Imported Scene Organization

The importer keeps every import inside one top-level Blender collection. Its name is the stem of the .skp filename, or SKP Import when the model has no source path. Reuse Component Collections, Import by Layers, and Flatten Hierarchy control how the result is represented:

• collection reuse avoids expanding repeated component hierarchies;

• layer collections describe SketchUp layers/tags;

• flattening removes object parenting from expanded imports.

Layer grouping or flattening requires expanded objects and therefore disables collection reuse for that import.

Default layout

With all organization options disabled, an import can look like this. The names are illustrative, but the object types and parent relationships reflect the importer rules:

Scene Collection
\- house
   +- RootGeometry [Mesh]
   +- Chair A [Mesh]
   +- Room [Empty]
   |  +- Room:faces [Mesh]
   |  +- Chair B [Mesh]
   |  \- Text_42 [Font]
   +- GuidePoint_7 [Empty]
   \- Front View [Camera]

RootGeometry contains ungrouped root faces and visible loose edges. A definition containing only mesh geometry becomes a Mesh object directly. A definition with nested instances, construction entities, or annotations gets an Empty at the instance transform; direct geometry becomes its identity-local <instance>:faces child.

Compatible instances share Mesh datablocks, although every placement receives its own Blender object tree. Enable Reuse Component Collections to build the complete definition hierarchy once in an unlinked source collection and represent its placements as collection-instance Empties.

With layer collections

Enabling Import by Layers creates one direct child collection for every SketchUp layer/tag:

Scene Collection
\- house
   +- Walls
   +- Furniture
   \- Hidden Reference

The layer collections are flat: SketchUp layer-folder nesting is not recreated. A hidden SketchUp layer has hide_viewport enabled on its collection.

Root faces are grouped by layer because a Blender mesh object cannot assign a different collection per polygon. They are named RootGeometry:<layer>; untagged root faces remain in RootGeometry in the import collection. Instances, images, guides, section planes, text, and dimensions use their explicit source layer. A nested entity without an explicit layer stays in its parent’s collection. Cameras always remain directly in the import collection.

Collection membership and object parenting remain independent. For example, a nested chair may be stored in the Furniture collection while its Blender parent is the Room Empty.

With a flattened hierarchy

Enabling Flatten Hierarchy removes component/group Empty parents. Each renderable mesh and helper receives the accumulated transform parent_world @ local_matrix directly:

Scene Collection
\- house
   +- RootGeometry [Mesh]
   +- Room [Mesh]
   +- Chair B [Mesh]
   \- Text_42 [Font]

Container-only instances disappear because there is no Empty to represent them, while their descendant geometry remains. Object parenting and the editable component tree are lost, but compatible instances still reuse their Mesh datablocks. Layer collections can be enabled at the same time; flattening changes transforms and parenting, not collection assignment.

Entity mapping

SketchUp content	Blender result	Placement
Ungrouped root faces	One RootGeometry Mesh, or one Mesh per layer	Identity/world origin
Component, group, or image	Collection-instance Empty by default	Instance transform
Expanded component hierarchy	Mesh leaf or Empty plus optional <name>:faces Mesh	Parent-child hierarchy
Guide point	Spherical, in-front Empty	Source point
Guide line	Non-rendering Mesh edge	Source line, displayed with finite extent
Section plane	Oriented cube-display Empty	Source plane; does not enable clipping
Text	Font object and, when visible, a leader Mesh	Model-space anchor and leader
Linear/radial dimension	Font object plus recoverable line Meshes	Model-space dimension geometry
Camera or saved-scene camera	Camera object	Always in the top-level import collection

Visible SketchUp edges not used by a face are emitted as edges in the owning Blender mesh. This preserves 2D CAD linework and line-only component definitions without creating one object per segment. Guide and annotation lines remain explicit helper objects.

Materials, textures, and saved scenes

Materials, textures, meshes, cameras, and fonts also appear in Blender’s data views even though only objects and collections appear in the scene hierarchy. Imported textures are packed into their Blender images. Unpainted faces use the shared SKP Default material when material import is enabled.

A standalone SketchUp camera becomes one Blender Camera object. A camera owned only by a saved scene/page also becomes a Camera named from that scene. The scene ID, description, hidden entity/layer IDs, active section plane IDs, and slideshow flag are retained as custom properties; SketchUp pages do not become Blender scenes or collections.