Sometimes you might have colors, materials, or textures applied to your model in your 3D software, but they don't come through correctly on Sketchfab. There are a few common reasons this might happen.
Missing referenced files
If you're using textures, you need to make sure they are uploaded together with your 3D file, or in the case of some formats such as FBX and Blender, actually embedded in the file. Most software that exports FBX files (for example Maya or 3ds Max) will have an option called "Embed media" in the FBX export options. Blender has an option called "External Data → Automatically Pack Into .blend".
If you're using the OBJ format and have materials defined, you should make sure that a .MTL file (along with any textures) are exported from your software and everything is uploaded with the .OBJ file.
You can also try one of our Exporter plugins for your software to ease the process.
Unsupported materials / shaders
A lot of software uses proprietary rendering engines, unique shaders, or other features that are not supported on Sketchfab, and often not supported or exported into standard formats such as FBX. Some common examples of this are Cycles in Blender, KeyShot software, 3rd-party renderer plugins like V-Ray, and "Appearances" in CAD/BIM software like Revit, SolidWorks, and Fusion 360.
These types of materials typically need to be baked into regular textures, or even recreated in other software. Again, you can also try one of our Exporter plugins for your software to ease the process. The 3ds Max plugin, in particular, is capable of automatically baking your materials.
Too Many Materials
Sketchfab supports a maximum of 100 materials per uploaded model.
In order to upload your model with your materials, you'll want to remove materials or consolidate your total materials and re-upload. For more details, see Materials and Textures.
This is a very common issue with models uploaded from SketchUp. This blog post and this forum post might be helpful in uploading from SketchUp.
Comments
15 comments
I am learning and I heard this is a great program
What does 100 materials mean? I uploaded 9 objects and 1 material with 5 texture sheets, and it appear white only.
@HardSurface3D - Happy to help although looking at your Models page, it seems everything has been textured properly. For future reference, materials are an enhancement of texture mapping for 3D modeling. Often, models with 100 materials are quite complex and colorful.
@Dan Hi Dan,
Yes. Sketchfab was automatically set emission to the material, that was what made the model look white only.
Hello, I'm trying to import models and so far I'm using 2 ways. I'm trying with the plug in for 3D Studio Max but everything I import results without texture but if the same object I export from 3D Studio to .3DS format and upload it works, the only thing I found is that if I used a texture in a material from a bitmap I had to upload this picture manually otherwise the material was white. What I also found out using the plug in that I had to choose a different rendering option. So what is the easyest way to import objects here including textures? May be .OBJ file with the texture file included?
Purchased a model via Sketchfab, yet it uploads white. Why sell models that you can't handle upon upload? Help?
@envirosolar It sounds like the model you purchased might include a texture file. If you don't attach it, it's possible for your model to appear white, texture-less too. If you're still having trouble, could you reach out to our team directly: https://help.sketchfab.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
I have tried using the 3ds max plugin, as I was facing missing material problem on sketchfab. But even after using that the material looks white? what could be the reason?
Использую AutoCad 2017. Конвертировал DWG в FBX с сохранением текстур. Но всё равно выводится белая модель!
okay i tried packing all external data but a huge list showed saying some error happened with every texture i download it said the path to (texture file name) not found. can someone help me?
I uploaded a 3ds model with 91 textures but it has appeared white. There was a lot of identical materials but processor didn't merge them. When I remade it with around 70 materials it appear correct. So every time it's like such a lottery - we have to repeat uploading again and more - it takes a lot of time! What does 100 materials mean exactly?!
2.The direct link to my model was changed after re-uploading. Should the link stay as it was ?
3.More over the new link was like https://skfb.ly/6RAvE - it looks very similar to "GRAVE", doesn't it? What should my customer think when he get his house model with such a nightmare reference ? ))
How can you stop TinkerCAD models from uploading white? Is there a certain format of files? I uploaded an STL file that was about 5 MB...
hi
I did what you said in blender i used automatically pack in to blender but still my models are white without any texture please help me i have many models just waiting because of this problem
Hi,
the same problem - model in white! I'm using plugin for 3d max and first of all I don't understand this error?! It says like: yeah, we need a Corona as a render to bake the light, you're using Corona as a render, BUT pick one of the supportet renders. How it could be?
2. Tried to upload it not via plugin but directly via website as .fbx (with embed media of course) but anyway it's in white. in current model I'm using just two textures. I just can set the textures manually when I go to 3d settings. But it too long and complicated way. I need to upload a lot of models.
Help me, please
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