GPS Coordinates

keyaren

hi all,
as you can see this is my first post on this forum and i dont exactly know the norms out here, so please go easy on this newbie
i am new to sketchup, but have good experience with AutoCAD & reasonably good experience with 3D StudioMAX.
i am doing a project in sketchup at the moment and am looking to get some help with GPS co-ordinates. what i am looking for specifically is -
i need to model a wind turbine on a site and give a 3D visual of the turbine from various points on neighbouring sites. these visuals need to be superimposed with the photos taken from these points too.
so far i have managed to -

get the site (terrain) from google earth on to sketchup.
modeled the turbine.
what is left to do is what i am struggling with -
the view points have GPS co-ordinates and it has to be exact on the site.
the turbine also has GPS co-ordinates and it has to be in the exact location.
the final image should have the terrain shown as TIN grids.

i am sure i am not the first person to do this on sketch up. i did my search and it didnt get me too far. may be i am searching for the wrong thing? however i have come across this name GAIEUS all over the google search results.

Gaieus

@keyaren said:

...however i have come across this name GAIEUS all over the google search results.

Ah well, that will be me then - so I feel obliged to answer (or at least try)

Check out this plugin: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=32289
You can add different co-ordinates (in different systems) then if you wish, you can Position your camera (with a custom camera height - like that of the eye height of a person) and it will immediately turn into the Look around tool with which you can aim at your turbine, maybe create a Scene (to sort of "save" that view) and at the end, export images.

For the final image to be shown as a grid of TIN, you can turn on hidden geometry under the View menu and display your model in monochrome (or hidden line) face style. OR unlock thee GE Terrain then unsoften it (so that its grid becomes visible) and delete the GE image (to show it with the default front face colour while the rest of the model can be textured)