I have been working on a KMZ importer for Cobalt that will load models from Google’s 3D warehouse. It is still under development but I have made a release so that people can test out the plug-in. Follow the instructions below to download and install cobalt and the KMZ importer.

From web browser, download Cobalt
http://croquet-src-01.oit.duke.edu/cobalt.html
Save in a folder e.g.
c:\cobalt
From Windows Explorer, unzip and open the containing folder e.g.
c:\cobalt\cobalt-base-current-build-20081015
From web browser, download the monticello package
FreeCAD/Croquet ver 0.2.2
Save in the package-cache folder e.g.
c:\cobalt\cobalt-base-current-build-20081015\package-cache
From web browser, download the monticello package
KMZ Importer 0.1
Save in the package-cache folder e.g.
c:\cobalt\cobalt-base-current-build-20081015\package-cache

From Windows Explorer, double click on Croquet.bat
Inside Cobalt, click on black background to open World Menu.
Select ‘Open’ ‘Monticello Browser’
In Monticello Browser, in right pane, click on the package-cache directory e.g.
c:\cobalt\cobalt-base-current-build-20081015\package-cache
Click open
In the new window that opens, select
FreeCAD-kayef.17.mcz
Click load
Select Collada-kayef.8.mcz
Click load
Close the Monticello Browser
Inside Cobalt, click on black background to open World Menu.
Select ‘objects’
Click ‘Croquet’ button
Click and drag KayefFreeCAD (Master) out onto black area
From menu bar, Click File>>open>>KMZ
In window, click browse button
In window, search for *.kmz file
Click ok
Click load

The following kmz files works with the importer, other models might not load or might show up funny:-
Ipod Nano
Mac Book
LCD TV
Female model
Another female model
A house with a model car

**Known Problems**
-Squeak complains space is low (happens to files with large texture jpeg)
-Texturing mixed up (work is still in progress to get the mapping done correctly)
-Broken pieces or wrongly placed (some of the meshes have non-default translation and rotation, problem will be looked into very soon)
-Wrong scale where some models end up too big or too small therefore not being visible (will correct this soon)

To try out other SketchUp models:-

Download the models from Google’s 3D Warehouse as SketchUp 6 models
Open the model in Google SketchUp
From menu bar, Click File>>Export>>3D Model
Save the file in the Cobalt folder
Use freeCAD/Croquet to open the file