3D export: GLB, 3DM, SKP
How to download the 3D model as GLB, 3DM (Rhino) or SKP (SketchUp): what each format holds, how the colour modes carry into the file, and where the heights come from.
Overview
The 3D model holds the terrain, buildings, green space, water and streets. It can be downloaded whole and used as a context model in your design software, instead of modelling the surrounding buildings one by one. The 3D massing (3D view and GLB, 3DM and SKP files) is a Pro feature (Passes).
How to use
- On the 3D tab, press «Build 3D»
- Under «Colour», choose Use, Age, Height or Mono, and change colours in the palette if needed
- Press «Save GLB», «Save 3DM (Rhino)» or «Save SKP (SketchUp)»
Formats
| Format | Software | Characteristics |
|---|---|---|
| GLB | Blender · Twinmotion · Unreal · web viewers | Opens in most software. Triangle mesh, suited to rendering and viewing |
| 3DM | Rhino · Grasshopper | Buildings as solids (Extrusion), ready for Boolean operations. Layers by category |
| SKP | SketchUp (Pro, Go and Free web) | One group per building. Layers and materials by category. Opens with a double-click or «Open» |
The three formats hold the same content: buildings coloured by the chosen mode, terrain from the Environment Agency LiDAR ground model, and green space, water and streets as surfaces.
Colour modes
The file carries the colours on screen at the moment of saving.
| Mode | SKP materials / 3DM layers |
|---|---|
| Use | 7 classes (Residential, Commercial, Office, Education, Public, Industrial, Other) + Unknown |
| Age | 7 bands (before 1900 to 2003 onwards) + no data |
| Height | 5 bands |
| Mono | 1 |
The file name includes the colour mode (for example sitedia_3d_age_[site]_800m.skp), so files of different modes do not overwrite each other.
Heights
- Heights come from the Environment Agency LiDAR Composite 1 m (first-return surface minus terrain), flown between November 2016 and May 2022. The height of a building is the 90th percentile of the LiDAR cells inside its footprint (shrunk by 1 m), which ignores single spikes such as masts and cranes
- Buildings with large height differences inside the footprint are split into height parts, so stepped towers keep their steps. Spires and masts are under-read (The Shard reads 288.0 m against 309.6 m)
- Where LiDAR gives less than 2 m (for example on buildings completed after the survey), the height falls back to the OpenStreetMap height, then OpenStreetMap storeys × 3 m, then 3 m
Checks against known heights: BT Tower 177.1 m, Senate House 62.1 m, 122 Leadenhall Street 223.2 m, Heron Tower 202.2 m.
SketchUp (SKP)
The SKP file is saved in SketchUp 2017 format, so it opens in SketchUp 2017 and later, including SketchUp Free (web). It is written by an open-source (MIT) library that reads and writes the format without the official SDK. Materials are applied to both the front and back of every face, so reversed faces do not show white.
SKP files have not been tested by opening them in SketchUp. Header, materials, layers and geometry have been checked with two independent readers. If a file does not open, tell us from the Contact page.
Limitations
- Footprints come from Overture Maps (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Buildings not mapped there are not in the model
- The terrain is relative: the site centre is 0, so terrain heights in the file cannot be quoted as site levels
- The aerial imagery is not included in any 3D file
- The maximum radius is 1.5 km. At large radii some software is slow to open the file