Large terrain photo help
-
Hey guys,
I'm in need of either satellite or aerial photos on a terrain as I need to model it and add a layer of changes for a client.
I have all the contour files from existing to new changes, what I want to do is overlay an aerial image over the mesh.
Google terrain grab in SU is pathetic as the area I need covers 3km and at that size the image from Google is pixelated and pathetic.
Using Google earth I can get a bigger image but just not big enough (the biggest they go is 1920x1033) I'd like at least double that.
The area is: 40°38’08.40”N, 74°39’12.56”W
If anyone can assist me to where I can get this I'd be most appreciative.
-
PM to DareDevil, it's a specialist for that
http://sketchucation.com/forums/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=18339 -
Solo, haven't you tried to import several views from Google Earth?
You can import them (GET CURRENT VIEW) from Google Earth views which are zoomed in enough in order to avoid excess pixelization (this depends on the area of the world, sometimes nothing helps though I find the US 'scanned' pretty well)Sketchup will all place them in correct position and you'll be able to overlay them over the mesh. You don't have to think about overlapping of the images, just stick to the same zoom in Google Earth window if you want consequent level of pixelization.
P.S. But even with different zooming in Google Earth back to SU individual images are positioned well.
-
@aureus said:
Solo, haven't you tried to import several views from Google Earth?
You can import them (GET CURRENT VIEW) from Google Earth views which are zoomed in enough in order to avoid excess pixelization (this depends on the area of the world, sometimes nothing helps though I find the US 'scanned' pretty well)Sketchup will all place them in correct position and you'll be able to overlay them over the mesh. You don't have to think about overlapping of the images, just stick to the same zoom in Google Earth window if you want consequent level of pixelization.
P.S. But even with different zooming in Google Earth back to SU individual images are positioned well.
Hmm, is there some sort of tutorial for this?
I normally do all my own terrain painting but in this case I need the actual photo over terrain, never tried this method before.
-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2u_yn-eYhg
watch this, very funny series called "You suck at Photoshop"
This is is about photomerge and google earth
-
It always worked for me. Just turn off everything you can from Google Earth. You don't need those image icons, right?
I don't know for the tutorials.
A quick tip:
Open an SU file, open Google Earth. Zoom over the area you need in Google Earth but not in the way that you encompass everything you need, just one part of it.
Press 'Get Current View' in SU and you'll have your first image.
Back to Google Earth, move about and find new view. Make sure that one pert overlaps with the previous one.
Press 'Get Current View' in SU and you'll have the second image.
Repeat those steps until you have all the area in SU.
You'll see several photos piled up in correct position to each other.Then you can use them for whatever you want.
-
I'm having a serious blond moment here, I open SU and I open Google earth as a seperate program or do I use the Google earth in SU and it opens a small applet where I insert location and get a choice to select region? (if it's that then that does not work well for what I need)
Where is the "get current view"?
-
You open them as separate programs.
In SU 7 'Get Current View' is View/Google/Get Current View.
In SU 8 I think that 'Add Location' has the same function as 'Get Current View' but I'm not totally sure since at the moment I don't have Google Earth to try that. -
Its the one that is completely drive from within SU. Press the icon for "add location". That brings up the window with a map. Navigate to where you want. Then set the pins and click grab or whatever it says. Thing is, you can do that over and over and over. So zoom in so that you get high quality images, and then tile them together by importing multiple zoomed in pieces.
-
@chris fullmer said:
Its the one that is completely drive from within SU. Press the icon for "add location". That brings up the window with a map. Navigate to where you want. Then set the pins and click grab or whatever it says. Thing is, you can do that over and over and over. So zoom in so that you get high quality images, and then tile them together by importing multiple zoomed in pieces.
True. In SU8 this can be done from within SU entirely.
I'm just accustomed to do it in SU7.
-
Yeah, I kind of preferred the old way as well. I think the major improvement is just that you no longer need Google Earth installed to make it work.
-
Ah, thanks guys I'll give it a go.
-
@chris fullmer said:
Yeah, I kind of preferred the old way as well. I think the major improvement is just that you no longer need Google Earth installed to make it work.
Something you get, something you loose. Good thing is that 'Add Location' window can be stretched...
-
@solo said:
Ah, thanks guys I'll give it a go.
One problem is the road names show up.
In my case, they disappear once the view is grabbed.
-
You are right, I edited my post
-
Every image gets a watermak so the whole terrain gets coved in Google watermarks.
-
Some advices by DareDevil
in French but...
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=41070&p=363944 -
@solo said:
Every image gets a watermak so the whole terrain gets coved in Google watermarks.
Not only that but you also end up with a silly outline. If you need to crop it so that you get a normal rectangular outline you can try with exploding images and drawing a rectangle over their flat surfaces. Then you have to delete unwanted area. Or if you deal with 3-d images you need to employ intersecting method with an adequate cube.
I'm afraid watermarks are unavoidable in any case. That's Google Earth's policy: on every image you download you get some stuff so that everybody knows it's from Google Earth.
Obviously, this can be edited in some editing software outside Sketchup.
-
There is some other satellite imagery out there, and depending on where you are sometimes it's better than Google Earth. Maybe give Flash Earth a try. http://www.flashearth.com/ I don't remember them watermarking either.
-
There are plenty of sites that offer non-watermarked imagery and topo. You just have to learn how to navigate their websites and specify what area you need - not always very easy to do! Its not terribly expensive, but you might need someone with GIS experience to help you put it into a 3d model?
Advertisement