Importing 3D Model (millions of vertices)

[jlpoole56]

I’m trying to create a Shadow Analysis model for the City of Salem, Oregon, in conjunction with their consideration of a downtime plan for a commercial district that is adjacent to a Nation Register Historic District that contains old residential homes.

I’ve been able to import shape files for the tax parcels and the the building footprints. This give me the ability to create 3D blocks and then see how the shadows fall. I want to be able to create 3 dimensional models of a few houses and place the associated house over its footprint to make the model more attractive and simulate a view one might see from the sidewalk.

To that end, I’ve been experimenting with ColMap creating 3D models of my house and garage. If I can perfect a workflow that produces satisfactory results, I’d like to model the homes adjacent to the commercial district so the Shadow Analysis afforded by SketchUp can be more realistic. I think I have made good progress on this front and feel I can create such models of houses.

I’ve some samples of my models at: Work in Progress Samples - Court/Chemeketa Shadow Analysis for State Street Project adjacent to National Register Historic District Court-Chemeketa - Album on Imgur

I export my model from ColMap into the open source MeshLab and it looks great. I have tried exporting my model from Meshlab in Collada format and then importing into SketchUp. SketchUp just hangs and does not recover (even if left running overnight).

I even saw a posting in this SketchUp Forum suggesting importing the Collada file into the open-source editor Blender and then exporting in Collada format and then importing into SketchUp. Apparently Blender provides some sort of alteration or filtration that makes the model more pallative. That did not work.

My model in MeshLab has 1,082,867 vertices. Another post in this SketchUp forum from a SketchUp employee suggests that numbers in the millions will create problems. His statement concerns me and that my approach here is up the wrong tree.

I’m new to 3D modeling. Is there a way to reduce the model so it is palatable to SketchUp? What would be a workflow to accomplish getting 3D model that SketchUp friendly?

I prefer open source.

[liamk887]

You can reduce the number of faces in Blender before exporting into Sketchup. I have a similar workflow when dealing with Car models (actual CAD models from the manufacturer). Far too large for sketchup to handle and require some editing first.

The process is quite simple, just a few clicks, but will depend on the mesh you are starting with. You might also want to look at your hardware, I have some models in excess of 6 million vertices and they are still workable.

I have a 3.4i7, 16GB RAM and a 6GB 980Ti so not so fancy.

Here is an example of an engine I was working with using this method: