Cesium Tiles

The Cesium Tiles panel exports selected mesh data to Cesium 3D Tiles with two backends:

  • Native Split (recommended): performs quadtree/octree splitting directly in Blender and writes 3D Tiles 1.1 hierarchy.

  • VTK Writer: uses vtkCesium3DTilesWriter when available in the Blender Python environment.

Dependency and environment checks

The panel includes a VTK Dependency Check section that verifies:

  • VTK installation and supported version range;

  • availability of Cesium writer symbols;

  • optional proj.db support for EPSG CRS transforms.

If dependencies are missing, install buttons are exposed directly in the panel (same approach used by other dependency-aware tools in 3DSC).

Source modes

  • Export active mesh: exports from current Blender mesh object(s).

  • Use existing OBJ file: converts an existing .obj on disk.

When Export selected meshes is enabled, each selected mesh is processed in sequence and exported to its own output subfolder.

Temporary and output folders

For intermediate exports, the panel supports two temp modes:

  • Auto (near .blend): creates/uses 3dsc2tileTEMP next to the saved Blender file;

  • Custom folder: user-defined path.

Output is written to the configured Tiles output folder. With Create object subfolder enabled (recommended), each mesh writes to:

<output>/<object_name>/

A dedicated trash button can clear temp/output folder contents without deleting the folders themselves.

Coordinates and CRS modes

Three coordinate modes are available:

  • Use SHIFT values: uses EPSG and XYZ from the SHIFT panel (with optional CRS override);

  • Use local coordinates: local workflow with geocentric fallback CRS;

  • Use custom coordinates: user-defined XYZ offset and optional CRS.

If CRS is EPSG-based, PROJ data (proj.db) must be available.

Conversion controls

Main controls include:

  • intermediate format (GLB, glTF + textures, OBJ + MTL);

  • tree algorithm (Quadtree/Octree);

  • features per tile;

  • native min/max tree depth;

  • quick presets (Aggressive hierarchy, Balanced, Few tiles).

In some VTK builds, tree-type API is not exposed; in that case Quadtree/Octree UI has no effect for VTK Writer backend.

Advanced hierarchy layout

With Native Split backend, two hierarchy layouts are available:

  • Single JSON;

  • External sub-tilesets (nested references).

In external mode, output follows a structure with grouped subtree folders and local tile content (for example Data/c00/tileset.json plus multiple f*.glb files in the same subtree folder).

Tileset Stitcher

The Tileset Stitcher section can build/update a parent tileset JSON in the output root:

  • Auto-update parent tileset after export;

  • manual Rebuild Parent Tileset button.

This supports iterative workflows where new mesh tilesets are appended over time and referenced from one parent entry point.

Live progress and statistics

During export, the panel displays a lightweight live monitor (without complex progress bar):

  • current task and mesh index;

  • elapsed time;

  • recent operation log;

  • last mesh statistics.

Per-mesh summary includes values such as initial faces/vertices, estimated area in m2, detected textures, produced tiles, subtree count, and processing time.

Remember

UV atlas is not strictly required to create tilesets. However, valid UVs are required for correct textured rendering in output tiles.