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October 19, 2009

Get your home or business modeled in 3D for Google Earth

There are many businesses out there that would like to see their office rendered in 3D in Google Earth, but can't make it happen. Perhaps they don't have the time or talent to play with Google SketchUp, and Google's new Building Maker doesn't cover their area. What to do? There are a number of enterprising companies that are offering their services, and we thought we'd point a few of them out to you. These companies have all had their work featured on this blog in the past, and seem like good places to start.

The first is concept3D, which just opened their new Self Service site to the public. They allow you to choose what kind of work you need done and they create a custom quote for you automatically. We've written about their models before (such as the recent Boston University rendering), and they appear to do excellent work. Their prices seem to be very reasonable, though there isn't a lot to compare them to.

Another big alternative is CyberCity3D, who offer separate Residential and Commercial services. Like concept3D, we've written about CC3D a few times in the past (such as the models they added last month). They also appear to do excellent work, though they don't list any prices on their site.

Finally we have Gerardo Paz, who runs GeoDataMaps (and also translates the GEB in Spanish). He built the incredible 3D version of Frank's Tahina catamaran, which can be seen here. You can visit his site for more information or to get started.

Posted by mickmel at 9:14 AM | Comments (1)

October 16, 2009

3D buildings in Antwerp, Portage, and your buildings are coming soon

The Google SketchUp team just released another nice batch of 3D buildings. Along with a variety of new models from the 3D Warehouse, they've added a ton of grey buildings in Antwerp, Belgium (thanks for the tip Nick!) and Portage, Michigan. A few months ago, Google showcased a few excellent 3D modelers that were building out a large portion of Antwerp. Having the new gray buildings to surround their models really helps bring the city to life.

The SketchUp team posts these updates each week, using models that they've approved during the previous week. I'd expect they'll begin to approve some Building Maker models this week, which means they might start appearing in Google Earth as early as next week.

Another minor update this week is the Disney World area (our original review | video tour). Some buildings had gone missing which have now reappeared, and some other models have been slightly cleaned up. The best part of Disney 3D is Google Earth 5.1. Because of the incredible level of it detail, it used to require a very powerful computer to handle it at a decent framerate. With the speed enhancements in Google Earth 5.1, Disney performs much better and it's a neat place to fly around with your kids.

Posted by mickmel at 10:32 AM | Comments (3)

October 15, 2009

Tunneling under the city of Mecca

The city of Mecca is an interesting place. Because of its position in a narrow valley, they've had to work hard to continue to expand the transportation system over the years.

As a result, many tunnels have been built under the city to handle both pedestrians and vehicles. While you can can see many of the tunnel entrances in Google Earth, it can be difficult to determine where they all lead. A handful of users in the Google Earth Community (led by "Diane9247", with help from various others) have been mapping out the tunnels to try to determine where they all lead. The thread is an interesting read, and you can view the results of their work in this KMZ file Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. (shown below).

During the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, where roughly three million pilgrims travel to the city, the capacity of the tunnels becomes very tight. Over the years there have been a number of tragic incidents, typically caused by a stampede of people. This file really showcases just how immense the network of tunnels has become.

[UPDATE: As some of you pointed out, between the time this mapping started and now, updates to the Google Earth road layer made much of this work obsolete. However, it's still a nice testament to their hard work, and they point out a few additional areas that road data doesn't cover. It'll be real neat once StreetView covers the area!]

Posted by mickmel at 3:44 PM | Comments (4)

October 14, 2009

CyberCity3D releases a ton of 3D buildings in San Francisco

CyberCity3D has just pushed out a lot of 3D buildings for the San Francisco area. They're all gray buildings (no textures), but the number of buildings is quite impressive. As per their Facebook Page, they've just covered the neighborhoods of Marina, Cow Hollow, Japan Town, Fillmore, Hayes Valley, Haight-Ashbury, Cole Valley, Inner Sunset, Outer Sunset, Laurel Heights, Inner Richmond, Outer Richmond, Sea Cliff and Pacific Heights. Below is a snapshot of Haight-Ashbury, with downtown San Francisco in the distance:

While the buildings are non-textured, they weren't done hurriedly. As you can see in the photo above, they've taken the time to indlude angles, arches, gables, chimneys, dormers, etc.

This ties in nicely with the new Building Maker tool that Google released yesterday. The area just released by CyberCity3D happens to be in an area supported by Building Maker. You can pick your favorite sites, model them in textured 3D, and they'll appear in Google Earth alongside the gray buildings that are there now.

I'd expect buildings rendered in Building Maker to start appearing in Google Earth within a few weeks. The SketchUp team does a weekly push of new buildings to Google Earth, so once they start approving these new buildings, they should start going out each week. I've personally modeled about 25 buildings so far, because it's so easy to do (and kinda fun!). For example, this building I modeled in Austin only took about five minutes.

If you notice any of your Building Maker buildings being approved and showing up in Google Earth, let us know!

Posted by mickmel at 2:37 PM | Comments (3)

October 13, 2009

Help Google model 3D buildings with a simple new tool

Google has just unveiled "Building Maker", an incredibly easy-to-use tool that will help them quickly expand their collection of 3D buildings.

To use Building Maker, simply choose a city from the list of 50 that they provide, and then find a building you want to model. In the browser, use the tools to outline the building. When you have it lined up, click the next image (different view of the same building) and tweak the alignment. Repeat this on a few different images until everything is lined up perfectly, then submit the building. That's it!

The only downside is that Building Maker currently only works in certain areas near big cities, so the scope is somewhat limited. This is because they need to have imagery from enough different angles for the process to be successful. I would think they'll be rolling it out to wider areas as more imagery becomes available.

Watch the video below for more information, or visit the Building Maker site to get started.

Posted by mickmel at 11:33 AM | Comments (7)

October 13, 2009

Links: Race My Race, Random Hacks of Kindness, WorldView-2

Race My Race - Designed for athletes that want to visualize an upcoming event (running, biking, etc), this uses the Google Earth plug-in and gives you a test drive of your event. It has some slick features -- an elevation overlay as you go, start/finish gates, easily controllable speed. The downside is that many places are just flat. For example, I had it simulate the Boston Marathon, and the first 90% of the race is useless -- just flat scenery with a few hills. The end of the race (shown below) is kinda neat, with the 3D buildings all around. This simulator would do well to offer the option of StreetView, as that would make many of these courses much more lifelike. Still, it's a neat project. (via All Points Blog)

Random Hacks of Kindness - Google is partnering with The World Bank to host a codejam called "Random Hacks of Kindness". As they explain: Random Hacks of Kindness will bring technologists and relief workers together to develop technologies that enable disaster victims to help themselves and give first responders and aid workers the tools they need to better help victims--to reduce loss of life and to speed recovery.

Google has built a variety of geo-related tools to assist after major disasters, such as Tropical Storm Ketsana, the Cyclone in Myanmar, and even back as far as Hurricane Katrina. The results of this gathering should help make these tools even more useful in the future.

DigitalGlobe launches WorldView-2 satellite - Just over a year ago, the GeoEye satellite was launched to provide exclusive imagery for Google. The WorldView-2 satellite was launched a few days ago aboard Boeing Delta II 7920, and promises to bring even more great imagery to Google Earth. You can read more on the DigitalGlobe site, or view the launch of the Delta 2 below:

Posted by mickmel at 9:39 AM | Comments (1)

October 12, 2009

Better Parks Layer Info, Rio 3D Terrain Enhancements

Parks and Recreation Layer A few years ago, we told you about the new "USDA Forest Layer" that had been added to Google Earth. A few days ago, Google added a ton more USDA info to Google Maps.

As Google announced a few days ago, the new parks info in the United States is quite comprehensive. In addition, they also seem to have added quite a bit of parks and POI data to Brazil, and possibly other countries around the world. However, many countries are still lacking the rich data found in Google Maps.

For a good example in Brazil, look at all of the green outlined park areas in Rio de Janeiro (fly to Rio in Google Earth Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. ), shown below:

While you're in Rio, be sure to check out some of the cool 3D terrain models that they have. Because of the unique terrain in the area, Google sometimes can't display things as well as they'd like. To compensate, users have added 3D terrain to go along with their 3D buildings, to help make them as realistic as possible. A great example of that is the famous "Christ the Redeemer" statue. In the image below, notice the missing terrain until the "3D buildings" layer is turned on:

To activate the 3D buildings layer, simply choose "3D Buildings" from the list of layers in Google Earth as explained here.

Posted by mickmel at 9:39 AM | Comments (0)

October 9, 2009

Links: Load KMZ files on handheld Garmin devices, video of NASA rocket crashing into the moon

KMZ in a Garmin device Garmin has quietly released a pretty cool beta update for some of their devices; the Colorado, Oregon and Dakota, specifically. This update allows users to create image overlays in Google Earth, then load the resulting KMZ file on their device. Once loaded, the overlay will simply appear as part of the map when they view that area.

The instructions are pretty straightforward for anyone that has built an image overlay before. Simply build the overlay, save it your PC, and upload it to your device. It looks quite slick. Hopefully more devices and services will start supporting the KML/KMZ format, making the datasets in Google Earth even more useful.

Rich and Scott have both posted blog entries with tips on doing this with your Garmin. Rich covers some best practices for creating these maps to keep redraws to a minimum, while Scott gives a step-by-step walkthrough, along with a resolution chart to keep things looking sharp on your device. (via SlashGeo)

Also today, as you may have heard, NASA intentionally crashed a segment of a rocket into the moon to study the impact. Keir has built a simple page that lets you browse the moon, the Cabeus Crater where the impact occured, and view a video of the impact as an overlay on top of the moon.

You can read more about the mission on the NASA website, or view the video below for a raw look at the impact:

Posted by mickmel at 3:45 PM | Comments (1)

October 8, 2009

Links: Improve Map Data, Urban Planning Webinars, Students building 3D models

Improving Map Data: Google has just released some tools for Google Maps to make it easier to report map errors (misspelled street names, for example) in the United States. By right-clicking on the map, you can choose to "Report a problem". Google hopes to have issues corrected within a month of being reported.

~~The new mapping data does not yet appear to be in Google Earthis now in Google Earth, but I'd expect that it (and any error correction updates) will find it's way over to Earth before too long.~~

[Update, 10-Oct: The data now seems to be live in Google Earth]

Here's a short video showing the new process:

Urban Planning Webinars: Planetizen will be hosting a few webinars in the next month on how to use Google SketchUp, Maps and Earth in the context of Urban Planning. They are:

October 21: Using Google Maps and Mashups for Planning

October 28: Google Earth for Planners -- An Introduction

November 4: The Virtual Staff Report -- Using the Free Version of Google Earth

November 11: The Virtual Staff Report -- Advanced Google Earth for Planners

More information about all of their courses is available here.

Italian students building 3D models: An Italian math teacher has been using Google SketchUp with his 13-year-old students for the last few years as they work on solids. In that time, they've submitted 622 models to the 3D Warehouse! In addition, they've done some work using the Google Earth plug-in, such as head-to-head modified Monster Milk Truck. Here is a video showing models of the cars the students made this year:

For more information, you can read their Italian language blog, or read a short paper about why he chooses to use SketchUp with his math students.

Posted by mickmel at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)

October 7, 2009

StreetView also arrives in Canada

Along with releasing StreetView imagery in Prague, as we announced earlier today, Google has also released StreetView in a number of cities in Canada.