Illustrating what Box described. In this case I know there's a well at the location marked with the red arrow. I didn't have the the lat./long. so I got it from Google Earth. [image: Screenshot - 1_10_2022 , 9_49_05 PM.png] I found a model of an oil pump on the 3D Warehouse and opened it. Then I manually geo-located it via Window>Model Info>Geo-Location. [image: Screenshot - 1_10_2022 , 9_47_34 PM.png] And here I have a site nearby but which I intentionally made small enough to not include the pump. I used File Import to import the saved geo-located pump into the model. You can see it off in the upper left hand corner. [image: Screenshot - 1_10_2022 , 9_48_38 PM.png] Of course if you can see the location of the well in your geolocation image you could just bring in the pump and place it where you need it.

Searching under LIDAR, NOAA has very good aerial images from a few years back. But I don't know how to get the LIDAR elevation data out or how to bring the images in at scale. You may need a GIS specialist to do that (locally we can download dwg files of the LIDAR contours). Here's an example of the resolution. I downloaded .jpg files of the whole island. They're pretty big. [image: Screen Shot 2020-12-30 at 1.18.10 AM.png]

There is no "activate Google Earth" tab in SketchUp 2018. Geo-Location is added under File>Geo-Location. Google Earth/Maps has not been used for a number of years.

FWIW, the imagery imported into SketchUp when you use Add Location doesn't come from Google and hasn't for a few years. Google changed their terms of use to prohibit usage of their imagery and terrain data. Google basically took their toys and went home. Now the imagery and terrain data come from Digital Globe which provides it at a cost. (Google used to provide it to SketchUp for free) The more you pay, the better the image quality. You can get much higher resolution via Placemaker II if you need it.

I'm not sure what you want to achieve, but one possible solution is to save a GE image at the highest resolution (File -> Save then use the Map Options to turn off all except Scale; Resolution Maximum) and import that into SU as an image. You can then use the Scale on the image to scale image properly. You can then place your model in SU, covering the GE image of your buildings. If you want this to include terrain/ elevation, it's doable but more complex. See my earlier post for some of the details.

@pbacot said: PITA Ha, hate to say it but I had to google it....lol. Just to save other dummies like me doing the same PITA = Pain In The Arse

Thank you kindly for the reply. I will follow your suggestions. Thanks too for the links.

@baz said: @juju said: Google Earth licencing no longer supports images being grabbed from it for use in SketchUp (amongst others). Hi JuJu, Am I misunderstanding? From within SketchUp you can still grab locations and terrain...File/Geo-location/Add location. Isn't that what the OP wanted? Hello, baz! The question i put was really about Google Earth terrain grabbing just because i noticed that Google Earth seams to give a more detailed presentation of 3D terrains. Of course I've used the Add Location with Sketchup but somehow i imagine that the results present DigitalGlobe engine could perhaps be as good as i imagined with Google Earth. Salutations, guys. Luis Melo

@thekeymaster said: I tried just making a round wall around my model and then making a new texture out of the image that I generate and putting it on the wall as a back drop but it just tiles it so small it just looks like a solid color. Have you tried skp file from my drop link? There is a sphere with google panorama mapped on it. You just have to change it.

I don't understand why this is not available on Google's own daydream

I know it can be done with 3DS max. http://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/69935-tutorial-on-how-to-extract-3d-models-from-google-earth-to-get-dimensionsproportions-of-building/