By Randall S. Newton
There is a natural, logical connection between construction and geography—everything designed and built exists in a specific place on the planet. Friday at 3D Base Camp, the SketchUp Users Conference, software engineers from Google and @Last Software showed how to combine SketchUp models with Google Earth imagery.
There are two key take away points in this article. I emphasize them now so they don’t get lost in the longer explanation. The first is that the simplicity and power of SketchUp, combined with the accessibility of Google Earth (the basic version is free) makes for a powerful new tool. People who would have never considered merging CAD models with GIS imagery can do it now, easily. The second point is that SketchUp has just leaped to a very exclusive place in the market. If you want to place 3D models in Google Earth, you must use SketchUp. Not AutoCAD, not MicroStation, not ArchiCAD or any other CAD program. (Simplistic shapes that represent buildings, created in the ESRI “shape file” format, can be added to Google Earth imagery. But there’s no comparing them to SketchUp models.)
The combination of SketchUp and Google Earth is a breakthrough in ease-of-use and accessibility. The useful possibilities of combining architectural modeling in a GIS environment seem endless. Because the GIS environment is Google Earth, the results are accessible to anyone with the free Google Earth browser. Because SketchUp is so easy to use and so inexpensive, there will be an explosion of designers, city planners, researchers, developers, environmentalists, journalists, and enthusiasts of all kinds putting this new toolset to work. Disney could model its theme parks in SketchUp (converting existing data), use the new SketchUp plug-in to make them accessible to Google Earth, and then make the models available for download. Anyone with Google Earth could then do fly-throughs of Epcot Center or Adventureland.
The connection is two-way. A 3D model can be placed into Google Earth, and geographic imagery can be imported into a SketchUp model. A SketchUp model prepared for Google Earth can be passed along freely to other Google Earth users. Viewing Google Earth data inside a SketchUp model requires that both SketchUp and Google Earth be present on the computer.
An initial “pre-beta” release of the SketchUp plug-in for Google Earth is already available on the Software web site. A new version, created jointly by and Google Earth engineers, will be available in about a week.
The release of this new utility comes at an interesting time. Both mainstream media and blog writers are speculating that Google is working on a new browser, to compete with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and others. But, as I wrote in my personal blog Loomisboy, they are missing the point. Google already has a browser, a 3D browser called Google Earth. "The media doesn't get it," said Google Earth software engineer Michael Ashbridge Friday at the SketchUp conference. “Nobody in the media who writes about Google Earth gets it. Google Earth is a 3D browser.”
Compared to the best-known programs for architectural design, including AutoCAD, MicroStation, and ArchiCAD, SketchUp is an upstart. It was launched in 1999, designed to be simple to use but deceptively powerful. While it succeeds in bringing 3D to the masses, it now has a new and huge advantage over the larger, more expensive and more complicated professional CAD programs—it is the only one Google Earth supports. When asked, late in the session at 3D Boot Camp, if the ability to place CAD models in Google Earth would extend to other products and formats, Ashbridge replied in his soft Celtic lilt, “We really like these SketchUp guys; it’s great stuff. I’m sticking with these guys.”
Technorati Tags: Google Earth SketchUp Google @Last Software 3D AEC CAD GIS architecture design architectural design