[PlayerStage-Gazebo] Importing SketchUp Model into Gazebo

[Peter N. <pet...@li...>]

Hello list

I am currently using Gazebo svn8858, (I am not using latest trunk 
because simulation throttleing does not seem to work, I want to run the 
simulator at 1:1 “realtime”). I am also using the latest stable assimp 
2.0 release.

Now to my problem. I want to import models from external sources into 
Gazebo. I recently tried Google SketchUp and found the “warehouse”, 
containing plenty of nice objects that I would like to use.

I have tried the following methods:
Collada export from SketchUp. Import into gazebo only partially works, 
some models are incomplete, missing or in the wrong place, all 
textures/colors are missing, everything is white.

Ogre .mesh.xml export from SketchUp, using a SketchUp plugin I found on 
the Ogre web page.
This generates a .mesh.xml and a .material file. It also outputs the 
needed textures.
When I import this into Gazebo, the models seem to be imported correctly 
but I do not know how to make Gazebo load the .material file. Without 
the materials everything is white.

I have also tried to convert the .mesh.xml to a .mesh Ogre binary file. 
But that did not seem to include the colors and textures either.

I have tried to manually copy the contents of the exported .material 
file into Gazebo.material in my /usr/local/share/gazebo/Media/material 
directory, and copied the textures. With some manual editing the 
textures and colors will now show up on the imported model.
Doing this for every model that I want to use is extremely time 
consuming however.

I hope that someone has some suggestions.

Best regards
Peter