Just stumbled across this topic, really very interesting indeed. 😄

Thanks Gaieus,

I do what you say (what I don't know before!).
But the results isn't good. No grey cubes in check list!! 😞
I must find an other way!

Trying to do a simple trial animation just to make a box rotate. Am using the time slider rather than a tour. Obviously doing something wrong because it "swings" around an origin that is a long way from the model rather than rotating on its axis.

I read the bit above about creating it at the origin, not moving the axes, but it still does not seem to help. I am wondering if it could be to do with georeferencing. Here is what I have done, along with numerous other things:

Started Sketchup Drew a box centred on the origin Displayed the model in GE. It appeared somewhere over Sydney, floating about 50m above the ground. Saved the model to KMZ Opened it with Winzip and extracted the KML Duplicated the model placemark 3 times Added the timespan and heading fields to each one Copied the KML back into the KMZ Deleted the old model from temporary places and opened the new one. Clicked the time slider to start.
The model rotates around a point that is about 300m from the centre of the box.

I have attached the KMZ.

The next issue once I get that working is how to do the animation with an existing model, where the origin obviously is not at the midpoint of the object that needs to be animated. If one selects the whole model and moves it so that is centred on the origin then the model will no longer be correctly located in GE.

So presumably I copy each piece and paste it into a new model centred on the origin...?

KMZ containing the timespan and heading changes

Hi Rick,

Is your model not extremely far from the SU origin?

If so, try to move it to the origin, make sure there is no georeferencing info under Model info > Location and take the GE Snapshot only then.

Nice one! Smart detailing with png's!

It is a little bit floating however

float.jpg
Also, sometimes GE goes nuts when you save the file (before export) at such a sharp angle close to the ground. Not in this case but it's just on the edge of it.

@gaieus said:

If you go to File > Save > Save image in GE, you can save the image - in screen resolution with the free version and high resolution (only wherever available of course) in GE Pro. Then just reload the imported B&W image in SU and you have a colour version.
It's about 5 seconds altogether.

Indeed that's what we do. If modeling large green areas or terrain, you can sometimes get a nice effect (nicer than some materials/textures anyway).

I'll forget I asked this question anyway and just carry on as before! 😄

Thanks ever so much Tommy, will be sure I check it out. 😄

I just may do that, Jax. 😄

I'll be sure to give your thread a good read!

Ah ok, thank you Gaeius.

I think just referencing whatever information I use is the most practical way of getting round this potential problem then. 😄

I can imagine that the GE sea bed is even more inaccurate as the terrain - so I would think it is possible.

Well, I was going to say that if your edges are not standalone (but form faces), you can always duplicate them (but it doesn't work)

Edit the group/component go to wireframe mode and with a selection rectangle (no double/triple clicking) select the edges only copy them, close the group/component and paste in place (this is in the edit menu).
Now they will exactly overlap the ones inside the group/component but will be outside of it and as such, standalone ones so should export just fine. Make sure to include these and the original group/component into a new, parent (face me?) component.

BUT it seems that the converter will merge all colinear edges no matter what the hierarchy is. See Allison's explanation here (well, that's a Google Guide for some reason answering as a Level 1 newbie)
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/sketchup/thread?tid=668c54ccde662c39&hl=en

BUT if you have SU 6, export it as "Google Earth 4". That will get your edges through:

Bamboo.kmz

...or me...

Haha, problem solved. Thanks very much.

I have to keep reminding myself to think of the simple solutions first.

😄 Much appreciated

Thanks for the post, its basically what I need but it doesn't show the low detail gray models like Gaieus states 😞

The Markiezenhof is finally done!

You can view and download the model here:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=9d2165b1c42677cd5221ba1d0b80fdaf

MarkiezenhofGEmodel.jpg

Yes, exactly.

Like in your your place, Ward, mine is also mostly consists of buildings that are attached to each other. There is often a conflict when Google says that the side is not textured (of course, there is another building there) so I don't even care; I use a dummy brick firewall texture to satisfy them. I also have a nice roof texture that would fit on about 80% of the old houses here (I can't use GE imagery because it's rather low res for this and also not taken straight from above).

No matter what you use just use photos. 😄

Yeah, something like the gentlemen above say. If you set it to privte, no-one but contributors/collaborators will be able to download edit whatnot (there are endless possibilities - pplay around with them).

One caveat: if you do NOT want Google to include your models to GE, make sure that the "this model is real and GE ready" (or what) box is NOT checked.

Although... I believe that those kids would definitely deserve some kind of encouragement, incentives and "real" credits. Why not the whole town/neighbourhood know about their talents and efforts? This is also always encouraging for others (and they won't be spending their time on dope on the streets at least).

But of course, you know what you are doing and I don't want to interfere... 😉

Next week I am starting with a secondary school special afternoon course with kids in my old school (I graduated from). This is something you would call a middle school and high school in the US I think. I am looking forward to what I can achieve with them and I will definitely leave it for them to decide what they want to go public and what to keep private even though we'll be using the 3D Warehouse.

The same thing came to my mind; isn't your model grouped by any chance? If so, just "enter" the group (double click) until you get to the individual faces and only paint those.

Or attach a model (paste a link to where it1s uploaded) for us to see what1s going on.

Ever since I have "visited" Boulder (on GE) and it's also built mainly from blocks so don't worry.

Not only here but after I saw it in the SketchUpdate Blog, I also mentioned in The Daily CatchUp.

BTW Tommy, The Daily CatchUp, you know! It's been some ten days since you came back from vacation 😉

http://news.sketchucation.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/gsu-team.jpg