use git to clone the repository.

git clone https://github.com/PixarAnimationStudios/USD

3. Run the USD build script

MacOS:

In a terminal, run xcode-select to ensure command line developer tools are installed. Then run the script. We recommend building without Python, without imaging, and as a monolithic library that includes tbb in it. The included Xcode project assumes that it has been built that way and installed into /opt/local/USDForSketchUp.

python USD/build_scripts/build_usd.py --build-args TBB,extra_inc=big_iron.inc --no-python --no-imaging --no-usdview --build-monolithic /opt/local/USDForSketchUp

4. Download the SketchUp SDK

Once you login to the Trimble/SketchUp developer account (look in upper right corner of that linked page), download the SDK. Unzip and install this somewhere on your machine, for example, ~/SketchUpSDKs/SDK_Mac_2019-0-752_0

5. Download the USD SketchUp exporter plug-in source code

You can download source code archives from GitHub or use git to clone the repository.

git clone https://github.com/drwave/usd-sketchup

At the top level of the repository, make a link to the SketchUp SDK you installed. For example, if the SDK you downloaded was SDK_Mac_18-0-18665 and you put it in a subdirectory off your home directory called SketchUpSDKs, you would do:

cd usd-sketchup
ln -s ~/SketchUpSDKs/SDK_Mac_2019-0-752_0 SDK_Mac

6. Build the USD SketchUp exporter plugin

Launch Xcode on the project file. You may need to fix up various things in the Xcode file that are specific to your build if you have changed them (i.e. installed USD in a different location, have a different version of SketchUp installed, etc.).

You should create symlinks for SketchUp SDK (as SDK_Mac) and USD (as USD) in this folder.

For example:

ln -s /Users/<you>/SketchUpSDKs/SDK_Mac_2019-0-752_0 ./lib/SDK_Mac
ln -s /opt/local/USDForSketchUp ./lib/USD

The Xcode project assumes that you are building for SketchUp Pro 2019, and building the target will actually copy the resulting USDExporter.plugin into SketchUp Pro's app bundle in the PlugIns directory, i.e. /Applications/SketchUp\ 2019/SketchUp.app/Contents/PlugIns/.

Initially, that directory will probably not be writable on your machine, so you may need to make it writable:

sudo chmod a+w /Applications/SketchUp\ 2019/SketchUp.app/Contents/PlugIns/

Copying the plug-in to the directory makes it very easy to debug the plug-in, as you can launch SketchUp Pro from inside of Xcode, set breakpoints in your plug-in, etc. Very handy when doing development.

6. Build the USD SketchUp exporter command line app

Launch Xcode on the project file. You may need to fix up various things in the Xcode file that are specific to your build if you have changed them (i.e. installed USD in a different location, have a different version of SketchUp installed, etc.).

Contributing

If you'd like to contribute to this USD plug-in (and we appreciate the help!), please see the Contributing page in the documentation for more information.