installing and using minecraft2sketchfab on mac os x
Sketchfab's Minecraft Exporter is a great way to take bits of your Minecraft world, create 3D models, and upload them, all at once. However, while the Windows tutorial on the site is informative, it's not so helpful for other platforms. In particular, the installation process is confusing for anyone who, like me, uses a Mac and has very little experience with the terminal. So, I've put this guide together. Hopefully it will help someone, somewhere, sometime.
This assumes you are starting completely from scratch. If you've already done any of this, you probably know more than me and don't need my help.
Open a new Terminal window.
$ ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/go/install)"
Check Homebrew's warnings and try to fix anything it tells you about.
In particular, you might get a warning about your PATH environment variable and "/usr/bin occurs before /usr/local/bin." If you ignore this, the shell might invoke commands using an older copy of previously-installed programs and not the newer homebrew-installed version. Namely, the Python you just installed versus the Python that came with OS X. The warning gives you the solution:
$ echo export PATH='/usr/local/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bash_profile
After it finishes, restart Terminal and run brew doctor again.
I can't possibly know what warnings, if any, you will get, but the troubleshooting messages will tell you exactly what to do, or at least what to google. Stackoverflow is your friend.
(brew's "poster" formula is unrelated)
Now, you should have everything you need. If you haven't already, download the exporter.
Unzip the folder and navigate to its directory in Terminal.
$ cd ~/the/directory/you/saved/minecraft2sketchfab-script/
Run the exporter. Minecraft must be running also, or it won't find your worlds!
$ python minecraft2sketchfab.py
One last error you might encounter is failure due to permissions on some folder, likely wherever your Python package is. It will tell you the directory, so just change the owner of it to yourself:
$ chown myusername /the/directory/
You can also do this in Finder by navigating to the folder manually, right click it and Get Info (or just ⌘I). Then at the bottom of the info window under Sharing & Permissions, add yourself with Read & Write privileges, select your name from the list, click the gear, and select "Make myusername (Me) the owner."
Finally, once again, run the exporter.
$ python minecraft2sketchfab.py
This should open the Minecraft2Sketchfab GUI:
Choose your world, dimension, and area limits. The default is a 256 × 256 square centered at the world origin, from sea level (ish) up to the default world height maximum. You can get x, y, and z coordinates within Minecraft on the debug screen: Press F3 (or more likely, fn+F3) to toggle the debug info. Lastly, add your Sketchfab API token, which you can find on your profile password settings page. It should be saved next time you run the exporter.
Click Upload and wait in gleeful anticipation. When it's finished, it should send you directly to the new model's page.
Minecraft Export Testing by padrezippo on Sketchfab
You might also be interested in exporting completely within the command-line interface. Just take a look at the help message for options and instructions:
$ python minecraft2sketchfab.py -h
One benefit to this is that you can give your Sketchfab model a title before it's uploaded. Using the GUI will default to the world's name, which you would then have to change from your Sketchfab account.
As a CLI-free alternative, try Mineways. It has a nice GUI for selecting parts of your world, Minecraft doesn't need to be running, and you can select world data files from any directory. Be warned, the Mac version is a bit dodgy, and you'll have to package exported object and material files yourself and upload them.
Good luck. If you have questions (or better yet, suggestions), let me know!!
