I just open-sourced a small tool I built for my own work: a SketchUp extension that imports STEP assemblies.
SketchUp's Ruby API can't read STEP directly, so the extension runs FreeCAD in the background and rebuilds the model inside SketchUp:
- assembly hierarchy is preserved as groups
- repeated parts (screws, nuts) become components
- heavy sub-assemblies, like a populated PCB, are merged into one mesh, so ~1,200 parts import in seconds
- native progress window, result saved as .skp
Along the way I ran into a few SketchUp Ruby API performance pitfalls (add_faces_from_mesh vs fill_from_mesh, silent point merging). I documented them in the README for other extension developers.
Windows, SketchUp 2021+, MIT license. It's an early release: colors aren't imported yet. Feedback and issues are welcome.
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