Import large terrain from Google Maps/earth

[amekiemai]

Hi everybody,

I need to import a large terrain in sketch up. By large I mean huge, 150km wide and 150km long. I need to modelize airspace (for air traffic controllers) above a part of French Alps. And some areas do begin at a certain altitude (refering to the mean sea level) and some other do begin at a certain height (above ground), and some to begin at "whichever is higher" between a certain altitude and height.

That's why I need to have a roughly precise idea (but not too detailed) of the terrain in this particularly mountaneous aerea above the French Alps.

I used the google maps import tool, but it is soooo long to cover just a small part of this area.

I assume that there is a better (and thus quicker) way to do it. But I haven't found it yet. Do you have any tips to give me ?
I don't need the satelitte images of the ground, I just need the terrain shape.

Thanks a lot for your help.

[oceanembers]

I know the USGS have free terrain maps, I wonder if there might be something similar for europe?

[mitcorb]

Whatever happened to Euclideon Geoverse?