SMUSTARD

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File Exchange

Projects

File › New, Open… (a Smustard project or a .skp), Download Project and Save As .skp…. Smustard saves your work in this browser on its own; download it to keep a copy.

Import and Export

  • File › Open… also opens a .skp: its components, groups, tags, materials and textures. A notice says what is not brought in (scenes, section planes, dimensions and texts).
  • File › Import… with a .skp brings it in as a component named after the file, attached to the cursor by its origin: click where it goes.
  • A USGS DEM (.dem) is a terrain: its dialog says how many points it has (at most 10,000 are used; type fewer to go faster) and it can have a gradient texture, dark at the low parts and light at the high parts. It sits at the origin, as a component named after the file.
  • An SDTS DEM is several .DDF files: select them all at once in File › Import… (or drop them together on the view), or import their .tar.gz, their .tgz or a .zip containing them. It is read like a .dem; in UTM or in geographic coordinates.
  • File › Save As .skp… downloads it in the 2013 .skp format, which programs from 2013 onwards can read. A notice says what does not fit in the .skp.
  • File › Import… brings in glTF (.glb), OBJ, STL, DAE, KMZ, 3DS, USDZ (text or binary), FBX or IFC as an editable component, resting on the ground.
  • A .kmz that says where it goes, with the model geolocated, comes in at its real place and facing the way it says; without a location, the notice says where it would go.
  • File › Export to IFC (.ifc)… saves IFC 4 or IFC 2x3, with project, site, building and story: each component with an IFC type becomes an element of its class (the others, Other Element), with its color; with the location, the site's location and its north.
  • Model Info › Classifications: the loaded systems (IFC 4 and IFC 2x3 by default); Remove on one removes its classification from the components (it asks first); Import a Schema (.xsd)… loads another, with its selector in Entity Info and in the Components panel.
  • An IFC (.ifc or .ifczip) comes in with each element as a component with its name, its IFC type and its class's tag (those of spaces, zones and openings hidden), and its colors; with the model geolocated and a site with latitude and longitude, in its place.
  • File › Import… with a DXF or a DWG (from AutoCAD R14 to 2018 and later) brings it in as a component attached to the cursor: each layer becomes a group with its tag; blocks become components. File › Export to DXF or DWG (AutoCAD 2000) takes it to CAD programs.
  • If it comes in at an odd size, change “File Units” in Entity Info.
  • File › Export to glTF, OBJ, STL (in mm), USDZ, COLLADA (.dae), Google Earth (.kmz), 3DS, VRML (.wrl) or FBX takes the whole model to other programs; all but STL with their materials and images. The OBJ downloads in a .zip with its .mtl and the texturas folder; COLLADA, 3DS, VRML and FBX with images do too. 3DS and FBX are in meters, one object per piece. The .kmz comes out at the model's location.
  • OBJ, STL, FBX, 3DS, COLLADA, VRML, Google Earth, DXF, DWG and IFC open their options first: selection only, file units, Y up, no textures (each material with its color), edges as lines, two-sided faces, what was hidden by hand, how 3DS is grouped, scene cameras in VRML, DXF and DWG faces and edges and, in STL, binary or ASCII. The ones you choose are remembered in this browser for next time.
  • Dropping a file on the view is the same as File › Import… with it.
  • Before importing a 3D model, a DXF or a DWG, its options appear: keep the file's origin, merge coplanar faces, its units, swap Y and Z (STL) and show a summary at the end. They are remembered in this browser.
  • File › Export Image… saves the view as PNG, JPEG, TIFF or BMP at the size you want; in PNG and TIFF, with a transparent background if you ask for it.
  • File › Export 2D Drawing… saves what you see as lines (PDF, EPS, DXF or DWG), leaving out what is covered: to scale with parallel projection, or fitted to a sheet.
  • File › Export 2D Section… saves the cut of a section plane seen head-on and at true size (with the selected plane, or the only active one).
  • File › Print… (⌘P) prints the view or the scenes, fitted to the page or to scale (with parallel projection).
  • File › Export 360° Panorama… saves a 360° image from the camera's eye, for a 360° viewer.
  • File › Export Animation… records the animation's scenes, from the first to the last, as MP4 or WebM video or as a series of images (.zip), at the size and frames per second you choose.

The eleven outputs: Export to glTF (.glb), Export to OBJ, Export to STL, Export to USDZ, Export to DXF, Export to DWG (AutoCAD 2000), Export to COLLADA (.dae), with the hierarchy of groups and components, Export to Google Earth (.kmz), at the model's location (without one, in Madrid), Export to 3DS, in meters and one object per part, Export to VRML (.wrl), with VRML's Y up, and Export to FBX (binary FBX 7.4), in meters and one object per part. OBJ, STL, FBX, 3DS, COLLADA, VRML, Google Earth, DXF and DWG first open a dialog with their options: Selection Only (the selection, in place), Units (the model's, meters, centimeters, millimeters, feet or inches), 3DS Grouping (full hierarchy, by tag, by material or single object), Y Up, Textures (without them, each material gets its color), DXF Faces and Edges, Edges (the visible ones, as lines; in COLLADA, stray edges are always exported), Two-Sided Faces (in 3DS, as material or as geometry), Hidden Geometry (what you hid by hand; not what a hidden tag hides), VRML Scene Cameras (the current view and one per scene) and, in STL, the type, binary or ASCII; they're remembered in this browser. Import… also reads .kmz, .3ds and .usdz (those that store their model as text, USDA). With a 3D model or a DXF, its options come up first: Preserve Origin (each point where the file says), Merge Coplanar Faces (without it, each triangle is a face), Units (the file's or others), Swap Y and Z (STL) and Show Summary; they're remembered in this browser. And Export Image…, the view as PNG, JPEG, TIFF or BMP at any size you want (in PNG and TIFF, with a transparent background if you ask for it). Export 2D Drawing… saves what you see as lines, without what the faces hide, in PDF, EPS, DXF or DWG: edges thin, profiles thicker and section cuts thicker still; at a 1:N scale with parallel projection, or fitted to a sheet from A4 to A0. Its “Content” can be everything visible, only the section cut lines, or the true section: the cut of the selected section plane (or of the only active one) seen head-on, from the side it removes, at true size and to scale even if the camera is in perspective; in DXF and DWG, at real size. File › Export 2D Section… opens the same dialog with the true section. File › Print… (⌘P) prints the view or the scenes (one per sheet) on A4 or A3, fitted to the sheet or, with parallel projection, at a 1:N scale, in normal (150 dpi) or high (300 dpi) quality; the system print dialog also lets you save it as a PDF. After printing the scenes, the last one stays active, as when exporting the animation. File › Export 360° Panorama… makes a 360° image from the camera's eye point, with the horizon level (2:1, from 2048 to 8192 wide); as a JPEG it carries the tag that 360° viewers look for to show it all the way around.

Point Clouds

  • File › Import… (or dropping it on the view) brings in a point cloud: .ply (text or binary), .las (1.0 to 1.4), .laz (compressed, without waveforms) or .e57 (from a scanner: all its scans, each in its place): at most 500,000 points (with more, one in every so many). It goes in a group with its box, centered on the origin (or in its place, with “Preserve Origin”); it moves, hides and is deleted like any group.
  • In Entity Info, with the cloud selected: how many points it has, their size (1–5 px), their color (their own or a single one) and their opacity (100, 90 or 75%).
  • When you draw or measure on it, the cursor snaps to its points: “On Cloud Point”, the one on the nearest surface. The model's endpoints win; points covered by a face, removed by a cut or in a hidden cloud don't; neither does its box, nor the box of its crop. View › “Snap to Point Clouds” turns it off, and “Prefer Cloud Points” makes the cloud point win over the model's endpoints too.
  • “Trim”, in Entity Info, puts a “Crop” group with its box inside the cloud: move, rotate or scale it, and only the part of the cloud inside it is shown and snapped to (what is outside is not lost). Hidden, it keeps cropping. “Remove Crop”, or deleting the group, brings back the whole cloud.
  • On a cloud there is always a point nearby, so to follow an axis, lock it with the arrows (→ red, ← green, ↑ blue): the cloud point gives the length.

Sheets

  • File › Send to Sheets opens the project’s sheets (drawing layout, inside Smustard): a page with a viewport of the current view. They are saved in the same project, so they always stay up to date with the model. View › Sheets (or the Model button) switches from one mode to the other.
  • On the left, the pages: Add, Duplicate, Move Up, Move Down and Erase; double-click one to rename it. On the right, the document (paper, orientation, margins, grid, units and resolution) and the selected viewport.
  • Click a model viewport to select it, drag it to move it and drag its corners to enlarge it; Delete erases it. It shows a scene (or the saved view) at a 1:N scale, or fitted in perspective. With a scene, it is drawn with everything the scene stores (tags, hidden objects, sections, style, shadows and fog), without changing the model. Update redraws it after you change the model.
  • The rendering of each viewport: Vector, the visible lines, as in Export 2D Drawing; Raster, an image of the view with its style; Hybrid, the image with the lines on top. The image is made at the document’s resolution: Low (72 dpi), Medium (150 dpi) or High (300 dpi), at most 4096 pixels per side. It is not saved in the project: it is made again when you open it.
  • Line Scale multiplies the weight of the viewport’s lines. Lines by Tag… gives the lines of each tag (and the untagged ones), only in that viewport, a weight (from the ISO 128 standard), a color or a line type; Reset clears it all. Section cut lines only change with the scale.
  • Above the page, the drawing tools: Select, Line, Arc (center, start and end), 2 Point Arc, Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Circle, Ellipse and Polygon (its sides and corner radius, in the panel on the right). A line ends with a double-click or Enter and closes with a click on its first point; Esc cancels what you are drawing. The pointer snaps to the ends of what is drawn and, with the grid visible, to its intersections.
  • Offset: one click picks a shape and another places its copy at the pointer’s distance (outside or inside a closed one, on either side of an open one), with the same style; Esc lets it go. Explode, in the viewport panel (with vector rendering), replaces the viewport with its lines, as shapes with the weight, color and line type they were shown with.
  • With Select, a click selects a shape (Shift adds or removes), dragging moves the selected ones and Delete erases them. The Shape panel holds its weight, color, line type and, for closed shapes, its fill.
  • The selection gets a box with handles: the corner and side ones scale it from the opposite side (with Shift, a corner keeps the proportions) and the round one on top rotates it (with Shift, in 15° steps). The arrow keys move it 1 mm, or 10 with Shift. Double-click a line, polygon or rectangle to edit its points: drag one and it snaps as when drawing; Esc stops editing. In Arrange: align (two or more), distribute (three or more), flip, bring to front and send to back.
  • Fillet and Chamfer round or cut off the corner you click, with the radius or distance from their panel. Trim removes the piece of a line between the crossings nearest the click; Extend lengthens an open line, from the end you click, up to the first shape; Split splits it at the click. Join (in Arrange) joins the selected shapes that touch at an end.
  • Text: click and type (Enter for a new line; Esc or a click outside to finish). Label: one click on what it points to, another where the text goes, then type. With Select, double-click a text to edit it; left empty, it is erased. Texts are selected, moved, aligned and erased like shapes; the Text panel holds their size, color and alignment.
  • Dimension: one click on each point and another where the dimension line goes (aligned, horizontal or vertical, in its panel); in viewports it also snaps to the model’s corners. Inside a scaled viewport it measures the model (automatic scale); outside, the paper. Angular Dimension: the vertex, a point on each line and where the arc goes. Its points stay on the paper: if the viewport’s scale changes, the dimension measures whatever lies between them.
  • Group (in Arrange) puts the selection together: a click selects the whole group, which moves, aligns and is erased as one; double-click enters it to select what is inside, and Esc leaves. A group can be a scaled drawing (Group panel): its dimensions measure in real units.
  • Automatic fields: in a text, <Fecha>, <Página>, <Páginas>, <Lámina>, <Proyecto>, <Autor>, <Descripción>, <Escala> and <Escena> (date, page, page count, sheet, project, author, description, scale and scene) fill themselves in (the scale and the scene are those of the viewport the label points to, or of the first one on the page); “Insert Field” is in the Text panel. In a label whose arrow points to a viewport, <Área>, <Volumen>, <Coordenadas> and <Nombre> give the area, volume, coordinates and name of what it points to in the model (the face, the group or component, and the point), and <Atributo:name> one of its attributes (such as LenX or one from a dynamic component); they follow the model. “Insert Title Block” (Document panel) puts a title block with them at the bottom right, as a group.
  • Albums (Document panel): arrows, scale bars, people, trees and cars. Click an item to make it the tool, and each click on the page places a copy, as a group; Esc goes back to Select. People, trees, cars and scale bars come in at the scale of the viewport where you place them (1:50 outside viewports). “Save to My Items…” saves the selection in this browser, with its fields.
  • Tables: the Table tool makes one with two clicks, with the rows and columns set in its panel. Double-click a cell to type: Tab moves to the next one (Shift+Tab, to the previous one), Enter to the one below (Shift+Enter, to the one above) and ⌘+Enter (Ctrl+Enter on Windows) adds a line break; fields (<Fecha>…) work too. The Table panel changes the text, lines, width and height of the active cell and its fill, adds or deletes rows and columns, merges the active cell with the one to its right or below (and unmerges it), and explodes the table into shapes and texts.
  • Spreadsheet tables: “Insert Table From a Spreadsheet…” (Document panel) brings in a .csv or .xlsx file, with the sheet and range you choose (such as A1:D20), its merged cells and its dates. In “References”, “Update…” reads it again from the file you choose (the same one, or another to relink it), keeping its place, style, fills and sizes; “Unlink” leaves it as it is.
  • Images: “Insert Image…” (Document panel) places a PNG or JPEG at its size at 150 dpi (or shrunk to fit), below what is drawn; it moves, aligns and groups like everything else, and you change its width and height in the Image panel (with “Keep Proportions” and “Original Size”). It is stored inside the project, and in “References” you can update it with another image or unlink it.
  • Export and print: “Export and Print…” (Document panel) or ⌘P (Ctrl+P on Windows) outputs all pages, the current one or a range to a vector PDF (with Helvetica) or to the printer, one sheet per page at the paper size, as they look and without the editing aids. It also exports to PNG (at 72, 150 or 300 dpi), to DXF R12 and to AutoCAD 2000 DWG (in mm, one layer per type; without the images); with several pages, a .zip with one file per page.
  • Insert DXF: “Insert DXF or DWG…” (Document panel) brings a CAD drawing (a DXF, or a DWG from AutoCAD R14 to 2018 and later) onto the page as a scaled drawing (a group with its scale: the dimensions inside measure in real units), in the units of its header (or the ones you choose) and at the scale that fits (or the one you choose). It brings in lines, polylines, circles, arcs, ellipses, splines, solids, hatches (solid ones as fills without lines, with their holes; pattern ones as their lines), texts (rotated as in the drawing), blocks (with their attributes) and dimensions, with their colors, weights and line types; it leaves out what is on layers turned off or on DEFPOINTS. If it exceeds what a page can hold, it is not brought in. It stays linked: in Document › References, “Update…” replaces it with the file you choose (the same one, changed, or another), where it was and at the group’s scale; “Unlink” leaves it as it is.
  • Present: “Present” (Document panel) shows the pages full screen, as they are exported. Next: →, ↓, Page Down, Space, Enter or a click outside the viewports; previous: ←, ↑, Page Up or Backspace; Home and End, the first and the last; Esc or “Exit” to finish. With “Pen” you annotate by hand (when you finish, “Save” puts the notes on their pages, in one group per page). Double-click a viewport to orbit it (with Shift, pan; the wheel, zoom); the document does not change.
  • In Sheets mode only its own keys work: Delete, Esc, Enter, and ⌘Z or ⇧⌘Z to undo and redo.