Two Google Earth software engineers traveled to Boulder, Colorado this week to participate in 3D Base Camp, the SketchUp users conference. They were there to demonstrate a new SketchUp plug-in that allows SketchUp 3D models to appear in Google Earth, at correct scale and georeferenced.
This is significant, for two reason. The first reason is that the combination of SketchUp and Google Earth is a perfect match of ease of use with accessibility. People who would never buy or use ArcGIS, AutoCAD, or any other CAD and GIS software will be drawn to SketchUp and Google Earth. The second reason is that SketchUp has gained the tacit endorsment of Google, since Google Earth engineers co-operated on creating the plug-in, and for now only SketchUp files can be placed in Google Earth.
For complete details, read our new article, "@Last/Google Earthquake: New SketchUp Plug-in Places 3D Models in Google Earth."
--RSN