Long-standing SketchUp → Datasmith UV scaling bug: Twinmotion materials approximately 100× too small

I am reporting a long-standing and reproducible UV/material scaling problem in the SketchUp → Datasmith → Twinmotion workflow.

I have experienced this problem for several years, across multiple computers and multiple versions of SketchUp, Twinmotion and Datasmith. I have now deliberately reproduced it from scratch on a completely new Windows workstation with a new installation of SketchUp Pro and the latest Datasmith Exporter for SketchUp.

Unfortunately, exactly the same problem remains.

Current test environment

  • Windows 11 Pro
  • SketchUp Pro 2026 (26.2.243)
  • Twinmotion 2024.1.2
  • Unreal Datasmith Exporter for SketchUp Pro 5.7.4
  • NVIDIA RTX 4000 8 GB

The problem

Native Twinmotion materials display at a grossly incorrect UV scale when applied to SketchUp geometry imported through Datasmith. In my tests, a Twinmotion material such as Clean Brick 01 appears approximately two orders of magnitude too small, with the texture repeating across the surface at an extremely high frequency.

The same Twinmotion material displays normally when applied to native Twinmotion geometry.

Minimal reproduction

To eliminate the possibility of a problem with a complex SketchUp model, I created an extremely simple test file consisting of three rectangular cubes.

Each cube is a separate SketchUp group.

I tested the workflow both with:

  1. completely untextured SketchUp faces using the default SketchUp material; and
  2. genuine textured SketchUp materials applied directly to the raw faces inside the individual groups.

I exported this model from SketchUp using Datasmith Exporter 5.7.4, producing a .udatasmith file, and imported that into a completely new Twinmotion 2024.1.2 project using Keep hierarchy.

The geometry imports correctly. The three SketchUp groups are correctly represented as separate objects in the Twinmotion Scene graph.

The original SketchUp textured materials also display at apparently correct real-world scales.

However, as soon as one of those imported SketchUp materials is replaced with a native Twinmotion material, such as Clean Brick 01, the Twinmotion texture becomes approximately 100× too small.

The problem therefore persists even when properly textured SketchUp materials have been applied directly to the raw SketchUp faces before Datasmith export.

Datasmith file evidence

I have retained the very small .skp and .udatasmith files used to reproduce the problem and can provide both to Epic for examination.

Inspection of the .udatasmith file generated by Datasmith 5.7.4 shows explicit UV tiling transformations associated with the imported SketchUp materials, including values such as:

  • 0.010160 × 0.020320
  • 0.020320 × 0.020320
  • 0.041667 × 0.041667

The physical dimensions of the imported geometry itself are correct. The problem appears specifically to concern the UV/material-coordinate information used when a native Twinmotion material replaces an imported SketchUp material.

This appears consistent with other reports of SketchUp/Datasmith UV scaling problems and possible inch/metre conversion behaviour.

Why this matters

I am a professional garden designer and teach SketchUp and Twinmotion to landscape and garden-design professionals.

A fundamental part of this workflow is modelling in SketchUp, importing the model into Twinmotion, and replacing simple SketchUp placeholder materials with high-quality Twinmotion materials.

Manually compensating for incorrect UV scaling on every material, multiplying texture scales by arbitrary factors, or changing individual materials to Cubic/Triplanar projection is not a viable solution to the underlying problem.

I have now reproduced this behaviour across several generations of computers and software. My latest test uses an entirely different workstation and fresh installations, yet produces exactly the same result.

This strongly suggests that the problem is within the SketchUp → Datasmith → Twinmotion translation rather than the computer, GPU or an individual SketchUp model.

Possible existing Epic bug reference

I understand that Epic has previously identified TM-18008: “SketchUp UV scale is not consistent for Datasmith imports.”

Could an Epic/Twinmotion team member please confirm whether the behaviour described above corresponds to TM-18008, whether that issue has been fixed, and, if not, whether it can be escalated to the Datasmith/Twinmotion engineering team?

I can provide the original minimal SketchUp test model, the generated .udatasmith file and associated assets, screenshots, and any additional diagnostic information required.

This problem has prevented me from using Datasmith successfully for several years, so I would be extremely grateful for a technical resolution rather than a material-scale workaround.