Today Avatech Solutions formally announced the availability of Avatech Earth Connector, a free AutoCAD plug-in that makes it possible to place 2D and 3D structures developed in AutoCAD-based products directly into Google Earth.
AECnews.com reported on the utility last week, which at that time was called ExtractKML. A new version of the utility, still in beta testing, was posted today. The download page still refers to the product as ExtractKML. The utility works with AutoCAD 2005 or AutoCAD 2006.
"Google Earth has done more to advance the public's awareness of GIS Geographic Information Systems than anything since MapQuest and is delivered via an easy access desktop service," says the Avatech announcment. "Avatech Earth Connector joins the world's most popular design-creation tool with the most popular Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tool on the planet."
The simple models created using Avatech Earth Connector "will not replace carefully rendered scenes created with products like Autodesk VIZ," notes the Avatech announcment. "[But] the ability to quickly develop and send a design to a client which allows them to view a structure or land project in place from all angles makes Avatech Earth Connector an attractive addition to the designer's toolkit."
This looks like a simple case of the marketers catching up to what the programming staff has been doing. As marketing people always confess after a few beers, marketers don't offer to write programs or manage the accounting, but everybody in the firm thinks they can do marketing. The problem is, nobody recognizes when they try it and do it poorly.
Kudos to Avatech Solutions for making this utility available to the AutoCAD community. Load it up, test it out and give them some feedback.
--RSN