Modeling Workflow from Location

jaxcoffee

I would like to accomplish something, and I'm asking here to get feed back from the pro's

Have worked and modeled off shapefiles I received from the city I live in, and found out the information dates back to 2005. There has been a lot of new construction in the area, so it started me thinking about how one would model, gathering their own information, creating their own shapefiles, and being able to model accurately by getting good and updated information and little or no cost.

So.

What equipment would be needed to gather the right information on site?
What software would be needed?
Can the learning curve and expense be little or none?

I would like to be able to train up an entire army of information gathers to involve the community, and to provide good accurate information to the city for getting them on board to modeling our locations and historic buildings.

Not to mention being able to equip sketchup modelers with a simple way and workflow for gathering and modeling their locations.

Well pro's? Post away.

nuclearmoose

This is specific to a contest, but the methodology is the same:
http://sketchup.google.com/competitions/modelyourtown/getstarted.html

Chris Fullmer

SketchUp has the SU to GIS plugin that probably creates .shp files. I've only gone from GIS into SU, not the other way around. But I would guess that you should be able to draw all the building footprints right in SU pretty easily. Then export them as your shape file.

Do you have GIS? Or what are you planning on doing with the shape files?

Chris

jaxcoffee

@chris fullmer said:

SketchUp has the SU to GIS plugin that probably creates .shp files. I've only gone from GIS into SU, not the other way around. But I would guess that you should be able to draw all the building footprints right in SU pretty easily. Then export them as your shape file.

Do you have GIS? Or what are you planning on doing with the shape files?

Chris

Thanks Chris,

What I'm trying to achieve is three fold.

I want to be able to model from shapefiles, but I need them to be updated, and I do not want the expense of GIS software, and the city doesn't want the expense and staff time spent to update and area of our town we want to model for the Google contest "Model Your Town."
I'm using the fact that the contest being supported by the city does for them and for us what we need. We get accurate shapefiles to model from, and the city gets update information. Not to mention an inventory of 3D buildings for their use, and an army of folks that will be interested in modeling everything else in town. You know how the sickness is. Right? Once they get the bug, the city wins big time.
So we want to create a layman's ability to:
Gather accurate building footprint information that could be gathered from Google Earth or site location easily and it has to be inexpensive.
Be able to upload that information into a program like MapWindow and create shapefiles from it.
Use those shapefiles to model accurately, and provide the updated shapefiles to the city for their records to be up to date for little or no expense.

Doable? Or am I heading in the wrong direction?

Chris Fullmer

I foten take the best info I can get. In your case, that is the .shp files that are outdated. Then go through and identify all the areas that are innaccurate. Then see if Google Earth has image info for those blocks. If it does, then use G.E. to trace the footprints of all the buildings. Also update any city block outlines that need to be updated. And also any road centerlines that need to be updated. Just make sure to keep everything organized well. Keep the same layers that you got from the .shp files. They probably gave you a block outline, road centerline, and hopefully bldg footprint files. So when you add your data, just follow the same scheme so that it is all organized correctly. Then you can export your block layer (or component) out as a .shp file. And same for all the other layers you have changed. To recap:

Take base .shp file info
Determine the blocks, parcels, roads, buildings that need to be updated.
Use Google Earth Images as a new base for those areas.
Just trace what Google Earth shows
Export everything as .shp files.
And that is probably how I would approach it. If there are areas that Google Earth is not current on either, you will just have to go out and measure it by hand if possible.

Chris

Chris Fullmer

Also, are you sure that your planning department does not have newer data? They might not, but you should just double check.

Chris

jaxcoffee

@chris fullmer said:

I foten take the best info I can get. In your case, that is the .shp files that are outdated. Then go through and identify all the areas that are innaccurate. Then see if Google Earth has image info for those blocks. If it does, then use G.E. to trace the footprints of all the buildings. Also update any city block outlines that need to be updated. And also any road centerlines that need to be updated. Just make sure to keep everything organized well. Keep the same layers that you got from the .shp files. They probably gave you a block outline, road centerline, and hopefully bldg footprint files. So when you add your data, just follow the same scheme so that it is all organized correctly. Then you can export your block layer (or component) out as a .shp file. And same for all the other layers you have changed. To recap:

Take base .shp file info

Determine the blocks, parcels, roads, buildings that need to be updated.

Use Google Earth Images as a new base for those areas.

Just trace what Google Earth shows

Export everything as .shp files.
And that is probably how I would approach it. If there are areas that Google Earth is not current on either, you will just have to go out and measure it by hand if possible.

Thanks so much Chris,

Used older version of SketchUp (version 5 with .shp plugin) to read the shapefile, and saved it to a skp file. It shows building foot prints, and that is all. They are like a component, and I can double click on them to open them, and then right click to edit, and pull up a building. The zip file I got from the city has other files besides the shapefile. How do I read those, and glean the information from them?

Can I overlay a graphic pulled in from GE with the shapefile now turned .skp file, or the reverse so I can reference one with the other?

The city says the GIS file I recieved is all they have, and would be more then happy to get updated information, and also mentioned getting that information of GE would be accurate enough for them. Is that true? And can I export a Sketchup model out as a shapefile?

OK! The biggy Chris. Can I get you to create a plugin that could automate all of that? LOL! I heard you could!

Chris