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Importing

Bring in IFC, SketchUp and other 3D models, and trace over images, PDFs and DXF drawings as underlays.

You can bring other people's work into Stori3D in two ways. 3D models come in as groups. Underlays are plans, surveys and photos you trace over.

Import a 3D model

Choose File → Import model… (Ctrl+I, or ⌘I on a Mac), or drop the files on the viewport. Stori3D reads:

  • SketchUp models as COLLADA (.dae), or the .zip that 3D Warehouse gives you;
  • IFC (IFC2x3, IFC4 and IFC4x3);
  • glTF and GLB, OBJ with its .mtl, FBX, STL and .kmz.

Other formats three.js can read, such as 3DS, 3MF, USDZ and point clouds in PLY, PCD or XYZ, come in as they are, without the dialog below.

Check the import dialog

The dialog shows where the file came from, its Size, Triangles, Materials and Components. Then:

  • Units: what the file says, or a guess for OBJ and STL files, which don't say. Check the size looks right.
  • Keep its position: keeps the model where it was drawn, so separate exports of one model line up. Turn it off to centre it.
  • Keep SketchUp's edge lines: off by default. The Edges toggle draws edges for everything instead.

Press Place on … (it names the active level) to put the model there as one group, in one undo step. Double-click the group to reach its own groups. SketchUp components become components whose copies update together. See Groups, components and tags.

Drop the textures with the model, or zip them together. Textures that can't be found are listed in the dialog.

Bring in a SketchUp model

Stori3D can't open .skp files, because the format needs Trimble's own software. Export your model from SketchUp as COLLADA (.dae) instead. File → Bring in a SketchUp model… shows how, with the export settings that work best. It also opens if you drop a .skp file, and says which version of SketchUp saved it. See Coming from SketchUp.

What comes across from IFC

  • Each building storey lands on the level at its elevation, or on a new level named after it. In a new project, the file's storeys replace the empty Level 1.
  • Elements keep their names, IFC class, GlobalId and property sets. If you export IFC again, they go out with the same class and GlobalId.
  • Product details from the manufacturer's file come across, so they appear in Properties and the Products schedule.
  • Before it comes in, the Import IFC dialog lists the classes of element in the file and how many of each: untick any to leave them out, such as furniture or a consultant's services.
  • Spaces (the file's rooms) come in when that's on: see-through volumes named after the rooms, with their floor areas, in a Spaces group on each storey and on the Spaces tag, so you can hide them all at once. They go back out as IFC spaces with the same GlobalId.
  • Opening elements are left out; the openings are already cut from their walls.
  • A georeferenced file lands where its map coordinates put it when your project uses the same grid; see Map coordinates. Otherwise a model placed far from the origin is moved next to it.

Imported elements are plain geometry, not Stori3D walls or slabs, so you can't change a wall's thickness or move its doors.

Bring in a laser scan

Choose File → Import model… (or drop the file) and pick a LAS point cloud (.las, versions 1.0 to 1.4). If the project has map coordinates, the scan lands where its eastings and northings put it; otherwise it's centred on the origin with its lowest point on the ground. Points take the scan's colours, or are coloured by height. Scans of more than two million points are thinned evenly.

The drawing tools snap to the scan's points (Scan point), so you can draw walls along a surveyed façade or measure from it. A scan is a reference, like an underlay: it isn't saved with the project, so bring the file in again next time, and it never prints. Compressed scans (LAZ) need saving as LAS first, in CloudCompare or LAStools.

Bring in a Gaussian splat

Splats (.spz, .splat, .ksplat, .sog, or a splat .ply) from Polycam, Luma, Postshot or a drone survey show the real site as a soft photographic capture, with your model built into it. Bring them in the same way. They need the WebGL 2 renderer (Project → Renderer), and like scans they aren't saved with the project.

Bring in a DXF as edges

A DXF can come into the model as lines instead of an underlay, as SketchUp imports CAD files. In the underlay dialog, with the scale set from its units or a known width, turn on Bring in as edges. Each layer comes in as a group of edges, on the tag of the same name (made if the project hasn't one). Push and pull the edges into faces, or make terrain from contour lines.

Trace an underlay

Choose File → Import underlay…, or drop a single image, PDF or DXF on the viewport. Images can be PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF or BMP. For a PDF, pick the Page.

Set the scale

Pick how to scale it:

  • Measure a known length: click both ends of a length you know, such as a dimension line, then type its real length (4.5, 4500mm or 14' 9").
  • Drawing scale: for a PDF printed to scale, such as 1:100 or ¼" = 1'.
  • Known width: how wide the whole picture is.
  • Drawing units: for a DXF, its real size from the units it was Drawn in.

Press Place on … to put it on the active level. It lies a few millimetres above the floor, so it shows over a slab and under walls.

Work with an underlay

Select it and use Underlay in Properties:

  • Width and Opacity;
  • Calibrate scale to measure it again;
  • Lock, so clicks pass through and you can draw walls straight over it;
  • Stand it up, to stand a photo or elevation upright in 3D to model against.

To select a locked underlay, pick it in the Scene panel.

DXF underlays

A DXF comes in as lines. The dialog lists its Layers so you can pick which to bring in. Text and hatches are left out. The wall, measure and drawing tools snap to the lines' ends, midpoints and edges. DWG files can't be read; save them as DXF from your CAD program first.

What underlays leave out

Underlays are saved with the project but left out of drawings, exports and share links, since they're often someone else's drawing. To keep other reference files with a project, see Project files.

Still stuck? Contact us, or ask in the app: Help → Contact support.