This is intended to be a living document as I refine this process

I was asked to find a workflow for bringing published archaeological data into TwinMotion, an architectural visualization program published by Epic Games. Using Data found at The Pompeii Mapping Project.

Basemap and GIS Data

I pulled a number of layers from the Pompeii Mapping Project and created a map that includes the Architectures, Buildings, Topography, and Streets, as well as a basic satellite basemap (Monte_Mario_Italy_2 projection for those trying to replicate).

Blender GIS for Archaeological Visualization

Blender GIS can be found here.

ArcMAP Export

In ArcMap I collated the layers I wanted to use. Each layer was saved as a Shapefile (.shp) within the Catalog. Further instructions on ArcMap exporting here

Blender GIS Import

First, find a basemap. GIS - Web Geodata - Basemap

Basemaps come from a number of sources and can be customized based on needs and map projections. For full documentation on how to manipulate the map, see here. Press G to look up a desired location. This may take a few moments to load. Press E when you are happy with the map.

GIS - Web Geodata - SRTM to get elevation and topography. This may take a while. You can also try Get OSM for simple buildings, although this didn't work for my data.

With the Basemap in place we can import shape files. Make sure these are using the same projection as the original ArcMap data. With the Layers in place we can now align them to the basemap. This might take some resizing and rotating to get properly aligned. I've hidden the other layers, only keeping the street layout. Since it will clip through the basemap, we are going to shrinkwrap this layer to the topography. Set the target to the basemap with an offset of around 0.1m. Apply the modifier.