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Everybody has probably exported a picture from Google Earth and composited their rendering into it. We did it all the time in university and every architect probably uses Google Earth or Google Maps internally. Google Earth even includes an export function for images up to 4k resolution. But is it actually legal to use Google Earth images commercially (for Archviz)? I've been googling all day and could not find a clear answer. Google Permissions page states that we may use GE Images as long as we attribute Google and the image owners and don't alter the images substantially. But I think Googles TOS states that images may not be used commercially. However, I also could not find any option to purchase a license to use GE images, and since Google Earth Pro is free, those license don't seem to exist anymore. The more I research, the less I understand, to be honest, so... Could I use an image from google earth, comp my rendering into it and then sell that image to a client? If not, how is everyone doing aerial shots? I guess drones exist now, but that is still a lot more work than simply zooming over to a site in Google Earth... I would love to get some input, sources or discussion on this topic, especially since I could not find anything relating to Google Earth + licensing + archviz in particular.

Hello everyone, quick question. Once you get the geo coordinates of a project from your client, how do you go about creating that site? let's suppose the site slopped, has a complex network of roads and it is located in an area where google doesn't offer street view and neither 3d buildings, also the client doesn't have a topographic map but you want to be as close to reality as possible. what tools would you use? what services (payed or free) would help in this case?

Is there a way to get the data from buildings, trees, and textures from a city in Google Earth and export that for usage inside Cinema 4D (or any CAD software rly). I've been searching for hours, and this 2 years old thread asked the same questions: http://forums.cgarchitect.com/77141-extract-3d-info-ge.html but it never got answered. Because I want to whole scene I can't use 3D warehouse as it only give the handmade models of the buildings, what I want is the linear informations; the ugly automatically produced mesh basically and the texture on top of that (don't ask ). The last post had an intertesting technique of creating a camera movement in GE and 3D tracking it in AE and convert that to points. Haven't done anything like that but I don't expect too good results, not even sure if it can be done with C4D. I mean there must be a way to do this as the data is here! Ready to be taken. Thanks!