I’m looking for a few Mac users who would like to beta test Terrain2Sketch.
Terrain2Sketch is a macOS application I’ve developed to quickly convert GeoTIFF terrain data (DEM/DTM/DOM)into terrain models and import them directly into SketchUp.
The beta is working well in my own testing, but now I need some fresh eyes to find the things I haven’t found myself.
Here’s a short video showing Terrain2Sketch in action:
If you use SketchUp on a Mac and work with terrain, I’d really appreciate your feedback.
If you’re interested, reply here or send me a private message and I’ll send you the beta download.
So, I’m on mac, and I’ve seen that you’ve sent me the link (thanks btw, haven’t had time to try it).
my main issue is… where to find geoTIFF right now.
in france, I can grab lidar point clouds of the topography for free, but I need to check if there are GeoTIFF available too
edit : nevermind, the french geographic institute has everything, even an app I’ll try it this afternoon)
Hi.
Thanks for letting me know!
I’m checking the macOS 15 / Sequoia compatibility right now. Hopefully you won’t need Tahoe after all. I’ll get back to you shortly.
I found the problem
The beta was accidentally built with macOS 26.5 as the minimum requirement.
I’ve rebuilt it for macOS 15, and it builds and runs successfully here.
Could you try this new version on Sequoia 15.7.7?
so, if I pick “crop” at the bottom, then I can’t see the “export GLB” button. you’re missing a scroll bar (or just scroll)
I exported a glb, 750mb (ok I might have started a bit big), but running the plugin (extension/ click on your plugin) gave me an error message.
Terrain2Sketch-feil:
Klarte ikke å avgjøre om GLB-filen er DEM, DTM eller DOM.
I’m trying again with a smaller file (only one geotiff)
same. exporting the glb, or video, works. but in the background, I got the same error popup message inside sketchup.
Thanks — this is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping for!
You’ve already found two things I need to fix.
The missing Export GLB button is a UI issue on smaller screen sizes. I need to make that part of the interface scrollable.
The SketchUp error is also very useful. Terrain2Sketch is successfully creating the GLB, but the SketchUp importer currently tries to identify DEM/DTM/DOM from the file information. Your French GeoTIFF naming apparently doesn’t match the patterns I’ve tested so far.
So please don’t spend too much time fighting it — I think I know where the problem is. I’ll fix these two things and send you an updated beta.
And 750 MB GLB for the first test… that’s a proper beta test!
Could you show me a screenshot of the folder containing the original GeoTIFF files and the exported Terrain2Sketch files? I’m curious to see the French file naming.
in my default style, light blue is the good side, dark blue reverse. the terrain comes inverted. I also opened it in apple’s preview, couldn’t see much from the top, better at the bottom, and it’s the same reason, the top terrain is inverted.
and there are tiny holes here and there.
I guess that the fact the IGN is providing 1x1km files is not helping, a smaller size would be smoother.
I’ll do you one better.
you’ll find the original geotiff named by the geographic institute, the glb, the txt with my parameters, and both videos.
I grabbed the geotiff here.
zoom on the map, click on a square (or more) and on the right, either click on the link or right above (to download them all)
it’s a bit confusing, the interface for the point cloud is the same, and as this is using the same dataset, lidar is mentioned. but you should download a tiff.
it launched the import in the background.
once imported, this time, i’ts in a DTM Tag, and the terrain now has a custom material (same as in the videos)
so ok, for now, it’s better to put the tiff in a DTM folder.
still heavy to manipulate, with a lot of geometry, but again, 1square km, 3M lines and 2M faces
I tried cropping the geotiff in affinity but as I suspected, it converted it into a regular tiff.
Great — that confirms exactly what I suspected.
The current SketchUp importer is identifying DEM/DTM/DOM from the folder naming, which obviously isn’t a good solution internationally. I’ll change that so it no longer depends on what the national mapping agency happens to call the files or folders.
You don’t need to crop the GeoTIFF itself.
Keep the original 1 × 1 km GeoTIFF from IGN and use Crop before export inside Terrain2Sketch.
For example, set mesh settings to 2m and set Width and Height to 300 m and Terrain2Sketch will only generate that 300 × 300 m area as the GLB.
So there is no need to use Affinity or modify the original GeoTIFF at all.
The original 1 × 1 km IGN file itself is perfectly fine — I tested your file here and Terrain2Sketch reads it very quickly. The heavy part you’re seeing in SketchUp is simply the huge amount of geometry when exporting the full square at high resolution.
By the way, you also found a real bug with the reversed faces. I’ve reproduced it here and fixed it — both the terrain surface and the skirts now have the correct face orientation.
Thanks — this is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping to get from beta testing.
I’ll try it this afternoon)
