Alan's suggestion looks like its a good one for overhead views. I'll have to put that one in my tool box. One technique I've used for modeling large areas of forested terrain is to use an aerial photo and project that texture on the contour map, then come back in with a series of tree line objects that i build. basically a photo of a forest edge without bothering with casting shadows. I set these up in a loose lattice in middle areas, similar to where Alan is using his aerial rug and use individual trees around the edges. This can be a very good technique for showing specific views, especially lower angle perspectives. Sorry I don't have any examples to share, but I got the idea based on someones tutorial for making realistic grass that was posted here years ago.

Not cool Google!

Now that my heart is started again. Came in this weekend to finish a presentation for monday AM. The forced download was a new one, only the first 2 times i tried to run it i only had options to repair modify or remove sketchup. Ran the repair option and still had the forced update when i restarted. Freaked out at that point and uninstalled sketchup and eventally rolled back windows a few days. Still no love. Third time was the charm. Thank goodness for this forum. I was about to haul our IT guy out of bed. hehe.

These are some great models

These are great. There is a lot of potential with this approach.