Is the site locked to glTF?
No. The terrain is not locked to glTF: the same bundle carries OBJ for older pipelines, USDZ for Omniverse and AR, DXF contours for Revit, and more, and the GeoTIFF elevation ships in every bundle.
Formats
How to get glTF terrain for a real-world site
By Coulter Heiberger · Updated
Real-world terrain as GLB: the binary glTF that imports everywhere with its textures aboard.
glTF is the most portable way to move a textured terrain mesh between tools, and the form you want is GLB, the binary container that carries the geometry, the draped imagery, and the materials in a single file. Every Mantle Place bundle carries its terrain as GLB, with the surrounding buildings as a second GLB layer, included at no extra cost, so one bundle covers Blender, Three.js and Babylon on the web, Unity through a glTF package, and Unreal. The do-it-yourself version is a pipeline: source a DEM, mesh it at a sensible triangle budget, orthorectify and drape the imagery, then export with the textures embedded. One note: the bundle carries GLB rather than a loose .gltf-plus-textures folder, because the loose form is the identical scene and was dropped as a duplicate.
answers
Quick answers
step by step
How to do it
Draw your area
Define the extent on Earth. The GLB is cut to exactly that area, so tight AOIs keep the mesh lean for web and real-time use.
Download the GLBs
In your vault, download the Real-time set: the terrain GLB with imagery embedded, and a separate buildings GLB for the surrounding structures.
Import or load it
Drag the GLB into Blender or Unreal, load it with a glTF package in Unity, or serve it to a Three.js, Babylon, or model-viewer scene on the web.
Check the scale
The mesh is cut at real-world meters; confirm your scene units match so distances and heights on the site measure true.
questions
Frequently asked
Is GLB the same as glTF?
Yes. GLB is glTF in its binary, single-file form. The scene is identical; GLB simply packs the geometry, textures, and materials together so nothing gets separated in transit.
Why not a .gltf file with separate textures?
Because it would be the same scene twice. The GLB carries everything the loose form does, every glTF importer reads it, and generating both would only duplicate work for no benefit, so the duplicate was dropped.
Can I use the glTF terrain on the web?
Yes. GLB is the native format of Three.js, Babylon, and model-viewer, so the terrain loads straight into a browser scene. Draw a tight area if the page needs to stay light, or choose Reduced or Minimal detail for the meshes when you download.
Get the data for your site.
Draw your area, read its Site Brief, and download a bundle you keep: terrain, imagery, CAD drawings, and more, ready for Unreal, Revit, Rhino, and more. $5 plus $2 per square kilometer, and 2 km² and under is free.
Native plugins: Mantle Place for Unreal and Mantle Place for Revit.
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