Thomas Thomassen is the creator of Bitmap to Mesh SketchUp plugin. The plugin is well versed with SketchUp 7, SketchUp 8, SketchUp 2013 and is completely free. The plugin is still in beta stage.
With Bitmap to Mesh SketchUp plugin the sketchup users get the ability to generate a 2D or 3D mesh out of a bitmap picture.
In future course of time, there will be a viewport drawn slider with the plugin allowing users to reduce the number of pixels.
A separate java script TT_Lib² — 2.7.0 is necessary for successful application of the plugin.
The plugin comes up with the following exclusive features:
Ability to generate 2D or 3D meshes out of any bitmaps efficiently.
Can produce terrains as well as other surfaces smoothly from height maps.
All image entities are converted into 2D pixel grids.
Possibility to produce two triangles at a time for each pixel.
A mesh of ~125K faces! ( 250 * 250 * 2 ) can be made out of 250x250 pixel image.
In toolbar series, select draw & context menu and choose mesh from hightmap as well as mesh from Bitmap.
