Last month Gary Lang, the vice president for engineering in Autodesk's Infrastructure Solutions Division, told AECnews he wasn't sure if Autodesk would ever release a tool to export Civil 3D models to Google Earth.
[Lang] told me that the programmers in his division had created a tool for exporting models to Google Earth, but he wasn't sure if they would ever release it. “It is trivial for us to geo-reference [a model] and create a KML file. It took us three days to create a robust implementation,” Lang said. But he insisted that the ability to export models from Autodesk ISD products such as Autodesk Civil 3D is merely “interesting and amusing,” adding that he “doesn't see the business value” for Autodesk in making releasing such a tool to its users.
Well, somebody in San Rafael had a change of heart, because an Autodesk Google Earth export tool is now available for download as a “technology preview” extension to Autodesk Civil 3D 2007.The introduction at the Autodesk web site crows about the new extension as “the first Google Earth publishing tool designed to specifically meet the needs of Civil Engineers and Surveyors.” I guess the Google Earth export tool from Bentley doesn't count. Autodesk Civil 3D 2007 Extension for Google Earth requires that Civil 3D 2007 and Google Earth (Free, Plus, Pro) already be installed. More information at the Autodesk Civil 3D 2007 Web page.
--RSN
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