Niether Collada nor Sketchup textures can be imported into ArcGIS 10.2

Question

Hi all,

Using ArcGIS 10 and 10.1, I was able to import dozens of sketchup and collada texture models into ArcScene with few issues.  I recently upgraded to ArcGIS 10.2 and now I absolutely cannot get the textures to appear.  I've tried placing the models into a multipatch within a fGDB, I've tried importing the textures as a symbology onto standalone shapefiles and database points, and multiple other avenues.  I've also tried SKP version 4,5,6,7, and 8 (even though I know SKP ver 6 is compatible), Collada, and 3DS.

I thought it may be a file size limit.  My sketchup files were around 70 MB so I dropped them to 30 MB.  That didn't work.  I also checked the collada file for commas as another user found a problem with that.

Has anyone else found problems importing these kinds of files into ArcGIS (I am specifically using ArcScene)?  Does anyone have any solutions?

I know the SKP, collada, and 3DS files are all good because I can reimport them back into Sketchup and they render just fine.

I also know it is now a hardware issue because I can render several dozen similar kinds of model simultaneously in ArcScene (that I created last year) with little problem.

I hope ya'll are able to help out.

Best,

Erich

larryzhang1 · Answer

...

We've modeled 80 historical buildings using SketchUp 2013 Pro as a part of the graduate level course
that I'm teaching.

We tried to import them as Collada file into correct location in ArcScene but unfortunately 
failed and all textures were lost  I searched ESRI forums with the hope of finding a simple and 
straightforward solution to import SketchUp models into ArcScene. Apparently, this issue 
is not new and same kind of questions have been posted before and different techniques
were suggested . I read them all one by one.

We're using ArcGIS 10.2 and ScketchUp 2013 Pro. I'm wondering what is the best practice(s)
to import SketchUP models. ...

Pls try the following steps for �??small size�?? of SketchUp files:

1. Export /save as the previous version (like 😎 within SketchUp 2013; and then
2. Use �??KML to Layer�?? in ArcGIS 10.1/10.2 to import; or
3. Use CityEngine 2012.1 (if available) to import

Both works well for small projects of SKP, which will maintain the textures in multipatch.

However, keep in mind that all multipatch after converting should be visualized well in ArcGlobe (not ArcScene, mostly). Secondly, when the file size of SKP or Collarda becomes larger, CityEngine is only solution to this kind of conversion �?�

skp8-arc102.PNG

FatmaŞenol · Answer

Dear forum members,

We've modeled 80 historical buildings using SketchUp 2013 Pro as a part of the graduate level course
that I'm teaching.

We tried to import them as Collada file into correct location in ArcScene but unfortunately 
failed and all textures were lost  I searched ESRI forums with the hope of finding a simple and 
straightforward solution to import SketchUp models into ArcScene. Apparently, this issue 
is not new and same kind of questions have been posted before and different techniques
were suggested . I read them all one by one.

We're using ArcGIS 10.2 and ScketchUp 2013 Pro. I'm wondering what is the best practice(s)
to import SketchUP models. I recall that this procedure was easier in ArcGIS 9.3 
If I'm not mistaken. I would appreciate if you could kindly share your suggestions and 
experiences  . Thanks in advance.

- O.S.

erichfisher · Answer

Hi all,

Thanks to both of ya'll for the recommendations.  I've been testing the behavior of Sketchup and ArcScene lately to figure out what has changed.  Thus far, I have been able to successfully bring textured sketchup files up to 4950 x 4444 pixels (63 MB) into ArcScene.  These file sizes are nowhere near as large as textured multipatches I've created in the past, but it is a promising start.  Despite the official Google publications, I have also been able to systematically show that there is a lot of flexibility beyond their published maximum texture limit of 4096.  Something is still fishy, however, and I haven't been able to precisely pinpoint ArcScene or Sketchup as the source of the problems.  I'm running an Nvidia Quadro 5000 with 24 GB RAM so I cannot imagine there is a hardware limit, and also due to the fact that I created much larger textured files in the past.

Cheers,

Erich