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Premium Version

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vvoovv edited this page Oct 15, 2024 · 168 revisions

Contents

Introduction

This page contains documentation for the premium version of the Blosm addon for Blender, formerly known as Blender-OSM.

In addition to the features of base version the premium version provides:

  • Import of buildings from OpenStreetMap with default materials, tileable building textures and UV-mapping applied.
  • Default materials and textures to mimic lit windows for a late evening setting
  • Import of forests and single trees as 3D objects
  • Options to use custom tileable building textures (e.g. from textures.com)
  • Satellite imagery and web maps projected on a terrain

Subsequent releases will include more details and variability for imported buildings and other features depending on user feedback.

Important notice: the addon does not provide real textures for each imported building!

Important notice: export of textures is available as an experimental feature.

Buy the addon at gumroad.com!

By purchasing the addon you support the addon development. All customers will get the addon source code under GPL license!

Video tutorial

There is a video tutorial created by Nicko16: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thx08Q4etVc

Installation

It is recommended to use the latest official stable version of Blender from https://www.blender.org/download/.

Buy the addon at gumroad.com. Please download the following two zip-archives separately to avoid problems with the addon installation:

  • blosm_2.7.10_premium.zip. Do not unpack it! If you are on Mac and it unpacked the file automatically, compress the folder back to blosm.zip.
  • assets.zip. Unpack it to some location at your hard drive. It contains default materials and textures, material templates, custom setup scripts. It will be referred to as asset pack.

Install the addon via the usual Blender way:

  • Important! Delete the base version or the previous version of the addon if you have one:
    • Edit → Preferences... → Add-ons
    • Type osm in the search box to find the addon
    • Press Remove button
    • Restart Blender
  • Edit → Preferences... → Add-ons → Install...
  • Find the file blosm_2.7.10_premium.zip in your file system and press Install Add-on from File... button
  • Enable the addon by checking the Enable Add-on
  • Set a directory to store downloaded OpenStreetMap, terrain, satellite imagery and web map files by pressing the button . It makes sense to create a special directory for that. It's strongly recommended to uncheck the option Relative Path in the file dialog when setting that directory as shown here. Press the key N to toggle the panel with the option Relative Path in the file dialog.
  • It's recommended to set the directory with the content of the asset pack supplied with the addon. Set it by pressing the button . Choose the top-level directory where the files building_materials.blend and vegetation.blend are located. It's possible to override that setting in the addon GUI.
  • Optional.

To use satellite imagery from ArcGIS location service, enter your ArcGIS access token in the field ArcGIS access token . If you don't have it, press the button Get it! to get one for free. See the instruction Getting ArcGIS access token on how to get it.

To use satellite imagery and web maps provided by Mapbox company, enter your Mapbox access token in the field Mapbox access token . If you don't have it, press the button Get it! to get one for free. See the instruction Getting Mapbox access token on how to get it.

A Google 3D Tiles Key is required to import Google 3D cities. Enter your Google 3D Tiles Key in the field Google 3D Tiles Key . If you don't have a Google 3D Tiles Key, press the button Get it! to get one. Note that a valid bank card number is needed to setup a billing account required to get the Google 3D Tiles Key. However your use of Google 3D Tiles in the Preview stage will be free of charge bound by the usage limits. Don't forget to enable the Maps Tiles API as described here. Also, you shouldn't apply any restrictions to your 3D Tiles Key.

  • Set the option Viewport Shading to Material Preview or Rendered to see textured scene. The option is normally located at the top of the Blender 3D View as shown on the screenshot.
  • Perform a quick test of the Blosm addon. The addon panel is located on the Blosm tab of the right side panel of the Blender 3D View (see the image below). The panel is toggled with the N key. Press the button import . In a few seconds a district in Manhattan should appear in Blender.

Basic usage

Import of Google 3D cities

Please read the dedicated page.

OpenStreetMap import from the server

Before proceeding to import, note that the addon has 3 modes of operation set by the toggle button :

  • 3D realistic (the default mode): buildings are imported with textures; satellite imagery and web maps can be projected on a terrain.
  • 3D simple: this mode turns the premium version into base one. Please refer to the documentation of the base version of the addon. In particular, toggle this mode to import roads and paths as Blender curves with a profile object.
  • 2D: this mode is also from the base version of the addon. Please refer to the documentation of the base version of the addon.

Follow the steps below to import textured buildings in the 3D realistic mode:

  • Press the button select to select a map extent for your area of interest. A browser window pops up with the special page to select the map extent. Follow the instructions on the webpage. At the end of this step you will have a string with coordinates copied to the clipboard. Now return back to Blender.
  • Press the button paste to paste the coordinates of your area of interest.
  • If you want to place OpenStreetMap buildings and other objects on the terrain, download and import the terrain first by setting the value of the drop-down list to terrain. Further details about terrain download and import can be found here. At the end of terrain import a Blender object for the terrain will be set automatically in the field . You can also set a Blender object for the terrain imported before. Actually an arbitrary Blender MESH object can be set as a terrain in the field . Leave that field blank to place all imported OpenStreetMap objects on the zero level.
  • You can import satellite imagery or web maps any time before or after OpenStreetMap import. Please refer to the documentation section Image overlay import for details.
  • To assign materials for a late evening setting to the imported buildings, set a value of the field Percentage of lit windows between 1 and 100. As its name implies, it defines approximately, how many windows of the imported buildings will be lit. The value of 30 percent normally gives nice looking scene. It's also possible to change the percentage of lit windows after the import of buildings and see the effect immediately. Keep the value of the field set to zero to assign the materials without light emission (i.e. for a day setting). Note, that if the percentage of lit windows was set to zero before the import, any change of the field won't produce any effect after the import.
  • Optional. Blosm comes with reasonable default settings. However you might want to tweak some of them as described in the documentation of the base version.
  • Optional: toggle Blender System Console to track the progress of download and import of OpenStreetMap (Window → Toggle System Console).
  • Press the button import to start download and import of OpenStreetMap data.
  • The imported scene can be dozens of kilometers wide! It makes sense to set the far clipping distance of the 3D View at least to 10 thousand! The setting is located on the right side panel of the Blender 3D View (see the image). The panel is toggled with the N key. You may also want to increase the far clipping distance of your render cameras.
  • Enjoy the imported scene!

OpenStreetMap import from a local file

  • Important! Do not forget to set a directory in the addon preferences to store downloaded OpenStreetMap and terrain files as described in the installation instructions. The directory is set in the field on the image above.
  • Set the value of the drop-down list to file (see the image above).
  • Select an OpenStreetMap file on your local disk by pressing the button as shown on the image below:

  • The rest of the steps is the same as for the OpenStreetMap import from the server. Note that the GUI for selecting a map extent is not shown since the map extent is defined by your OpenStreetMap file.

Import of forests and single trees

Please refer to the dedicated page Import of Forests and Single Trees

Using custom textures

It's possible to use custom textures (e.g. from textures.com) instead of the default ones. Please refer to the video tutorial.

Image overlay import

The addon supports import of a number of image overlay types:

  • ArcGIS Satellite: satellite imagery provided by ESRI company. It's required to provide an access token in the addon preferences.
  • Mapbox Satellite: satellite imagery provided by Mapbox company. It's required to provide an access token in the addon preferences.
  • OSM Mapnik: a general-purpose web map displayed at openstreetmap.org
  • Mapbox Streets: a general-purpose web map generated by Mapbox company out of OpenStreetMap data. It's required to provide an access token in the addon preference.
  • Custom URL: a web map based on a custom URL template. Examples of valid URL templates are given in the dedicated subsection.

  • Set the value of the drop-down list to image overlay (see the image above).
  • An image overlay can be projected either on the imported terrain or on a flat mesh created during the overlay import. To project the image overlay on the imported terrain, set the Blender object for the terrain in the field . Note that the addon sets the value of the field to the Blender object for the terrain after the terrain import. To project the image overlay on the flat mesh, keep the field unset and select a map extent for your area of interest as described at the beginning of OpenStreetMap import from the server.
  • Select an image overlay type in the drop-down list .
  • If you selected Mapbox Satellite as the image overlay type, be sure to set Mapbox access token in the addon settings as described in the Installation.
  • If you selected Custom URL as the image overlay type, enter the URL template in the field below the drop-down list . Examples of valid URL templates are given in the dedicated subsection.
  • By default the option Set default material is checked. It means that a default Cycles material from the asset pack supplied with the addon will be applied to the Blender MESH object serving as a terrain. The imported image overlay will be used by the Image Texture Cycles node of the Blender material. If that option is unchecked, the imported image overlay can be still found among Blender images in the Blender's UV/Image Editor under the name overlay.
  • Press the button import to start download and import of the image overlay.
  • The download progress will be displayed on the Blender 3D View area. If a specific image tile was downloaded before and is available in the addon data directory set in the addon preferences, then the cached version of the image tile will be used instead of downloading it again.
  • Enjoy the imported image overlay! Normally it is projected on the Blender MESH object serving as a terrain. But it can be found any time among Blender images in the Blender's UV/Image Editor under the name overlay.

Custom URL

Two types of the custom URLs are supported:

  • A URL template with the symbols {x}, {y}, {z}.
  • Mapbox style URL of the form mapbox://styles/...

A URL template with the symbols {x}, {y}, {z}

This image overlay type is based on a custom URL template, that defines a tiling scheme for the web map. Simply copy and paste the URL template as is. No edit of the URL template is necessary. The template should contain the symbols {z} (zoom level), {x} (horizontal tile coordinate), {y} (vertical tile coordinate). For example:

  • http://tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png for the default OSM map at osm.org (also known as Mapnik)
  • http://mt.google.com/vt/lyrs=s&x={x}&y={y}&z={z} for satellite imagery provided by Google. Important: use it on your own risk since this way of using contradicts the terms of use of Google Maps
  • http://mt.google.com/vt/lyrs=m&x={x}&y={y}&z={z} for the standard map provided by Google. Important: use it on your own risk since this way of using contradicts the terms of use of Google Maps
  • http://mt.google.com/vt/lyrs=t&x={x}&y={y}&z={z} for the terrain map provided by Google. Important: use it on your own risk since this way of using contradicts the terms of use of Google Maps

Mapbox style URL of the form mapbox://styles/...

Design a map style at studio.mapbox.com. Find your style in the list of styles at studio.mapbox.com and press the button Share your style:

Share your style

In the pop-up window find the section Developer resources and press the button Copy near the label Style URL:

Share your style

Paste the copied style URL to the related field in the addon panel. Note that you need to set a Mapbox access token in the addon preferences to use a Mapbox style URL.

Export of terrain texture

An additional action is required to export a terrain texture created as the result of image overlay import.

  • Save your Blender file.
  • Change Blender's Editor Type to Image Editor.
  • In the drop-down list of images select overlay.png:

  • Press the button Unpack Item:

  • In the popup menu select the second option Write file to current directory (overwrite existing file). The texture will be written next to your Blender file.

Terrain import

  • Set the value of the drop-down list to terrain (see the image above).

  • Select a map extent for your area of interest as described at the beginning of OpenStreetMap import from the server. If the map extent was set before, you can skip this step.
  • Optional: toggle Blender System Console to track the progress of download and import of the terrain (Window → Toggle System Console).
  • Press the button import to start download and import of the terrain.
  • The imported terrain can be dozens of kilometers wide! It makes sense to set the far clipping distance of the 3D View at least to 10 thousand! The setting is located on the right side panel of the Blender 3D View (see the image). You may also want to increase the far clipping distance of your render cameras.
  • You may want to edit the mesh of the imported terrain in the Blender EDIT or SCULPT modes. In the EDIT mode you may find useful proportional editing.
  • You can import satellite imagery or web maps and project them automatically on the terrain. Set the value of the drop-down list to image overlay and refer to the documentation section Image overlay import for details.
  • Set the value of the drop-down list back to OpenStreetMap and import OpenStreetMap from the server or from a local file.

GPX import

The addon can import only GPX tracks. GPX routes and way points aren't imported.

A typical workflow is to import the terrain first. Optionally you can import the satellite imagery after the terrain import.

  • Set the value of the drop-down list to gpx.

  • Set the path to a GPX track in the field .

  • Check the option to project the GPX track on the terrain and ignore vertical coordinates of the track points. A Blender object for the terrain will be set automatically in the field after the terrain import. Uncheck the option to use vertical coordinates of the track points.

  • Press the button to import the GPX track. The track will be imported as a Blender curve object.

Export of the imported scene

Export of the imported OpenStreetMaps scene is available as an experimental feature.

Open the addon preferences and check the option Enable experimental features at the very bottom of the addon preferences:

Then check the option Import for export in the addon panel:

Import OpenStreetMap data as described above. The imported scene can be exported to the popular 3D formats (FBX, Collada, OBJ, gltf) using the built-in Blender exporters (File → Export).

If the option Import for export isn't checked, the new addon core is used for the OpenStreetMap import. The result of the import in that case will differ from the one if the option Enable experimental features is unchecked.

Links and Contacts

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