Hello mrpaver,
Check this thread out for STL importers for Sketchup
viewtopic.php?f=313&t=7455&start=0
Also make sure that your Window>Model Info>Units(menu) are set to the proper unit of the file you are importing. Metric/Standard
Hope this helps
Mark and Trish

 

hmm you may be right. You could always try an import into MeshLab http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/ and then lower the poly count. to bing it into Sketchup. Maybe the nextgen can lower the resolution? I know that if its really complicated it may take a while for it to import into sketchup. A lot of times with complex models its a waiting game where nothing seems to be happening, but then it pops up after a while. Once you have it in you can select it and make it a component and SketchUp will run much better not having to worry about each face and line. The component or group seems to treat it more or less as a whole.
Mark and Trish

 

No problem hope it works out for you
MeshLab can be a powerful tool
Mark and Trish

 

I am able to import to scale with the Jim Foltz STL importer. Using the 20mm box as a quick test example.
A couple things to check would be; beforeyou import check to make sure you are in mm in your Window>Model Info>Units menu
Another is to check that the importer options are in mm as well. You can check this after you select import and then Jim Foltz STL importer from the File Type drop down list. Look to your right at this point for the Options button (easy to miss this) and make sure you have mm selected. Then do your import.

The importer does not handle very complex items but maybe you could clean them up in MeshLAB and try to get a good clean import. I have not looked around latley but there maybe more updated importers out there for SketchUp that work better then this one.
Hope this helps
Mark and Trish Attached files

 

Glad we could be a help mrpaver thanks for the kind words and welcome to the Phlatforum!
Mark and Trish