Problem problems preparing mesh for orbiter shipyard

[tomthenose]

hi all,
i'm trying to get my 3d models into the rather excellent looking 'orbiter shipyard' to set up configs etc for use in orbiter add-ons. i use sketchup due to its simplicity of use and using a obj format exporter for SU i can export the mesh and materials easily enough and then convert to 3ds. its after this stage i get the problem, i've tried two routes to get the models into orbiter shipyard both of which have issues:
1. i import the 3ds files into blender then use the orbiter mesh export plugin, but blender removes all the smoothing from my models so although both mesh and texture import into 'shipyard' they're polygon-tastic and angular after being mauled by blender, the blenderartist forum is down just now but all of blenders smoothing and subdividing functions just seem to do really odd things to my mesh (bereaking it down into thousands of free floating sections etc!) and maybe someone more familier with blender than i might know if i'm missing something obvious?
2. using 3ds2mesh with the gui program seems to work ok for the mesh but doesn't seem to create a texture file so in shipyard the model is just a blank grey, its hard to tell from this if i've lost my smooth edges. part of the problem is that i'm not sure if 3ds2mesh is supposed to create textures as well as the mesh file, can anyone explain?
is there such a thing as a 3ds2dds texture extracter so i could create the mesh and texture seperately and then link them up in the config file?

its 20 past 5 in the morning so i've definately been stressing over this for too long...

---------- Post added at 03:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:18 AM ----------

fix is, export from sketchup to collada file, import into latest blender build and use vlads blender mesh exporter into shipyard.
super, thanks

 

[spacefighter2]

i also model in sketchup and would like some advice on how to do this procedure. i can offer advice on how to get a good obj or 3ds file from a sketchup model( i use blender aswell) and how to convert but once i have got to the obj ( or 3ds) file i do not know how to use this as a ship for orbiter that i could import.

to convert from sketchup to 3ds or obj
1. save your sketchup model
2.go to babel3d.com( or something similar)and set up a free account( no personal details required)
3. select the sketchup file and select 3ds as the format to convert it to
4. click the upload button and wait until they have converted the file
5.download the .zip folder
6. copy all the files( 3ds model and textures) out of it and into a folder
7. go into blender and import the 3ds file
8.you can modify the file in blender( this can be a bit confusing) although when i have imported mine i never had any problems such as "bereaking it down into thousands of free floating sections etc!".
9. you say there is a export(orbiter ship file whatever this is called) plugin for blender( could you direct me to it) otherwise use the export as obj or 3ds to get a good file
10. how to import it into orbiter???

hope this helped, PM me if you need any help with blender or importing into it(blender) or with sketchup.