Import points (total station / GPS)

3DSC ships a Points as Empty Objects importer that ingests 2D/3D point lists exported from total stations, GPS receivers, or any other surveying device that produces a delimited text file. The importer honours the project’s geographic shift values configured at scene level, so absolute-coordinate point sets land in the same local frame as the rest of the Blender scene, while purely local datasets can be imported as-is and georeferenced manually with the recipe at the bottom of this page.

When to use this recipe

Reach for the point importer when you have:

A total station survey exported as .csv or .txt — typically a list of named points with X, Y and Z columns expressed in a local coordinate frame.
A GPS / GNSS survey exported in the same delimited form, with absolute coordinates (UTM or another projected CRS).
A mixed dataset — total station points that must be brought into the absolute frame of a GPS survey by means of two or more common control points. This is the typical archaeological case where a fast local instrument station is later anchored to a few GNSS-fixed pegs.

For dense point clouds (laser scanner, photogrammetric sparse cloud) use the dedicated mesh / point cloud importers instead. The flow on this page is intended for discrete, named survey points.

Prerequisites

Before launching the importer, make sure that:

The source file is a .csv or .txt with at least four columns in the order name, X, Y, Z (extra columns are ignored). The column separator can be a comma, a space or a semicolon — you will select it in the import dialog.
A header row is acceptable (toggle Has header in the dialog).
For absolute-coordinate datasets (GPS, georeferenced total station), the scene shift is configured — either by loading a SHIFT.txt file from the Shifting panel, or by setting scene.BL_x/y/z_shift and EPSG manually. See 3DSC4Metashape for the canonical SHIFT.txt syntax (EPSG::NNNN X Y Z).
For purely local datasets (a total station survey not yet tied to a CRS), no shift is required at import time. The shift will only be consumed by the GPS file in the georeferencing recipe below.
The Blender file is saved on disk before importing. Saving the .blend first keeps related artefacts (SHIFT.txt placed alongside, exports written next to the file) consistent.

Basic workflow — Importing points (with SHIFT)

3DSC Importers panel and the Points as Empty Objects dialog

Open the 3DSC Importers panel — in the Blender 3D Viewport sidebar (N key) switch to the 3DSC tab and expand Importers.
Click “Points as Empty Objects” — a file browser opens. Locate the .csv or .txt file produced by your total station or GPS receiver.
Open the import options — press the gear icon (Toggle Region) on the right of the file browser. Map the first four columns to name / X / Y / Z and choose the column separator (comma, space, or semicolon) that matches your file.
Apply the geographic shift (when applicable) — enable Shift coordinates if the file holds absolute coordinates (typical GPS export, or a georeferenced total station survey). 3DSC will subtract scene.BL_x/y/z_shift from each row before creating the empties, so the points land at viewport-friendly values that match the rest of the scene.

Leave Shift coordinates off if the file holds local coordinates only — for example a raw total station export that you intend to georeference manually later (see the dedicated recipe below).
Toggle *Has header* — enable it when the first row of the file is a column header rather than a data point. Leave it off when the file starts immediately with values.
Confirm the import — 3DSC reads the file, creates one empty object per row, and groups all empties under a new collection named after the source file.

Output

After a successful import you will find, in the Blender Outliner:

A new collection named after the source file (without extension), grouping every imported point in a single logical container. Importing a second file produces a second, separate collection — so total station and GPS surveys remain visually distinguishable in the Outliner.
One empty object per row of the source file. The empty takes the value of the name column as its Blender object name; its location is the row’s X, Y, Z minus the scene shift (when Shift coordinates was on) or the raw X, Y, Z (when it was off).
No mesh data is created — points are pure empties, which keeps the scene light and makes them easy to use as anchors, parent targets or photogrammetric control markers.

Remember

Use the same convention for all absolute-coordinate files in one scene: either always consume the shift on import (recommended for GPS and georeferenced total station data), or never consume it (for a fully local working session). Mixing the two conventions inside the same file is the most common source of “points end up at the wrong place” tickets.

Recipe: Georeferencing total station points onto GPS points

Use case. You have a total station survey expressed in local coordinates (the instrument’s own origin and orientation) and a GPS survey expressed in absolute coordinates (UTM or another projected CRS). At least two points were measured by both instruments — the same physical pegs visible in both datasets. You want to rigidly transform the total station block onto the GPS points, without re-running the field acquisition.

Pre-requisites. At least two common points between the total station survey and the GPS survey. The more common points are available, the easier it is to verify the final alignment by eye, but two are sufficient when the planimetry is roughly horizontal.

Step-by-step workflow

End-to-end georeferencing of total station points onto GPS points

Import the GPS file consuming SHIFT. The GPS dataset is in absolute coordinates, so the importer must subtract the scene shift to keep the points close to the Blender origin. Use the basic workflow above with Shift coordinates enabled.
Import the total station file without consuming SHIFT. The total station dataset is in local coordinates — a rigid block that you will move and rotate as a whole. Use the basic workflow above with Shift coordinates disabled.
Align the total station block to the GPS frame in viewport.
1. In the Outliner (or the viewport), select all total station points, then designate one of the two common points as the handle by Shift-clicking it last so it becomes the active object. The handle is the pivot around which the whole block will rotate.
2. Press Ctrl+P and choose Set Parent → Object. Every total station empty is now a child of the handle: moving or rotating the handle moves and rotates the entire block as a rigid unit.
3. Select the GPS point that corresponds to the handle — same physical peg, in the GPS collection.
4. Press Shift+S and choose Cursor to Selected. The 3D cursor jumps to the absolute position of the GPS point.
5. Select the total station handle again, making sure it is the active object.
6. Press Shift+S and choose Selection to Cursor. The handle snaps to the 3D cursor — and, because every other total station point is parented to it, the whole block translates as one rigid body onto the GPS point.
7. Rotate the block. With the handle still selected (parent object), press R followed by the rotation axis — usually Z when the planimetry is horizontal, because the horizontal alignment is the unknown after translation. Rotate until the second common point of the total station block visually overlaps its GPS counterpart. Zoom in for accuracy and hold Shift during the rotation to enter fine-motion mode for sub-degree adjustments.
8. Confirm the rotation with Enter.
Bake the alignment into the children. Select all total station points plus the handle, then press Alt+P and choose Clear and Keep Transformation. The parent relationship is dissolved, but every child retains the world position and rotation it had under the parent. The total station points are now standalone empties at their georeferenced locations.
Inspect the result. The two common points should sit essentially on top of their GPS counterparts. Any residual discrepancy is the survey error budget — small with well-fixed pegs, larger with hand-held GPS measurements. If the two alignments look correct but the rest of the block is offset, review the rotation axis (see Troubleshooting below).

Total station points after alignment, overlapping the GPS control pair

Export the aligned dataset for photogrammetry

Once the total station block sits in the absolute frame, you usually want to push it back out to a photogrammetric package (Metashape, RealityCapture, etc.) as ground control markers:

Select all aligned total station points.
Use the Coordinates export of the Exporters panel (.csv or .txt), enabling Add names of objects so each row keeps its survey label, and World shift coordinates so the scene shift is added back on the way out.
The resulting file holds the original survey names paired with absolute coordinates — a drop-in ground control file for any photogrammetric suite. See 3DSC4Metashape and 3DSC4RealityCapture for the matching import steps on each software.

Troubleshooting

All points stack at the world origin (0, 0, 0) — the file holds absolute coordinates but Shift coordinates was left off (or the scene shift is still at zero). Configure the scene shift through the Shifting panel, then re-import with the option enabled.
Points appear scattered millions of metres from the scene origin — the opposite case: the file is already in local coordinates, but the import was run with Shift coordinates on while a non-zero scene shift was set. Disable the option and re-import.
The parent relationship is lost after rotation — when ending the alignment, you must use Alt+P → Clear and Keep Transformation, not the plain Clear Parent entry. Plain Clear Parent snaps the children back to their pre-parenting positions and undoes the whole alignment. If this happened, undo with Ctrl+Z and re-apply Clear and Keep Transformation.
The second common pair does not align after rotation — you probably rotated around the wrong axis. The default R → Z works only when the survey planimetry is roughly horizontal. For tilted survey planes, try R → X or R → Y instead, or rotate freely (R with no axis constraint) while watching the second point converge.
Points imported with garbled names or wrong coordinates — the column separator or the Has header toggle was likely wrong. Delete the collection, re-open the importer, and double-check the separator and header settings before confirming.