SketchUp-compatible export (COLLADA .dae)
Open BetaSketchUp is the most popular rapid 3D-modeling tool for architecture, interiors, and urban massing studies, and its native .skp format is a proprietary binary with a closed Trimble spec. Honestly: writing a real .skp without the SketchUp SDK is not possible, so we don't disguise another file as .skp — we ship open COLLADA (.dae), a format SketchUp Pro imports natively via File → Import. The exporter extrudes OSM buildings to volume by height (height, building:levels, or a heuristic) and assembles a valid COLLADA document. The same .dae opens in Blender, Maya, 3ds Max, FreeCAD, and Cinema 4D — a universal context environment for daylight studies and shadow analysis next to your own model.
Key Features
About SketchUp Format
SketchUp has its own niche: a three-dimensional sketch made by hand in an hour, not a precise building model with every joint. That is exactly why urban context is needed in it almost always — and is almost always traced by hand from a satellite image, which is the dullest part of the job.
This export removes the manual tracing: the buildings of the block are taken from OpenStreetMap and extruded into volume by the height from the tags (height in meters, number of floors, and if nothing is specified — a nominal 10 meters). The model arrives in the open COLLADA (.dae) format, which SketchUp Pro imports as standard; the native .skp is closed by license and we chose not to fake it with an extension.
What is in the file: three-dimensional building geometry, the Z axis points up, the coordinates are metric and counted from the center of the chosen area — the imported context lands around the scene origin. The roofs are flat: this is massing, a volumetric base for work, not an architectural model. The export volume is capped at roughly 20,000 objects, so for context you take a block or a district, not a whole city.
What Program Opens SketchUp Files
The following programs and applications can open, edit, and work with SketchUp-compatible export (COLLADA .dae) (.dae) files exported from OSM2CDR:
Format specifications
- Open standard
- 3D coordinates supported
- Lossless (no quality loss)
- No attributes
- Output: 1 file
- Open COLLADA 1.4.1 (.dae) for SketchUp Pro import (a real .skp needs the closed SDK): OSM buildings extruded by height, Z_UP axis, ~20,000-object cap.
Who Uses SketchUp Maps
How to Export SketchUp
How to Open After Export
- SketchUp Pro — File > Import and pick COLLADA; after the import it is convenient to do Make Component and lock the group so the context does not shift while you model.
- The web version of SketchUp does not support COLLADA import — the desktop Pro is required here.
- Blender (free) — File > Import > Collada; a handy intermediate stop if you need to get FBX, glTF or OBJ out of the model.
- Checking the scale — measure the height of a familiar building with the tape tool: the model is in meters, and this is the first sign that the import went right.
- Shadows and insolation — set the site geography and the date in SketchUp, and the context from OSM will start to give a meaningful shadow picture.
Popular maps in SketchUp
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