The terrain comes with it
With no place in the scene yet, the import first builds the ground around the track, with a margin on every side, then drapes the route on it.
GPX to 3D map
Your route, on the real mountain.
Drop a .gpx from your watch or app into Studio and the landscape around it is built from real elevation data, the track laid on it as a coloured ribbon and each waypoint stood up as a named pin. Then fly a camera along the route and render it.
GPX fileRoute on terrain
Draped, not floating
The ribbon is cut from the terrain's own triangles, so it follows every ridge and gully instead of cutting through them or hovering above.
Waypoints become pins
Each waypoint in the file stands on the ground as a pin named after it, sized to the route so a short hike's markers stay small.
A path to fly
Every track also becomes a smooth curve just above the ribbon, ready for a camera to follow for a fly-over of the route.
What a GPX file becomes
Drape a GPX track
Import a .gpx from a watch or an app and each track becomes a ribbon on the ground, its waypoints named pins, with a path a camera can fly. No terrain yet? The area around the track is imported first.
PinPoint a location
Name an address, a landmark or a latitude and longitude and a pin — or any object you pick — stands on the ground at that exact spot.
Imagery under the route
A landscape-sized import wears aerial photography in the US and open orthophotos or satellite imagery elsewhere, so the trail reads the way it looked.
Fly the route
Each track comes with a path curve. Put a camera on it with Follow path, key it along the timeline and render.
Whole regions, up to 100 km
Terrain-only imports reach 100 km a side on a computer — a mountain range or a whole canyon system — with the grid coarsening to match.
Why Mixos
A line on a flat map undersells the climb
A GPX file is a list of coordinates. Every running, cycling and hiking app can export one, and most of them show it as a line on a flat map with an elevation graph underneath. That is useful for planning, but it hides what made the day memorable: the switchbacks, the exposed ridge, the valley you dropped into.
Studio puts the line back on the land. Import the .gpx — drag it into Studio or use File ▸ Import — and the area around the track is built from open elevation data, with a margin of about a third on each side so the route sits inside its landscape. Longer routes get a terrain-only import that wears aerial or satellite imagery; a route inside a 1 km town gets buildings, roads and water too. Each track or route in the file becomes a ribbon draped on the ground, and each waypoint a named pin.
If you already have a place in the scene, the track is draped on that instead. Several GPX files can share one landscape, and the ribbon is an ordinary object with its own material, so a second route in a different colour is one material change.
For a video, each track also gets a path curve. Give a camera a Follow path constraint on it, key the progress along the timeline and you have a fly-along of the route. Light it with the sun study for the date and hour of the outing, since the scene knows where on Earth it is.
From GPX file to fly-over
- 01
Export the GPX
Download the activity or route as a .gpx from your watch's app, Strava, Komoot or any route planner.
- 02
Drop it into Studio
Drag the file into Studio or choose File ▸ Import. The terrain around the track is built, then the ribbon and pins are draped on it.
- 03
Fly it and render
Put a camera on the track's path curve, set the sun for the day you were there and render a still or an animation.
Ask mixos AI
Import my GPX, make the ribbon bright orange, put a camera on the route for a 20-second fly-along and light it for 8 am in late July.
Before you share it
- Terrain is landscape-scale: about 30 m source data in most places, so the ribbon follows the mountain, not each rock.
- A route spanning more than about 60 km may not fit: the landscape is capped at 100 km a side on a computer (25 km on a phone), and points outside it are left out and counted.
- Credit © OpenStreetMap contributors and the imagery source the scene stores when you publish.
Where the landscape comes from
Frequently asked questions
How do I turn a GPX file into a 3D map?
Open Studio and drag the .gpx in, or use File ▸ Import. If the scene has no real place yet, the terrain around the track is imported first; then each track becomes a ribbon on the ground and each waypoint a pin.
Which apps does it work with?
Any app that exports a standard .gpx file — Strava, Garmin Connect, Komoot and most route planners do. Tracks, routes and waypoints in one file are all read.
Does it use the elevation recorded in my file?
No. The ribbon is draped on the terrain built from open elevation data, so it always sits on the ground even when a watch's barometer drifted.
Can I make a fly-over video of my route?
Yes. Each track gets a path curve; give a camera a Follow path constraint, key it along the timeline and render. Rendering previews is free; clean full-resolution video is on a paid plan.
Can I 3D print my route?
You can print the terrain under it: Make printable turns the landscape into a watertight model for your slicer. The GPX ribbon itself is not part of the printed solid.
How long a route can I import?
Terrain imports reach 100 km a side on a computer, 50 km on a tablet and 25 km on a phone. A long route is cropped to that around its middle, and the import says how many points fell outside.
Read next
GLB, OBJ, FBX and STL compared
Which format keeps materials and which throws them away.
Inspect the GLB
Open the file in the browser — meshes, materials, triangle count.
How to make an STL file
Watertight remesh, thickened walls, and the checks that stop a bad print.
How to animate a 3D model
Key, retime and ease a move, step by step.
Keep exploring
3D terrain generator
Real-world 3D terrain generator — free, in a browser
3D relief map maker
3D relief map maker — topo, contours and borders
Satellite imagery on terrain
Satellite imagery on 3D terrain — licence-safe
3D map maker
3D map maker online — real places, styled your way
3D printed topographic map
