Purpose

GIS2BLEND converts GIS and OpenStreetMap data into organized, production-ready Blender scenes. It is designed for geospatial visualization, urban planning, architecture, infrastructure, renewable energy, environmental analysis, digital twins and technical 3D mapping workflows.

Blender

Designed for Blender 5.0 and newer 5.x builds.

Mapbox token

Required for Mapbox Satellite overlay and Mapbox Terrain-RGB based terrain creation.

Pillow / PIL

Required for map overlay and terrain image processing. The addon can show an install helper when it is missing.

Fiona / GDAL / pyproj / PROJ

Required or strongly recommended for local GIS file workflows, CRS detection and reprojection of SHP, GPKG, GeoJSON and similar geospatial formats.

OSM XML

OpenStreetMap XML workflows can often be used without the full local GIS stack, but CRS-aware local GIS import requires the GIS dependencies.

Full OSM Database

Downloads all available OSM nodes, ways and relations inside the selected bounding box. It can produce very large files and should be used carefully.

Selected Categories Only

Downloads only the selected feature groups. This is recommended for large extents, early tests and lower-memory systems.

Category presets

Quickly enable common OSM category combinations and then manually adjust the list.

Detected categories

After download or loading, GIS2BLEND detects categories, geometry type and object counts.

Per-category options

Each OSM category can be enabled/disabled, split by attribute, joined by attribute, imported as one object or imported as curves for line categories.

Create image overlay

Creates a textured map plane for the selected extent.

Set default material

Assigns a usable material to the overlay after creation.

Save overlay to file

Writes the generated overlay texture to disk.

Pack overlay into current .blend

Packs the texture into the Blender file for portability.

Create terrain

Generates terrain for the selected extent when the terrain source is available.

Terrain resolution

Controls terrain subdivision/detail. Higher values increase mesh density.

Project imported objects to terrain

Projects imported objects to the terrain at import time where appropriate.

Low-memory OSM import

Reduces peak memory pressure during large imports.

Write detailed import log

Writes diagnostic information useful for support and debugging.

Safe OSM import mode

Limits heavy automatic operations that can cause Blender to become unstable on very large datasets.

Max imported objects

Caps the total number of imported objects during safe-mode tests.

Max features/category

Limits each category independently so one dense category cannot dominate the import.

Auto projection object limit

Prevents automatic projection from being applied to too many objects at once.

Polygon grid cell limit

Limits destructive grid subdivision of polygon surfaces.

Line resample point limit

Limits how many resampled points are created for line projection.

Auto 10 m grid polygon surfaces

Adds a destructive grid to polygon surfaces before terrain projection for better terrain conformity.

Auto resample lines

Resamples lines at a controlled spacing for safer projection and cleaner terrain alignment.

SHP / GPKG / GeoJSON

Supported local GIS workflows when a GIS backend such as Fiona/GDAL is available.

Geometry type recognition

The layer can be assigned or detected as point, line or polygon.

Attributes

Attributes can be loaded and used for collections, subcollections, material names and colors.

CRS detection

GIS2BLEND attempts to read CRS metadata from the file. If it cannot detect the CRS, select Manual EPSG / CRS and enter the correct EPSG code.

Manual EPSG examples

Common examples include EPSG:2180, 27700, 32633, 26917 and 5070.

Reproject to project coordinates

When enabled, local GIS layers are transformed into the same local metric scene coordinates used by OSM, terrain and overlay.

Raw mode

Imports stored XY coordinates without transformation. Use only when the layer is already in local/project coordinates.

Terrain object

The terrain mesh used as a reference for collection controls.

Auto update controls live

Applies changes automatically. Disable it for heavier scenes and use Update this collection manually.

Live terrain projection

Optional collection-level projection mode. Buildings use Z-only base placement to preserve massing.

Apply to child collections

Applies the control settings to nested subcollections.

Z offset

Moves collections up or down to remove overlaps or z-fighting.

Extrude up/down

Adds adjustable vertical massing to selected collections.

Square grid remesh

Optional grid refinement for polygon projection when needed.

Building Geometry Nodes conversion

Converts building collections to a controllable Geometry Nodes system with global or per-subcollection height multipliers.

Use subcollections

Enables independent parameters for individual child collections such as building types or road classes.

Section 9 live preview

Updates material changes live. Disable it if a very large scene becomes slow.

Add collection material control

Adds a specific collection to the material-control list.

Scheme

Defines how materials are created, for example by distance gradient, collection/subcollection names or analysis values.

Source

Controls the source values used by the material scheme.

Distance source

Uses the distance to a target collection or object as the input value.

Editable ColorRamp / range

Provides a custom gradient editor for the selected material control.

Distances in metres

Allows exact real-world thresholds such as 50 m, 100 m, 300 m and 400 m.

Hard distance bands

Creates discrete classes rather than continuous gradients.

Reverse

Reverses the gradient/class order.

Auto value range

Automatically calculates min/max values when appropriate.

Use Geometry Nodes material modifier

Optional procedural material modifier support.

Tint collection folders

Applies visual color coding to collection folders.

Apply to child collections

Applies the material scheme to nested subcollections.

Recommended first test

When importing a new area, start with a smaller bounding box and Selected Categories Only. Import only a few categories such as Buildings, Roads and paths, Forests or Water objects. After confirming stability and scale, increase the extent or enable more categories.

Blender fully crashes

Try OpenGL instead of Vulkan, reduce the OSM extent, enable low-memory mode, import only selected categories and check the import log.

Blender appears frozen

Large OSM imports can take time. Watch RAM/CPU usage and avoid clicking repeatedly while import is running.

Out-of-memory behavior

Reduce the bbox, lower tile limits, disable unnecessary categories, reduce terrain resolution, use safe import limits and test one category at a time.

CRS cannot be detected

Set Source CRS to Manual EPSG / CRS and enter the correct code. Use Check layer CRS before import.

Layer appears in the wrong place

Check whether the correct source CRS is selected and whether reprojection to project coordinates is enabled.

Mapbox overlay/terrain does not work

Verify that the Mapbox access token is set in Add-on Preferences and that Pillow is installed.

Fiona/GDAL errors

Install or repair the GIS backend. Also check for conflicting PROJ paths from QGIS, PostgreSQL/PostGIS or other GIS installations.

Z-fighting or coplanar overlaps

Use Stack Layers, Projection Offset, Z Offset or collection-specific terrain controls.

Viewport clipping issues

Use the viewport after-import options to frame imported content and set appropriate clip start/end values.