Sketchup Loop Subdivision Smooth Plugin

Program type: 

Sketchup plugin

Operating system: 

Windows and Macintosh

License: 

Freeware

This is a free opensource Loop subdivision plugin for Google Sketchup. Loop subdivision smooths hard edges to give a more rounded organic looking shape. This plugin has not been tested extensively, so please save any important Sketchup models before using this plugin on them.

Installation instructions using the RBZ format - Sketchup 2015, 2013, Make & version 8.2 and up:

Sketchup introduced an easier way to install plugins. Download the RBZ version of the plugin (loop_subdiv.rbz) to your harddrive - it is a zipped file but don't extract it. Then in Sketchup click on the install extensions button. It's found under Preferences > Extensions > Install Extension. Clicking this button will bring up a file browser window where you can can selectl loop_subdiv.rbz from your hard drive, and SketchUp will then install it for you.

Alternative installation instructions for Sketchup 2015 - using plain ruby file

If using the above method does not work, this is an alternative method which will work on Sketchup 2015. To install the plugin you need to download the file above (loop-subdiv.rb)  to your Sketchup ShippedExtensions folder.

  • On a Windows PC. If you have installed Sketchup on the C: drive then this folder will be at C:\program files\Sketchup\Sketchup 2015\ShippedExtensions. 
  • On Mac OSX. The sketchup plugins folder is something like /Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 2015/SketchUp/Plugins

Alternative installation instructions for Sketchup 6, 7, 8 and Sketchup Make (Sketchup 2013) - using plain ruby file

This is an alternative method which will work on versions including Sketchup 6, 7, 8 and Sketchup Make (Sketchup 2013).. To install the plugin you need to download the file above (loop-subdiv.rb)  to your Sketchup plugins folder.

Location of the Sketchup plugins folder,  [VERSION] stands for the version number of Sketchup (6, 7,  8 or 2013).

  • On a Windows PC. If you have installed Sketchup on the C: drive then this folder will be at C:\program files\google\google sketchup [VERSION]\plugins. 
  • On Mac OSX. The sketchup plugins folder is /Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp [VERSION]/SketchUp/Plugins

Using the loop subdivision plugin:

  1. First install the plugin (see above for methods)
  2. Re-start Sketchup, there should now be an extra option "Loop subdivide smooth" in the tools menu
  3. To use the plugin select your model and click "Loop subdivide smooth" in the tools menu.
  4. A box will appear asking how many times you want to repeat the subdivision (1,2,3 or 4 times). More repeats gives a smoother model, but also takes longer, so try 1 or 2 first.
  5. You can choose whether the subdivided object has softened and smoothed edges.
  6. If you have a large model (with lots of faces) the smoothing will take a long time so be prepared to wait!
  7. The smoothed model is added to a new layer(called Loop_subdiv_XXXX)
  8. The original selection is deleted (but you can Undo the operation to get it back)

For the technical details see the Hoppes and co-workers paper: Piecewise Smooth Surface Reconstruction . This paper also describes how to do partial subdivision, using crease edges and darts, which are not yet implemented in this plugin.

You could also try exporting your Sketchup model to the Blender or Meshlab programs, which have lots of subdivision features.

Please feedback or leave comments about problems or suggestions for the plugin. This plugin is opensource, so I welcome any improvements in the code.

There are known issues with non-manifold meshes where adjacent faces do not share edges (try smoothing a captial E), I am looking for solutions. Also when smoothing components the face materials are lost in the smoothed object.

tags: 

55 Comments

Great work

I like you name "guitar-list". Hahaha....Well I'm going to try this...it looks promising!!!

ThANKS!!!

Sou foda

Ai cara pra quem sabe mecher com conversaum eu consegui fazer ele funcinar no sketchup 8 PRO

 

funciona

Não consegui aqui

Can't get it to work

Can't get it to work, there is no extra option in to tool menu.

Try the Tools menu

There is no extra icon on the toolbar, but look for the Loop subdivision smooth entry in the Tools menu. Also if you install the plugin while Sketchup is running you will need to restart it to see the menu option.

Plugin + OSX

How to make this work on Mac OSX version of SketchUp, I save it in Plugin directory, re-start SketchUp and nothing.

I can't test this on a Mac

I don't have a way to test this plugin on a Mac, but there should be an extra item in the Tools menu.  I would be grateful if any other Mac users could verify this problem

crashes on mac

crashes on mac

I can't test this on a Mac

Hi, ive used mac when i had my first time trying this plug-in and the result was pretty cool.

i mean u dont have to worry. just make sure u save first before u use any sketchup plug-in.

Remember safety first! cheers!!

Edit

Hello. I have editted this plugin and made an icon. Contact me and I'll send you the files.

Icon

Hi 

Can you send me the icon for the Loop Subdivision Smooth plugin? Thank you. My email: [email protected]

Plugin

Hey!

 

Was wondering if you could send me the icon, would be very much appreciated!

Thank you very much!

[email protected]

 

A

loop subdiv file

Hi there, can yuo send me that file please to    [email protected]    our ITC teacher needs it to show his students some of those features from eschetup 8, I have downloaded that file from that site and did not work.

Thanks

Caesar.

Hi, Would have been useful

Hi,

Would have been useful but unfortunately the plugin crashes Sketchup 7 on my mac (installed in the HD/library/application suppot/google sketchup 7/plugins directory)

Cheers,

K

Hi, Would have been useful

man, try to use sketchup 8!

i dnt find any troubles so far. remember before you use any sketchup plug-ins, u have to press "CTRL+S".

safety first! cheers!!

works!!!

works fine for me. im using sketchup pro 6 by the way!

YES! IT WORKS WOOT WOOT

THankyou this means soooo much, it will help greatly Cheers :):):):):):):):)

works but it is all fucked up

It "works" but the results i get are all fucked up!! ive tried evrything and is still the same...

Loop subdivision smooth

Loop sub-division produces the best results when the triangles of the mesh are roughly equilateral.   Unfortunately, the meshes that Sketchup produces are optimized to produce the lowest number of triangles, this means there are often long skinny triangles in there - and when you loop subdivide the model it will not look good. This is worse for particular shapes, a cube should smooth OK, but a thin disc will probably not.

As far as I know there is no re-meshing plugin for Sketchup - but something like that would help. Otherwise export your model to an STL file and you can smooth it (or remesh it) using the free Meshlab program.

loop subdivide trial

At first it seemed it didnt work but after going thru and clicked unclicked the smooth and not command from the drop down menu it worked great... Just looking for a chance to apply this in one of my work! Thanks!

Tension and spherical mesh

Is there a way to use this concept to subdivide the mesh without making it spherical, simply remove the tension that pushes the mesh as a sphere. This will help when calculating radiosity in Renderlights, a simple room with subdivided mesh will just look much better on the rediosity engine.

RL4SU

Ok

Genial! Gracias muchas!

Fantastic

I'm using Sketchup Pro 8 and I thought maybe this plugin would be outdated. It works perfectly. I hope you make an update for creases. You just made my job so much easier. Thanks! Awesome work!

Useful plugin and saves some

Useful plugin and saves some of us from purchasing the other one. :) Could benefit immensely with a tie-in to progressbar.rb or Fredo6's excellent RoundCorner plugin. cheers!

Your Plugins

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Plugin

Perfect plugin :-)  on W7 with SU8 Free. THX

Loop Subdivision Plugin

Hi there,

Send me an e-mail to pr@guitar-list - the comment filter has removed your e-mail address.

When I click on the file link, a file open dialog pops up and gives the option to open or save the file.

Do you not get this dialog when you click the file link?

Nathan

 

Problem with download link

I cant dl the file cause when i click in link just open a new windows with some codes. What can i do?

thank u

Achei!

Não consegui baixar aqui, mas depois de passar tipo o dia tdo procurando achei esse http://caljucotcas.weebly.com/kiunperse.html 

Entrem, baixem os dois arquivos e é só extrair para a pasta plugins do sketchup(eu uso o pro 8, não sei se funciona em outro) mas sei que funcionou XD

nice

nice thanx

asymmetry in Plug in?

There appears to be an asymmetry in the Loop subdivision plugin. First let me say I think it is great and if I were using it for a freeform object or to create something that would be covered in a texture, I woud not have minded or probably even have noticed. I shoud Iaso saw that whie I an an engineer with extensive CAD experience, Iam a complete Sketchup NOOB and coud be making a bonehead error. That siad, I am trying to create a housing for my recumbent Trike in order to turn it into a velomobile.  I am just starting and exploring the idea of using flat trianglar panels instead of compound curves. this will allow me to fab out of flat sheet rather than have to mold the housing. OK, that's the project. I was excited about the plugin because it did mostly what I wanted and when i created some blocky shaps and subdivided them (without smoothing) I got some very promising results. Upon closer inspection, i discovered that the resulting meshes were asymmetric, often quite beautiful but not what I was looking for. 

I then tried simpler shapes. I created a rectangle and pulled the face to create a solid. I then drew a line on the front face from right side midpoint to left side mid point. I then moved the mid point of the upper edge of the front face to the midpoint of this line, creating a wedge shape and subdivided at level 1, without smoothing. the mesh on the top of the part is great, but the bottom of the part is asymmetric which is causing asymmetry of the ower part of the two sides. (BTW, a rectangular solid, without the taper, meshes symmetrically) I have tried several variations and have yet to come up with a completely symmetric mesh. 

Since I am still just playing with simple shapes I am concerned what will happen when I add details.

Am I missing something or doing something wrong? 

Asymmetry in Loop plugin

Thanks Michael,

I don't think you are making any mistakes - it is most likely a bug in the plugin.

I have posted the source code here if you want to take a look at it:

Loop Subdivision on GitHub

I haven't looked at the code for a couple of years but I remember it was tricky to get it working at all!

Nathan

Awesome

Awesome.... works fine....

Cassiano

tem que fazer o download e copiar e colar na pasta plug in do google sketchup. fechar o sket se tiver aberto e abrir e estará la seu plug-in instalado.

Zip or rbz file

Can u send me the zip or rbz file for subdivide and smooth plugin , i will appreciate that [email protected] thanks alot 

dl plugin

to download the loop_subdivide.rb plugin, you right click the link and save as to your computer. On Mac OSX I simply went to Google SketchUp 7, using the contextual menu, and pressed Show Package Contents, it then reveals the plugins folder, where I moved the plugin into.

dl plugin

My mistake, I lead you in the wrong direction: just discovered on another website that the location of the plugin folder you need to install it is not "Show Packge Contents" but actually MacHD/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 6/SketchUp/ Plugins folder

new version

Hi
can it be instal in sketchup 2014, and how? I tried to instal by converting it in .rbz , but program didn`t recognise it.
THX :)

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