Printing full size patterns from Sketchup????

mbcabinetmaker · Post by **mbcabinetmaker** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 3:08 pm

Does anyone know how to do this? I have drawn some corbels but cannot get them to print correctly.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 3:32 pm

mbcabinetmaker wrote:Does anyone know how to do this? I have drawn some corbels but cannot get them to print correctly.

If you are attempting to print them in a 1:1 scale and you succeed, please let me know. I have attempted doing this with great and frustrating failure.

I went completely high tech on this and spend hours attempting to print a 4"x4" square (drawn in Sketchup) that was in fact 4x4 off the printer.

tom_k/mo · Post by **tom_k/mo** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 3:42 pm

Mark, There isn't a real easy way to do it in the "free" version of SketchUp. That's one of the marketing features of SketchUp Pro is that it comes with LayOut 2 which gives you that feature.

I've got some work-arounds that I can do to get the job done, If you'd want to mail me the sketchup file, I'll return you a PDF that you can print and get it actual size. It's basically exporting a JPG out of SketchUp, importing that JPG into an illustration package such as CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator or InkScape and scaling the JPG in the illustration package to the size desired, then printing out of there, or generating a PDF that can be printed anywhere.

I know it's a Rube-Goldberg workaround, but it's a whole lot cheaper than $495 for a license for SketchUp Pro...

mbcabinetmaker · Post by **mbcabinetmaker** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 4:33 pm

Thanks Tom as always you come to the rescue. The good news is this time you don't have to bail me out. I did some Google searches and came to this sight.

http://craftzine.com/09/101/

Scroll down and follow the a-g instructions under the fourth picture. It worked for me and printed it out in tile form on 4 pages. It took a couple of tries, I'm sure I was not doing something correctly because the first attempt my print screen would not let me change the scale to 1 to 1 but the second attempt worked.

efmaron · Post by **efmaron** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 9:24 am

Another way to do it is a program called Rapid Resizer it can be down loaded for a free trial. The program works great I have had it for about 3 yrs. and use it all the time. the cost was $40.00 for as much as I use it it is worth it for me. For large projects it prints as many pages as necessary and then piece the pages together for a full size drawing.

SDSSmith · Post by **SDSSmith** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 12:05 pm

tom_k/mo wrote:Mark, There isn't a real easy way to do it in the "free" version of SketchUp. That's one of the marketing features of SketchUp Pro is that it comes with LayOut 2 which gives you that feature.

I've got some work-arounds that I can do to get the job done, If you'd want to mail me the sketchup file, I'll return you a PDF that you can print and get it actual size. It's basically exporting a JPG out of SketchUp, importing that JPG into an illustration package such as CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator or InkScape and scaling the JPG in the illustration package to the size desired, then printing out of there, or generating a PDF that can be printed anywhere.

I know it's a Rube-Goldberg workaround, but it's a whole lot cheaper than $495 for a license for SketchUp Pro...

You might consider exporting as a DXF file which Corel Draw and many other drafting programs can import. This would maintain the vector basis. I would think that JPEG is more of a bit map format. With vector based you can increase size and maintain clarity. I believe there is a plug in that allows Sketch Up to do this.

tom_k/mo · Post by **tom_k/mo** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 12:15 pm

SDSSmith wrote:You might consider exporting as a DXF file which Corel Draw and many other drafting programs can import. This would maintain the vector basis. I would think that JPEG is more of a bit map format. With vector based you can increase size and maintain clarity. I believe there is a plug in that allows Sketch Up to do this.

Rob, the free version of SketchUp does not export DXF files, only it's "kmz" vector format for Google Earth. The PRO version will export DXF files. For what it's worth, SketchUp has an update, and after that update will not IMPORT DXF files any longer. There is a patch that will allow it again, but it will be unsupported after release 7.x

SDSSmith · Post by **SDSSmith** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 12:46 pm

tom_k/mo wrote:Rob, the free version of SketchUp does not export DXF files, only it's "kmz" vector format for Google Earth. The PRO version will export DXF files. For what it's worth, SketchUp has an update, and after that update will not IMPORT DXF files any longer. There is a patch that will allow it again, but it will be unsupported after release 7.x

Hi Tom, I thought this plug in would work with the free version:
http://www.guitar-list.com/download-software/convert-sketchup-skp-files-dxf-or-stl

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 1:26 pm

It appears to work 4 me(install). It added the export option. It appears to open it(see next). It does not 'name' it with a dxf file type, but a skB file type. Caveat emptor re that! Any body have the ability to input the file I 'created' to see if it really works/ I do not have corel etc. I can e-mail it as an attachment!?

BTW, running 7.0!

tom_k/mo · Post by **tom_k/mo** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 1:30 pm

SDSSmith wrote:Hi Tom, I thought this plug in would work with the free version:
http://www.guitar-list.com/download-software/convert-sketchup-skp-files-dxf-or-stl

Rob, I was referring to the Import/Export functionality of the base program only. I've not seen that plug-in before, I'll have to check it out.