Importing Pix4D Models into SketchUp Pro

I’m not an architect and I am new to Sketch Up so bare with me. I am a drone pilot and I am getting into creating 3D meshes for architects. I recently downloaded a trial of SketchUp Pro to see how my meshes would look in SketchUp, but it seems to be having issues importing the files. I tried importing several dxf files and it keeps getting to 2% and then failing. I read in a forum that the files have too much information in them for SketchUp to open them, however, I have an architect I work with who uses them all the time and hasn’t had this issue. I would ask this architect, but unfortunately I can’t get ahold of him at the moment. Has anyone else had this issue and if so have you found a workaround for this yet? I need to find a way for my clients to be able to open these meshes in CAD and SketchUp Pro. I appreciate any help you can give.

Can you share one of the DXF files? Then we could take a look and tell you if it is too much for SketchUp or if there is something else causing the issue.

Try exporting as OBJ first then import to SU with Skimp (trial) or Transmutr (trial).

It’s usually straight forward if you use either of the plugins. If you need a free solution import to Blender and export as collada.

MJ-Eagle Isle Blvd_simplified_3d_mesh.dxf

Yes, I’ll attach it to this email.

hi there,

first off you should try to simplyfy the model in your point cloud software of choice to a human level…
i use reality capture and simplify models usually to around 100k polys… then also try to use multiple textures and each not bigger then 2k… that way usually the models look also great in the viewport…

if you export models for 3ds, c4d or anyhting other not sketchup, polycount and texture size is not such an big of an issue…

if you need help, pm me - im happy to help

best, franz

I recently switched from Dronedeploy to Pix4d advanced cloud. I had no problem importing a obj file into Sketchup using Skimp with Dronedeploy. I have yet to get an obj file imported into Sketchup using Skimp showing the images or materials with Pix4d. The model comes in, but it is all monochrome. I contacted Dale from Mindset and sent him the file (he is a rockstar and extreamly smart) and he noticed that it appears that Pix4d was using a : in the file names which is included for the dates and time of the mission. I have emailed Pix4d and they do the whole software point fingers and say, not our problem i, it is your other software problem. Any suggestions?

Will you share the files so we can see if there’s something that can be done?

I think the main issue is that DXF doesn’t support UVs or materials.

You need to use another format.

edit: just saw that this is an old old thread.

I don’t recall Pix4D including “:” in file names. No problems with .las. I’ve infrequently imported .obj and .fbx from Pix4D into SketchUp using Skimp.

The zip file is 84mb. It says we are restricted to 16mb upload. Is it legal to give you my email address so I can send you a link to it?

use wetransfer and drop the link here

//edit

You can add the texture in Blender, reduce the number of polygons from 1,000,000 to under 100,000 and then export the DAE file.

Follow this discussion (from post 21 to 39) about all these steps:


In the .mtl file put the name of the .jpg file.

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Here it is without reducing the triangles as @mihai.s mentioned.

When the triangles are reduced, the ‘mesh blobbing’ gets worse (so I didn’t do it… but you may need to if the mesh is large).

Not reduced, but this is what I mean by ‘mesh blobbing’:

You can edit the .mtl with a text editor (or with Shader Editor, as shown in the video).

Can you generate a Point Cloud / .las with your version Pix4D? The mesh gives the impression the point cloud would be good.

You can take a quick look at meshes using Microsoft 3D viewer. It seems that OBJs tend to be rotated while FBX are not so they are a bit easier to deal with.

Could you upload the .xyz again? There’s some issue extracting your files. The .xyz can be imported into Trimble Connect… but I can’t see it. It also doesn’t show up as a file in Scan Essentials (which is strange).