KMZ Viewer — Open KMZ 3D Models Online
Open the 3D model inside a Google Earth KMZ archive without installing Earth or SketchUp.
Your KMZ file is read and rendered entirely by your own browser. It is never uploaded to A23D, never stored, and never seen by anyone but you.
How to open a KMZ file
No account, no plugin, no upload. Three steps and your model is on screen.
Drop in your file
Drag the .kmz onto the viewer, or click to browse. If the model references separate material or texture files, drop the whole folder or a .zip so everything resolves.
Inspect the scene
Orbit, pan and zoom to look around. The inspector lists every mesh in the hierarchy with its triangle count, and reports the bounding box so you can sanity-check scale.
Convert or capture
Save a PNG of the viewport, or download the model converted to GLB, OBJ, STL, PLY or USDZ — all without the file leaving your browser.
What is a KMZ file?
KMZ is the zipped form of KML, the Keyhole Markup Language that Google Earth uses to describe places, overlays and 3D models. The name traces back to Keyhole Inc., the company Google acquired in 2004 to build Earth. KML became an Open Geospatial Consortium standard in 2008.
A .kmz is simply a ZIP archive. Inside sits a doc.kml describing placement and geographic positioning, and — when the file contains a building or object — a Collada .dae model with its texture images in a subfolder.
That structure is why KMZ occupies an odd position: it is a geospatial container that happens to carry a standard 3D model. This viewer unpacks the archive, locates the Collada model inside and renders it with its textures, which is normally what you actually want when someone sends you a KMZ.
KMZ files were produced in vast numbers by SketchUp, which used them as its Google Earth export and 3D Warehouse interchange format. A great many architectural and city models exist only in this form.
What is not rendered is the geospatial side — latitude and longitude placement, camera tours, ground overlays and network links are ignored. You get the model as a model, positioned at the origin rather than on a globe.
KMZ at a glance
- Extension
- .kmz
- Developer
- Keyhole, now Google
- Standard
- OGC KML
- Encoding
- ZIP of KML + Collada
- Model format
- Collada (.dae)
- Common source
- SketchUp, Google Earth
- Stores
- Geometry, textures, placement
What this viewer supports
- Automatic unpacking of the archive
- Embedded Collada model and hierarchy
- Packed texture images
- Export to GLB, OBJ, STL, PLY, USDZ
- Geographic placement and coordinates
- Ground overlays, tours and network links
KMZ viewer FAQs
The questions we get asked most about opening KMZ files.
Do I need Google Earth to open a KMZ?
Not to see the 3D model inside it. This viewer unpacks the archive and renders the Collada model it contains, so you can inspect a building or object without installing Earth or SketchUp.
Is my KMZ uploaded anywhere?
No. The archive is unpacked in memory inside your browser and rendered locally. Nothing is sent to A23D or stored.
My KMZ opens empty. Why?
Not every KMZ contains a 3D model. Many hold only placemarks, paths, polygons or image overlays — geographic data with no geometry to render. Only KMZ files carrying a Collada model will display something here.
Where has the map gone?
The geospatial layer is deliberately ignored. Latitude, longitude, altitude and camera tours are Earth concepts; this viewer shows the model itself, centred at the origin, so you can examine the geometry.
Can I convert KMZ to OBJ or GLB?
Yes. Load the file and use Convert to. This is a common way to rescue a SketchUp-era model from a KMZ into a modern pipeline — GLB is usually the best target.
Can I just rename it to .zip?
You can, and you will find the .kml and .dae inside. But you do not need to — dropping the .kmz here handles the unpacking and finds the model for you.
More format viewers
All browser-based, all free, nothing uploaded.
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