As you know now, Sketchup for Mac has just been released by Google and its free version is therefore available for all to download. This famous 3D modeler has been purchased by Google, who now puts it forward as a mean to design architectural structures (buildings...) and export them as .kmz files so that they can be integrated in Google Earth landscapes. Sketchup has long been famed for its user-friendliness, which is not exactly the case of Blender 3D , an otherwise astonishingly powerful and versatile open-source 3D software. I tried to see it there was no way to have both communicate in order to have the best of both worlds and - bingo! - you can! The .kmz files exported by Sketchup can be imported in Blender using the Python scripts you can download here . Just remember that in order to install a Blender Python Script you have to be able to see invisible files, then you have to "Show package content" (ctrl+click on the Blender icon) and then copy the script in Contents->MacOS->.Blender->scripts.
For the reverse operation, you should export your Blender objects using the .dxf format.
In both cases, the conversion seems very clean and keeps traces of the materials.
Although you have to keep in mind that the free version of Sketchup is not supposed to be used for commercial purposes, this Sketchup/Blender pairing can be a really efficient one, and is definitely a kind of mini-revolution in the world of free 3D modelling on Mac.
[Edit] The missing link to the scripts has been repaired.
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