Modelling a real city
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Hi all,
there are so many plugins for sketchup l do not know where to start.
What l am looking for is a simple untextured or textured version of the city of melb.ourne australia.
I can download objects one at a time from the warehouse but it gets messy.
Is there a plugin or a tool or a workflow where l can import the models from googleearth in one hit. Is there a best practice workflow.
I would be happy with the city just as blocks if l did not have to make them one at a time.
any help would be great. I know l am lazy but l need the city to be the core of fluid flow simulations testing. EG so l can test that happens when the river level rises or there is a flood.
thanks in advance. apologies for my loose question.
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does it have to be exactly like the city? every building?
You could do a few blocks manually and then copy/paste them into the rest of the city...
That is a pretty big project, I can't think of any easy way to do it... -
Unfortunately, all is not what it seems with Google Earth. There is a free Direct X grabber you can get here http://www.deep-shadows.com/hax/3DRipperDX.htm but it can be a little flaky. It doesn't seem to want to grab anything from Google Earth unless the horizon is in view...which is a real bummer. And what you get is far from what you see in GE. You'll also need something to read the resulting obj file and convert it to 3ds to import into SU...scaling massively as you do so.
You get the whole thing, including the GUI and some kind of dome representing the curvature of the earth. What you are actually after is really, really small at the parabolic focus of the dome. Also, unless you grab from flat on the ground, the buildings are all leaning over.
Anyway, here's what I managed to grab from a position near South Wharf, looking north. This is greatly edited in order to be able to post. It grabbed all the topography halfway to Alice Springs. I'm not sure the result is worth the effort.
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you have yet some buildings here!
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From SU help, it may work for you depending on the size of the terrain and who made the nearby models (public 3DWH or not?)
@unknownuser said:
The Components Browser contains an option to search for all models nearest the current imported Google Earth view. To find components that are near a Google Earth view:
Get a current view from Google Earth. Refer to Getting the Current View from Google Earth for further information.
Select Window > Components. The Components Browser is displayed.
Click on the 'Collections and Searches' drop-down list.
Select Nearby Models. Models near the current view are listed.hope it helps
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thomthom has a plugin... CityGen http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=314&t=19493
then you could grab the google earth and trace the streets.
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