Maps

robri

I want to use SketchUp to draw a map of my farm. It is only 150 acres so I can't afford a big mapping program and thought this might be good.
Any one done it like this - any suggestions?
Rob

Gaieus

Hi Rob (and welcome to SCF!),

What exactly would you like to do in SketchUp? Model the buildings (in 3D - for what SketchUp would be excellent) or "just" draw an outline of the farm (for which Google Maps or Google Earth would be just fine)

robri

@gaieus said:

Hi Rob (and welcome to SCF!),

What exactly would you like to do in SketchUp? Model the buildings (in 3D - for what SketchUp would be excellent) or "just" draw an outline of the farm (for which Google Maps or Google Earth would be just fine)

I want to draw outlines in Google Earth. Have downloaded google earth picture and have put an outline of the farm. Now i need to put in more data such as individual rows of trees (have 70 acres of plantation and also 5 acres of wildflowers) and put variety names in each row. The plantation is to enable me to use it for measurement of growth.
I would like to also use it for grazing of sheep - ie. looking at what the production is and where the sheep are etc.
Also we are building so i would eventually like to put the plans on and also plan the garden.

Hope this gives you some idea of what i am after

Rob

Gaieus

Well, of course you can do this in SketchUp - the only question remains the same however; if it is only for a 2D visualization, Google Maps and Google Earth itself would be pretty "enough". You can draw all inds of polygons there (with exact co-ordinates entered if needed), colour overlays etc.

There could be some problems with imported terrain in SU if you are working in such a big scale (many acres). The ideal workflow is to import as little as ultimately necessary as SU has an orthogonal projection while GE has a spherical one and after a while (longer scale) the deviation between the two can be big already.

But eventually you may also wish to see those buildings in 3D so for that, SU would indeed be needed (and a good tool).