Using SketchUp to model an historical city
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Hi all,
Just after your thoughts on the following...
My town is very old and has lots of photos and old maps available of it. I think it would be RELATIVELY easy to construct a town from models using the maps, photos and other documentary sources. Especially from 1852 where there is a brilliant map avialable.
Is this feasible? Would I have to keep all the models in one huge file on my local drive as uploading to GE would be impossible and TOTALLY wrong!
Just after your thoughts and the feasibility of this project which I would love to do in the future. There would of course be a potential to get help from the local authority etc.
Thanks!!!
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@leedeetee said:
There would of course be a potential to get help from the local authority etc.
Count me in!
I have taken part of some similar projects:
http://www.gaieus.hu/su/videos/Carmelite.wmv
http://www.gaieus.hu/su/videos/Cathedral.wmv
http://www.gaieus.hu/su/videos/Dominican.wmv -
Gaieus,
Those are incredible, and throughly inspiring, I mean it! Wow.
I REALLY want to do something like this now!
Brilliant stuff.
I have been inspired by this map: http://york1852.org/ which is TOTALLY different to how York is now. There is a wealth of information for me also, exciting times!
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Lee, I have to add (and admit) that it was not rendered by me - I only made the models in SU. I had been using SU for about half a year back then. But at least everything is modelled from inside, too (well, not too detailed but at least perceivable). Here is an (unfortunately too low resolution) test panorama of one of those churches:
http://www.gaieus.hu/Panoramas/Carmelite/
(there is a higher resolution version, too, but not much better - I think the flash software I am using there, sucks, too).So in case I go to Hull, we can have that beer and chat.
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I did a virtual reconstruction of a historic town in SU about a year ago. Not as old a Gaius' town but an abandoned sawmill from about 1908, I did it for the school kids that lived there.
You can see a few blog posts about it here:
http://sketchingypsi.blogspot.com/search?q=byngI modeled from maps and photographs, not a lot of detailed modeling but it worked to visualize what the town sort of looked like.
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I think this brings up a subject I have been interested in find out about, and have tried researching for awhile now.
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How does a modeler gather information about buildings that no longer exists, and get information about buildings that do exists without being dependent on city administrators who may not have accurate or up to date information?
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Has anyone developed away to use inexpensive methods for gathering accurate information in the field for things like building footprints, elevation building heights?
It seems that with a combination of tools like SU, GE, GPS, and digital cameras, one could gather information locally without having to depend on others. it's been very frustrating for me to try and get information about my own town from those in charge of the information. Budget issues seem to keep them from even spending the staff time to look things up. I'm sure I'm not alone.
Maybe if someone could come up with a simple outline of good questions to ask city administrators, and some resources that won't break the bank, we would have a lot more independent modelers accurately restoring and retaining some towns and historic buildings for the records.
Unfortunately, I can't even get our city excited about modeling for the Google contest, so I'm really on my own, and again, I'm sure there are others experiencing the same thing.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
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@jaxcoffee said:
Unfortunately, I can't even get our city excited about modeling for the Google contest, so I'm really on my own, and again, I'm sure there are others experiencing the same thing.
Well, the same here.
However with those Medieval buildings (most of which do not exist any more) - I had access to all the excavation documentation in the local archaeological museum. So they are (so to say) as accurate as can be. Also, at that time I used to work for the town hall so I also had access to all the GIS and surveyor data (and I forgot to give them back as well as delete from my HD)
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There is some decent language here http://www.adelaidecitycouncil.com/development/3d-city-model.html about the benefits of modeling. It's a start.
For source materials, in the US many cities have historic Sanborn Maps which give a lot of information (how many stories, wood frame or brick, etc.
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Gaeius,
I am defintely up for a beer and chat should you make it to Hull.
Lots of interesting stuff on this thread, will read properly and try to digest before commenting further.
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Jaxcoffee,
I could probably give you a lot of information about where to find documentary evidence in the UK, but I don't think it'll of any use to you!
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