mantle placeHow to get real-world terrain in SketchUp
Real terrain in SketchUp from real contours — more control than an Add Location snapshot, and yours to keep.
SketchUp can fetch terrain itself — Add Location drops a snapshot of terrain and imagery into the model — so start there if a rough patch is enough. When you need control over the resolution, the extent, and the files, work from real data instead: buy a Mantle Place bundle for the area you draw, import its DXF contour lines, rebuild the surface natively with Sandbox From Contours, and drape the aerial imagery over it as a texture. The result is terrain that is genuinely yours — re-downloadable forever, matched to its imagery, and consistent with what the rest of the team is using in Revit or Rhino — rather than a one-off snapshot living inside a single SketchUp file.
how to do it
Choose your route
Use Add Location for a quick, rough context patch; use an owned bundle when the terrain needs to be accurate, re-usable, and shared across tools.
Draw and download
Draw the area on Mantle Place and download the bundle — DXF contours, imagery drape PNG, and the terrain mesh all clipped to your extent.
Import the contours
Import the DXF contour lines into SketchUp, checking that the import units are set to meters so the site lands at real scale.
Build the surface
Select the contour curves and run Sandbox From Contours to generate the TIN terrain surface from them.
Drape the imagery
Apply the imagery drape PNG to the terrain as a projected texture so the ground reads as the real site under your model.
frequently asked
Is SketchUp’s Add Location good enough for site context?
For a quick massing study, often yes. It is a snapshot, though — fixed resolution, provider terms, and data that lives only in that model. An owned bundle gives you the files, the source resolution, and reuse across tools.
Can SketchUp import the bundle’s terrain mesh directly?
The dependable native route is the DXF contours plus Sandbox, since mesh formats like OBJ typically need an importer extension. Rebuilding from contours keeps the terrain fully native and editable.
Will the SketchUp terrain match my other tools?
Yes. Every format in the bundle is cut from the same georeferenced data, so the surface you build from the contours matches the meshes your teammates import into Rhino, Blender, or Unreal Engine.
Get the data for your site.
Draw your area, see the price, and download an owned bundle — terrain, imagery, and basemap ready for Unreal Engine, Blender, and your CAD tools.