A lot of users need to be able to edit the geometry of their 3D objects or add/update the textures. Up until now this was a pretty cumbersome process. At ArcGIS10, this work-flow becomes much easier. Basically it comes to:
- export the object you need to modify from ArcGIS as a COLLADA model
- use the 3D modeling package of choice (for example SketchUp) and
- replace the old geometry with the new one in an ArcGIS edit session.
Have a look at the ‘Edit 3D geometry and textures’ video in our video gallery.
Another good resource are these videos from Gary Smith, President of Green Mountain GeoGraphics.
They show similar ArcGIS <-> SketchUp work-flows.
- Converting SketchUp 8 models to ArcGIS 10 Multipatch features
- Updating a Multipatch Feature using SketchUp 8
Gert van Maren
3D Product Manager


Cool, thanks for the links.
“Up until now this was a pretty cumbersome process. At ArcGIS10, this work-flow becomes much easier.”
You’ve got to be kidding!!!
You cannot sucesfuly interpolate complex TIN into multipatch. WIth the former plugin I could just send TIN to SketchUp and whatever other features i chose and it all came to Sketchup spatially referenced.
New Workflow -> a huge step back
Please convince me otherwise.
Take a look at this link for further info:
http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/13515/how-can-i-sucessfully-import-3d-surface-and-features-from-arcgis-10-into-sketchup
Gert, I know you are the 3D guy, but are we seriously dude, don’t say it’s better when it’s obviously not.
Where can I download the plug-in?