With tools like SketchUp and Building Maker, modelers around the world have been creating remarkably high-quality 3D buildings for Google Earth -- just check out any of our Featured Modelers to see the impressive work they've been doing. We've also had local governments contributing models of their entire city - like Amherst, Massachusetts and Washington, DC - through our Cities in 3D Program.
At Google, we've also been busy working on expanding our 3D coverage. Last week, we added detailed 3D models for Valencia, Spain. Many of these were Google-created models and before that, across the Atlantic, we released models in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Indianapolis, Indiana. In addition to adding entirely new areas, we've been tinkering with ways to make richer, detailed 3D models. If you zoom into downtown Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Berkeley, or Stockton you'll now notice that our 3D coverage is now much more extensive and a lot more vibrant.
San Diego, CA
Berkeley, CA
The buildings in these five California cities now have detailed facades, meaning that you can see storefronts and architectural details like you would if you were walking down the street. We've constructed these models by using imagery from Street View, similar to the way that users can make photo-textured models in SketchUp 7.1.
With these models in Google Earth, you can go in one swoop from viewing the globe through an astronaut's eyes to virtually browsing the shops in San Francisco's Chinatown or San Diego's Gaslamp District.
Showing is always better than telling, especially for an interactive and vivid experience like this, so go explore the models in Google Earth. To kickstart your exploration, check out this video preview of what awaits you:
Posted by Christian Frueh and Manish Patel, 3D Modeling Team
Since we released Google Building Maker several weeks ago, we've seen a large inflow of new 3D models. Great job!
If you've been following our posts (or Tweets), you might be wondering why we're introducing new cities in Building Maker in the same locations where we have existing 3D buildings in Google Earth. It's pretty simple really, but allow me to explain.
If you explore any of the cities currently in Google Earth you'll notice that there is a blend of 3D data from multiple sources, including Google-created, contributed (by cities and local governments), and community-generated (geo-modelers using either SketchUp or Building Maker) buildings.
The Google-created buildings act as a base layer. While these models are an accurate depiction of the real world in their current form, we consider them to be a starting point upon which the geo-modeling community will update and improve them with higher quality models, with rich metadata about the buildings. I liken the "3D Buildings" layer in Google Earth to a giant 3D wiki, which, by definition, "allows visitors to easily add, remove and otherwise edit and change some available content."
Here's a couple important things to keep in mind when modeling for Google Earth:
1. Photo-textured models that meet our quality standards will automatically replace untextured models, regardless of source.
2. Photo-textured models, generated in either SketchUp or Building Maker, are reviewed against a Google-created model (if one exists), and, if it's of comparable quality and completion, we will always choose the hand-drawn model over the Google-created one.
Whether you're a new Building Maker user or an accomplished SketchUp user, the key thing to remember is that the best model should always win. Will we replace the Google-created buildings with user-generated buildings? You bet! The source of the model is irrelevant. What's important is that we're all working together to collaboratively build a virtual representation of our world.
So, keep on modeling. We look forward to seeing your creations come through the pipeline! Let's work together to create a 3D world!
Posted by Bruce Polderman, Business Product Manager
We recently released SketchUp 7.1 into the wild, and a ton of you have upgraded over the last few weeks. As is often the case when a ton of folks with all different system configurations load a new version of SketchUp, we found a few undiscovered bugs that needed fixing ASAP. Today we're releasing the first maintenance release of SketchUp 7.1 out to all users. There are no new features in this release – just a bunch of bug fixes. Here are a few highlights:
The Measurements box did not always responding to input on the Mac. When a user brought focus to the Measurements box on the Mac (e.g. via clicking in it or tabbing to it), the Measurements box no longer accepted input. This issue has been fixed.
Selection/inferencing was not as precise. Previously, when picking or inferring entities, it was sometimes necessary to zoom in more in 7.1 than in previous versions of SketchUp and SketchUp could feel less snappy. Selection and inferencing should be back to feeling accurate and snappy.
Intersection inferences could no longer be found in some cases. When two faces intersected, the intersection inference was not always found unless x-ray mode was turned on. Intersection inferences should now be available again in this case.
I recommend this update for all users; you can download and install it for free right now. Just open SketchUp and watch for the "SketchUp Update Service" pop-up dialog.
Remember: the crash reports you file when something goes catastrophically wrong are the most important tool we have for figuring out what needs fixing. Keep those crash reports coming, and we'll keep fixing SketchUp!
When we launched Building Maker a few short weeks ago we were unsure how everyone would respond. Given the massive influx of models we've received since it launched, one thing is clear - you like making buildings for Google Earth! If there's been a consistent request since we launched it's "more cities please!" So today we're adding eight more for your modeling enjoyment:
- Brussels, Belgium - Rotterdam, the Netherlands - Cologne, Germany - Dortmund, Germany - Boston, MA, USA - Las Vegas, NV, USA - Los Angeles, CA, USA - San Jose, CA, USA
This release expands our city offering to three new countries: Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany. Brussels has architecture ranging from the medieval to the postmodern. Rotterdam has some of the tallest buildings in the Netherlands, as well as the famous cube houses. Largely rebuilt after World War II, Cologne mixes modern architecture with churches and landmarks from the Middle Ages. Church towers characterize the skyline of Dortmund, Germany. All told, there are some terrific (and challenging!) buildings to model.
In the United States, our list of cities continues to grow. In Boston, buildings such as the Massachusetts State House, Faneuil Hall and others along the Freedom Trail are prime examples of colonial New England architecture. Boston is also an epicenter for well known universities including Boston University, M.I.T, Radcliffe, and Harvard. Las Vegas has has some of the wildest and most unique architecture available, and should test the skills of Building Maker users. Los Angeles is the second largest city in the U.S., and the area we have added includes downtown L.A., Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and the UCLA campus. Finally, San Jose will be at the center of our largest coverage area in Building Maker to date. It will now be possible to model buildings in the area stretching from Gilroy, CA to Mountain View, CA.
In addition to the exciting list of new cities available in Building Maker, we've also introduced some feature updates that may interest you. First, we've introduced a Google Earth view in Location Picker. When choosing a location, you are now able to click the "Earth" view so that you can see what buildings have already been built in the area you are modeling in order to avoid duplicated effort or to look for buildings that need improvement.
Not ready to submit your model for review? Then use the new "draft save" feature. In the save dialog under "Additional options" you can now uncheck the check box for "This building is complete and ready for review." [Note: English only] This will save a draft version of the building and will not be reviewed for inclusion in Google Earth until a completed version is saved.
Finally, we've introduced a new primitive type - the "Freeform Polygon" [English only]. As the name implies, this primitive allows you to create a polygon with any number of sides. Of the primitives offered, this is the most free form shape, but it is also the most challenging to use because it is so unconstrained. It is best used when building on top of existing blocks using the snapping feature. We recommend that you first toggle off the snapping tool, drag and constrain the points of the polygon in multiple images, and then toggle on the snapping tool to glue the points to existing blocks.
We hope you enjoy these new features and building models in these new Building Maker cities.
As of today, you'll be able to see Valencia, Spain in 3D by opening Google Earth and flying down to one of the most beautiful cities in Mediterranean Spain. When you have Google Earth open, make sure the "3D Buildings" layer is checked to get the full effect. Watch the video below to see a fly-through animation of Valencia.
If you want to see some impressive buildings in Valencia, we recommend flying down to these places:
Google SketchUp has been popular with young 3D modelers and educators for years. It opens up the world of 3D like no other application, and teachers love the fact that SketchUp is free. I recently had a chance to look over our office copies of the ModelMetricks books, which show teachers and kids how to get the most out of SketchUp. These books are written by educational technology specialist, and long-time friend of SketchUp, Bonnie Roskes of 3DVinci. The design projects are based on the idea that some concepts can be easily taught with 3D immersion. Not to mention that 3D is fun and engaging. The books work with the free download of Google SketchUp and guide you through each activity, step-by-step, toward a specific modeling result.
Kids follow instructions towards the learning objective but retain space for their own creativity. One of my favorites, "Go to Your Room!" sounds bad, but is really fun. Kids are exposed to the basics of geometry, alignment, and scale in creating a room interior but have the discovery experience of finding and filling the room with cool components from Google 3D Warehouse.
As Bonnie notes, "activities include integration of digital images, interfacing with Google Earth, and creating puzzles and optical illusions. Kids as young as 8 can get started with the Basics Series, and the Intermediate and Advanced books can entertain all the way through high school."
Bonnie makes other resources available for students, parents and teachers on her website. She’s got books on geometry, free project guides for teachers, and a monthly project subscription. If you’re into geometry, be sure to also check out Bonnie’s free resources and projects on the Math Forum. Now, go to your room! Being grounded was never so fun.
Since the launch of the MONOPOLY City Streets game in September, millions of buildings have been built in the game. Soon after the game launched, the Monopoly team hosted the Design Your Own Building Competition with the help of Google SketchUp to create three new MONOPOLY City Streets ‘must have’ properties. They received hundreds of 3D buildings ranging in design from towers to ice cream parlors. It was amazing to see the variety of buildings submitted to the competition.
The jury selected three buildings that are now incorporated into the game. The three winning entries have been selected for their beauty, originality and for capturing the fun spirit of MONOPOLY City Streets.
If you’d like to see all of the entries, please visit the competition collection in the Google 3D Warehouse. Thank you for the entries and congratulations to the winners!
Posted by Tasha Danko, SketchUp Product Marketing Manager
Today, we introduced two new 3D cities: Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Indianapolis, Indiana. Take a tour (download kml) of these new cities in Google Earth 5.
If you've been geo-modeling for a while, maybe you wondered how we choose who gets featured. The honest truth is that we have a very unscientific method: we browse the 3D Warehouse, just like you. That's why we want to reach out to our blog readers to ask if you would like be considered as a Featured Google Earth Modeler. We want to hear from you, share your 3D models, and tell your story to the world! Also, if you have a friend who's a terrific modeler but may be too humble to share, poke them with a stick and get them to submit their story.
There is a simple form to get the process started. If we select your story, we will contact you, draft the story for your approval, then put it on the SketchUp Blog. Submit your story here!
If you'd like to connect with fellow Building Maker modelers, check out the additions we introduced to the product today. Click on the "Join the discussion" link to get to the Google Group for geo-modelers. We created this discussion group for people who model 3D buildings for Google Earth. It's a great source for tips, tricks, and other product support.
For example, someone else might be modeling buildings close to the ones you're modeling. In fact, they may be modeling the exact same building! You could use the Discussion Group to reach out to other users and find out if someone else is modeling nearby. With this tool, you can connect with some of the world's most enthusiastic and experienced modelers.
We also added a link, "Follow us on Twitter", which will take you to our Building Maker Twitter page. Follow us to get up-to-the-minute news about when new cities are introduced, new product features, new 3D buildings in Google Earth, featured modelers, and other news.
Posted by Bruce Polderman, Business Product Manager
For version 7, we decided to focus on three main areas: making SketchUp easier for new modelers, simplifying the process of model sharing and collaboration and adding more tools for SketchUp Pro customers. We made changes that make everyone's life easier, and launched LayOut 2, a separate program that lets Pro users create detailed multi-page documents and presentations. Download a copy of Google SketchUp 7 in Japanese and give it a try. Happy sketching!
Recently, my wife and I realized that the plywood retaining wall keeping our backyard from sliding into the pasture behind our house had to go. She kept reminding me that I work with Google modeling tools everyday and should come up with a plan to build a replacement wall.
Honeydew (read "honey, do") turns out to be more than a melon. But she was right. Using Google Earth, I was able to get a very accurate view of the construction area and with Google SketchUp, I created a model that guided the design and construction by our contractors. The challenge was to replace the plywood with something that would last a long time and give us access to the pasture. Time, water and gravity take their toll for, sure, as you can see from the "before" picture.
An overhead view in Google Earth provided an accurate measurement of the total fence width. But I had some concerns about the actual property line because the pasture is privately owned. A very cool thing you can do with Google Earth (works great in free version or Pro) is to import electronic parcel data. Many cities and county governments provide their survey and parcel data online as a public service. Google Earth makes it easy to use. My city had my house's parcel data - which I found and loaded.
I brought the Google Earth view into SketchUp and did some initial design to get scale and sense for what was possible in the actual space. Of course, my design comps had to go through review and approval with the boss (I'll leave you to guess who that might be). Then, we worked together using SketchUp to plan the look of the fence. We wanted a nice gate to give us access to the pasture. There are some beautiful custom fences available online, but they would have cost half our budget! So instead, we "drew inspiration", a nice way of putting it, from some Google image-search results.
With the model in context, we were easily able to communicate with the contractors who bid the job. The only question they had was about the gate, since they had to have their carpenter create it. No problem, as I had constructed the gate in SketchUp to scale by simply array-copying the 2x2's and 2x5's. But, because I have the Pro version of SketchUp with LayOut, I was able to provide the carpenter with a PDF that had not only the dimensioned gate, but images of the hardware we wanted to use an an outline view of the assembly. No muss no fuss. The resulting gate was cool to see!
The contractors were great and got the job done under budget and on schedule. I may have even created some SketchUp converts. Final results are below.
