Optimize Your Maya Scene for SimLab SKP Exporter: Performance & Compatibility

Exporting from Maya: A Complete Guide to SimLab SKP Exporter for Maya

Overview

This guide walks through exporting Maya scenes to SketchUp (.skp) using the SimLab SKP Exporter for Maya. It covers installation, export settings, scene preparation, common issues, and tips to preserve geometry, materials, and hierarchy.

Before you start

• Ensure Maya and SketchUp versions are compatible with the SimLab exporter plugin.
• Back up your Maya scene before exporting.

Installation

1. Download the SimLab SKP Exporter for Maya installer from SimLab’s site and run it.
2. Follow the installer prompts; restart Maya if required.
3. Enable the plugin in Maya: Windows > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager → load the SimLab SKP Exporter plugin.

Preparing your Maya scene

• Clean the scene: Edit > Delete by Type > History; Modify > Freeze Transformations on exported meshes.
• Combine or group objects as needed to preserve intended SketchUp components.
• Set object pivots where appropriate; SketchUp uses object origin for placement.
• Remove non-mesh nodes or unsupported geometry (e.g., NURBS or subdivision surfaces should be converted to polygons: Modify > Convert > NURBS to Polygons / Subdiv to Polygons).
• Check polygon count—simplify heavy meshes to avoid performance issues in SketchUp.

Materials and textures

• Use standard Maya materials (lambert, blinn, phong). Complex shader networks may not translate; bake or convert them into simple diffuse maps when necessary.
• Ensure textures are file-based (not procedural) and placed in a location accessible to the exporter. Relative paths help keep resources portable.
• Recommended texture formats: PNG, JPEG, or TIFF. Avoid unsupported or proprietary formats.
• Keep texture resolution reasonable; large textures increase SKP file size.

Exporting with SimLab SKP Exporter

1. Open File > Export Selection or File > Export All (choose objects to export).
2. In the file dialog, choose “SimLab SKP Exporter (.skp)” as file type and click Export.
3. Export dialog options (common settings):
   • Version: Select target SketchUp version (pick the SketchUp version you’ll open the SKP in).
   • Units: Match Maya’s scene units to SketchUp units to avoid scale issues.
   • Export hierarchy: Preserve Maya group structure as SketchUp groups/components.
   • Export materials/textures: Enable to include materials and embed or link textures.
   • Merge objects by material: Option to combine meshes sharing the same material (reduces component count).
   • Export normals: Preserve smoothing and shading where supported.
   • Export hidden objects: Toggle whether to include objects marked hidden.
4. Set any advanced options as needed (e.g., export layers, export lights/cameras if supported).
5. Run the export and note any warning messages shown by the exporter.

• Missing textures: Ensure texture files are correctly referenced and not stored in Maya’s internal nodes; use relative paths or embed textures during export.
• Incorrect scale: Confirm units in both Maya and export dialog match the SketchUp project units.
• Broken hierarchy or lost grouping: Enable “Export hierarchy” and avoid flattening during export.
• Shaders appear flat or incorrect: Export baked textures or simplify the shader network to basic diffuse + opacity maps.
• Excessive polygon count: Reduce mesh density with Maya’s Reduce or Decimation tools before export
• Unsupported geometry types: Convert NURBS/subdivs to polygons before export.

Optimization tips

• Combine meshes that will be single SketchUp components to reduce component count.
• Use LOD (levels of detail) and lower-resolution textures for distant objects.
• Remove unseen faces and hidden geometry to shrink file size.
• Use the exporter’s option to merge by material where appropriate.
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