Is it even possible to export a TIN to Sketchup?

[PatrickSewell]

I have some wonderful 2' contours for a section of Atlanta where I'm working on a design project, and I have used these to create a TIN. I would like to export this TIN to Sketchup or Rhino for use with our design, but despite many attempts with different methods, I have failed. Thanks to the benevolence of Georgia taxpayers, I have access to ArcGIS 9.3, ArcGIS 10, Arc/Info, Sketchup 8 Pro, 3ds Max, Rhino, and Autocad.

Here's what I've tried so far:
-Open TIN in ArcScene, export scene to VRML, open VRML in 3ds Max, attempt to export to .3ds or .dae. With .3ds, the export fails. With .dae, the import into sketchup fails.

-Open TIN in ArcScene along with corresponding polygon. Interpolate polygon to multipatch. Export multipatch to Collada. Export fails, with error 999999.

-Convert TIN to elevation GRID. Run "latticedem" on Arc/Info to create .dem file. Import into Sketchup fails.

-Convert TIN to contours. Convert contours to 3d polylines. Export 3d polylines to DWG. Open DWG in Rhino. Attempt to create surface using "loft" command. Rhino runs out of memory once the process hits roughly 1.6gb of physical memory use.

I will admit that my TIN is very detailed. But I have also tried much smaller portion, with very little elevation change, and the first two processes still fail.

Has anyone been able to take a TIN into Sketchup at all since 9.3 came out? I'm at my wit's end.

[PatrickSewell]

To answer my own questions - yes it is. If you convert the TIN to a raster and then sample the raster and export the table to CSV. Then use the cloud_v8 plugin for Sketchup to import the x,y,z table as point and triangulate it. My area with 50,000 points took several hours to import, but it seems workable in SKP.

Info on cloud_v8 here: (http://www.google.ru/support/forum/p/sketchup/thread?tid=1c1e211a578fc227&hl=en&fid=1c1e211a578fc227...)
Now, if only there were a way to export only the significant points from ArcGIS....

[JakubSisak]

Sketchup does not handle very large TIN surfaces very well. What is does well though is TIN rendering. Surface analysis is not the main focus in Sketchup although i love using it for modelling smaller sites.

I would recomend simplifying your surface prior to export to COLLADA.  TIN -> Multipatch -> COLLADA -> Sketchup method works for me every time although 50,000 points might be pushing the limits. I must say though that it ws a more straight forward export with the old Sketchup ArcGIS utility. (Worked fine until version 9.3.1)

[ChrisStarbird1]

There is an even better solution to this problem. First you need a TIN... which you already have or you wouldn't be here. Next you need to convert that TIN to a multipatch by using the Interpolate Polygon to Multipatch Tool. This tool takes any 2D polygon and 'drapes' it over a TIN surface to make a 3D multipatch of the polygon. If you want to convert the entire TIN, you'll need a polygon that covers the entire TIN. Once you have your multipatch, all you need to do is convert it to a Collada file, using the Multipatch to Collada tool. Once that is done, simply import your Collada file into sketchup and bingo... you're off to the races.

[PatrickSewell]

Thanks Chris! I am in a totally different career now, 8 years later, but

hopefully others will find this workflow useful.

Patrick