I am working on a warehouse dashboard using the 3DBI visual (by KG-Dev) in Power BI to show stock levels on a 3D map.
The Problem:
My 3D model loads perfectly in Power BI, but the items remain gray. The color formatting (based on a “Status” column in my dataset) is not being applied.
The Setup:
Software: SketchUp (for modeling) + Power BI (3DBI Visual).
Data: I have an Excel dataset with IDs like B-01-04, B-01-05, etc.
3D Model: A warehouse with about 700 boxes.
The Root Cause (Diagnosed):
I realized the issue lies in the SketchUp hierarchy. My named components (the actual boxes labeled B-01-04) are nested inside “container” components that have no ID (displayed as <01> or _L4 in the structure tree).
Power BI seems to be reading the Parent Component (<01>), failing to find a match in my Excel dataset (which only has B-01-04), and therefore displaying it as gray (default color).
What I have tried so far:
Visual Change: Switched from the offline 3DBI visual to “3DBI Connected” (hosted on GitHub), but the issue persists because the geometry is the same.
Manual Check: If I manually “explode” one of the outer containers in SketchUp so that B-01-04 becomes the top-level entity, it works and Power BI colors it correctly.
Scripting attempts: I tried using Ruby scripts to batch-rename or explode the outer shells. However, since I have 700+ boxes, I cannot simply rename them sequentially (e.g., Box_001) because I must preserve the exact IDs (B-xx-xx) to match my existing dataset.
What I need:
Does anyone have a SketchUp Ruby script or a workflow that can:
Iterate through all items.
“Peel” or Explode the outer unnamed containers (the <01> or _L4 parents).
Keep the inner component’s name (the specific ID B-01-04) and promote it to the definition name of the resulting object?
I need the final .DAE export to have a flat hierarchy where the top-level object names match my Excel IDs.
Screenshots attached showing the Power BI error and the SketchUp nested structure.
If items remain grayed out, it means there is a mismatch between the IDs available in the 3D model and the IDs you are sending to the visual.
I read you are using .dae files. For warehousing, where you need fine control over which identifiers are assigned to which objects, at a specific level in the hierarchy, I recommend to use the 3DBI for SketchUp extension, as it will give you more control. Specifically for warehousing, I would suggest to take a look at the following tutorials:
Thank you so much for your reply and the advice regarding the hierarchy and IDs. It makes perfect sense that the native exporter is causing the mismatch.
I followed your suggestion and installed the 3DBI for SketchUp extension to get better control over the export. However, when I try to activate the 14-day trial using the code provided in the window (3DBI-SKETCHUP-TRIAL-14DAYS), I get the following error:
“Activation usage limit reached.”
(I have attached a screenshot of the error).
I have not used this trial before on this project. Since I am in the final stages of an urgent dashboard project, is there any way to reset this trial or an alternative method to activate it so I can export the model correctly?
