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sketchup to unreal workflow

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  • G Offline
    gabino
    last edited by 8 days ago

    hi,

    i am trying to import big models from sketchup to unreal.

    currently i use a live link plug-in which allows to export sketchup as datasmith file, or even to connect live with unreal. problem is that many times the textures do not appear correctly in unreal. or they are missing, or black. also importing the same file, sometimes textures are fine and other times not.

    then i was reading that better that to try to import sketchup directly into unreal via datasmith, it is better to export like fbx. sketchup has fbx ascii, but the type that is not compatible with unreal. then i tried to export other formats (obj, dae) from sketchup into unreal, but neither work correctly.

    then i exported obj from sketchup and i imported in blender. it looks great, with all detail and textures. but then i export from blender to unreal as fbx, and texture does not appear in unreal. also i tried other formats, like usd, but results were even worst.

    probably next step would be to try to make a export fbx from blender which works well with unreal, but before trying it (and probably again to find a new problem), there is someone here who is importing sucessfully big architectural model from sketchup to unreal? if so, what do you think about this process (sketchup (obj) > blender (fbx) > unreal), it is fine or there is a better way?

    regards,
    g

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
    • R Offline
      Rich O Brien Moderator
      last edited by 8 days ago

      Did you triangulate faces in SketchUp prior to exporting? It is best to triangulate the mesh in SketchUp to circumvent any potential UV/Material issues.

      Don't use the triangulate feature in the export options. Triangulate the mesh using a plugin/extension and then export the triangulated mesh.

      I would lean towards DAE or OBJ format because of the issues with FBX exports with SketchUp.

      But if you are getting errors exporting from Blender to Unreal with materials then it would be an good idea to pay attention to how materials are assigned.

      Download the free D'oh Book for SketchUp πŸ“–

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      • L Offline
        L i am
        last edited by L i am 6 Dec 2025, 11:08 8 days ago

        I have no idea how familiar you are with UE and I also do not know why you use UE as opposed to TM, you may have a good reason to use UE, which would mute my point. However I have had some decent results with Twinmotion by UE, and the learning curve is perhaps intuitively about 20 times easier than UI

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • P Offline
          panixia
          last edited by 7 days ago

          @gabino I managed to import SketchUp models into Unreal and Datasmith worked flawlessly.
          As @Rich-O-Brien said, the model should be decently mapped and triangulated beforehand. The model being big or small doesn't matter that much.
          Regardless the size, the model needs to be clean.
          Decent grouping and a modular approach could be helpful to better troubleshoot issues.
          If you mind to share some part of the skp model which cause problems, maybe we can look into it too see if there are specific problems or "bad practices"

          G 1 Reply Last reply 7 days ago Reply Quote 1
          • G Offline
            gabino @panixia
            last edited by 7 days ago

            @panixia yes, datasmith seems working better now, not sure why before i got some problems with the textures yesterday. i will use datasmith. also i want to keep information of the layers in sketchup and if i use another format, they will be lost.

            today i was working with a big sketchup model (60MB) and only way to put it into unreal was with datasmith. the FBX ascii generated by sketchup was 2GB (!) and after converting to binary 500MB. and neither of them could be opened in blender or unreal.
            about DAE simply did not export from sketchup.
            about OBJ, 1 GB and perfect import in blender, but when importing in unreal did not finish. perhaps i could work with the OBJ file, refine it in blender and export to a FBX importable by unreal, but again, because losing the information of the layers, not so helpful.

            thanks for the offering πŸ™‚ perhaps in the future i got a problem and you could check the skp.

            P 1 Reply Last reply 6 days ago Reply Quote 1
            • P Offline
              panixia @gabino
              last edited by 6 days ago

              @gabino said in sketchup to unreal workflow:

              i was working with a big sketchup model (60MB)

              60 MB is definitely not a big model for Unreal.
              This one was 55MB and I consider it a small model..
              I've used way bigger models in UE (using Datasmith) with no problem at all.

              G 1 Reply Last reply 4 days ago Reply Quote 1
              • G Offline
                gabino @panixia
                last edited by 4 days ago

                @panixia ah, looks great, in my job 60 mb is quite big πŸ™‚ . my models are industrial installations with conveyor systems, it is more very high quantity of elements (km of conveyors) but each one very simple. almost no textures. they feel big, because they represent big spaces and installations, but in reality yes, perhaps not big for sketchup. one question, have you tried put in your animations people doing things, or moving objects, or it is just fly-though of static environment?

                P 1 Reply Last reply 3 days ago Reply Quote 1
                • P Offline
                  panixia @gabino
                  last edited by 3 days ago

                  @gabino yes I did a few test of animated objects in Unreal, but for real production I've used it only for archviz flytrough, because it has good visual quality and reasonable render time.
                  I managed to make it work with animated objects coming from 3dsMax both using animated/skinned fbx and alembic cached animations (mainly for particle systems, animated splines/booleans and this kind of stuff).

                  In real production, for animated objects I tend to prefer Unity 3d over Unreal.
                  I find Unity timeline interface more straightforfard compared to Unreal sequencer.
                  I find it easier also to keyframe objects in Unity itself (alongside with the usal imported fbx and alembic animations).
                  I'm not into "proper" character rigging, but I do sometimes use animated entourage people from 3dsMax "Populate" crowd system and also some Mixamo take for more specific characters with some particular animation.
                  I import those as skinned fbx files (with skeletons)

                  I also did some conveyor belts animation, one of which you can see in this video.
                  This was made with 3dsMax particle systems and controllers to be used in Unity, but it could absolutely be imported in UE5 with no problems at all.

                  Animated conveyor belts.mp4

                  In this post I shared a video of animated objects rendered in Unity 3d
                  All of this objects could be imported and used in UE.. except I find it more cumbersome and just prefer to use Unity for this kind of stuff and Unreal just for camera animations.
                  But probably it's just a matter of taste and habits..
                  You could do pretty much the same in UE.

                  G 1 Reply Last reply about 19 hours ago Reply Quote 2
                  • G Offline
                    gabino @panixia
                    last edited by about 19 hours ago

                    @panixia wow, looks amazing, thanks for sharing

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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