CODA Trimble Sketchup Plugin

S.U. Exporter is a plugin / extension designed for SketchUp® that allows users to export data from SketchUp into CODA’s System Optimiser. Tools are provided for streamlining this process, their operation is summarised in this section.

The full release of the CODA Sketchup Exporter manual should be referred to for technical details, and is bundled with the documentation folder available from the System Optimiser Website.

Installation

Note: it is recommended to uninstall previous versions of S.U. Exporter prior to installing the latest version. To uninstall the previous version, open SketchUp, and click Window then Extension Manager. Select the Manage tab at the top of the window, then click Uninstall next to the older version of the plugin.

  • Launch SketchUp

  • Click Window and then Extension Manager

  • Click Install Extension

  • Browse to the downloaded ‘CODA SU Exporter v1.0.2.rbz’

  • Close the Extension Manager.

Features

The plugin’s features are accessed via a new entry in the Extensions menu called ‘CODA’.

  • About: This displays the version & contact information of the installed extension.

  • Erase Unused Edges: The desired outcome from using this extension is the successful transfer of a collection of ‘faces’ from SketchUp, that will become ‘Free Planes’ within System Optimiser. We are not trying to export random edges that are not connected at both ends, faces that are not completely bound by edges, or hidden geometry. The ‘Erase Unused Edges’ tool will iterate through the whole drawing and remove any entities that match these criteria. It will iterate through all the nested groups, to remove surfaces that are not required.

  • Flatten Materials: To add realism to a SketchUp model, it is possible to add materials (textures / colours) to selected entities within the model. These materials can be added to either side of a face independently. To bring this realism into System Optimiser, the Flatten Materials tool should be used. This tool will perform the following actions:

    1. If there is a specified front material AND back material, the back material will be discarded & the front material will be copied to the rear.

    2. If the material is on the back of the face only, it will be copied to the front.

    3. All materials in the file are then replaced with a solid colour, closest to that of the material.

  • Triangulate Selected: System Optimiser, like many of its counterpart 3D modelling applications, cannot calculate or map on self-intersecting surfaces, nor on surfaces which are concave. This tool is designed to ‘triangulate’ these faces, allowing them to be accurately mapped in System Optimiser.

Exporting

Faces that are selected within the SketchUp file will be exported as Audience Areas. Faces that are not selected within the SketchUp file will be exported as Scenery.

  • Once desired Audience Areas have been selected, click Extensions > CODA > Export.

  • Define an Ear Height for the Audience Areas to be imported.

  • A dialog box will appear to report the number of layers found. Clicking OK will prompt a native OS window, allowing a location to be selected for storing the file.

Importing into System Optimiser

Import Button.

Use the Import Button in the Layer Manager to open the .cvlf file exported by the CODA SketchUp Plugin.

Imported layers will have the suffix “… - Imported”.