Swift3D

Last week, I managed to export a SketchUp model into Flash! This was an important step so I'm glad it worked eventually (with a relatively simple model). I used a piece of 3D modeling software called Swift3D from Electric Rain. Although I didn't use it for any modeling, it allowed me to import a 3DS file (which I exported from SketchUp Pro) into Swift3D. I could then export this file from Swift3D with Papervision3D which resulted in a Flash file.

Swift3D environment:
In Flash, I could rotate the 3D model by clicking and dragging (as I'm used to in SketchUp), using the mouse wheel or using the controls which Papervision3D placed in the bottom right corner.

Model in Flash:
There were a couple of minor problems:

• A curved surface disappeared

• Some lines disappeared (this should be solved when more detail and colour is added to the SketchUp model before exporting)

• My first few attempts at opening the 3DS model in Swift3D were unsucessful because the model was too large (because I'm modeling the buildings to scale). This was solved by reducing the scale. As modeling to scale helps me to keep the buildings in proportion, I'll continue to use the same scale until I have to export the model when I'll shrink it down to fit in Swift3D.

Hopefully this process will also work for a much more complicated and larger model, which the finished one will be!