Sketchup makeblocks

#1

hi, new user. first post

i’m building a guitar robot. and looking to make a slider for the neck.
around 400mm travel on one axis to carry ~400gr.

i found a local distributor but before i order i would like to assemble my design in SKETCHUP, but alas, the files i found on grabcad are all STEP files. which my CAD of choice needs an $ importer to work with.

so, does anyone have experience with converting said STEP files to sketchup? or better yet, is there a sketchup repository available?

#2

Hi, @yair, I think http://www.blender.org/ could work.

#3

thanks Johnny
seems blender people use freecad for the translation.

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?115615-SAT-STP-file-conversion-for-Blender

#4

im using the xy plotter v2.0 as a sample assembly to export.

freeCAD
unfortunately the part names contain non ascii letters so freeCAD fails to open it ([bug][2])

solidworks
i found this guide from the grabcad site
solidworks to STL > meshlab to DAE (collada) file > sketchup
a friend which owns solidworks (its very expensive) helped me here

makeblock> i have only admiration for your effort to use open hardware principles in your products, it would help to :

  • use english in part names
  • supply all parts in an open file format (collada, stl ?)

btw. i used a renamer app to strip of all non english char to get meshlab open the STL files

#5

Thanks, @yair. I will ask my colleague note that – English names and open file foramt

#6

I had add this link to Wiki
http://wiki.makeblock.cc/index.php?title=Main_Page#Makeblock_Kits

#7

Hi - the files are still in STP format - are they coming in STL soon?

#8

Sorry, I got an type error here.