Extract 3D Info from GE

[M V]

Anyone know of a way to extract the newest 3D information in Google Earth into some importable format, OBJ or something? I have found info online for getting info from GE 5 into Max 2011 but only the latest GE has the new 3D tiles and imagery, which is essentially what I am looking to import.

 

[Fr3Drick Law Olmstead]

Years ago I worked with Landexpert by German software developer DATAflor

They are an Autodesk authorized developer and specialize in the landscape architecture field. Basically what that means is, their product is AutoCAD with a few feature built in that are mostly useful for landscape architects. From what I remember it was a very simple process, just a few clicks and it would import the terrain information from Google Earth right into your CAD drawing as a mesh.

I found

on youtube that demonstrates the workflow.

As I mentioned the company is German, as far as I remember the interface was all in German, the video shows a Italian interface, I'm not sure there is an English version of it.

There is a 30 day trial available which you have to request through an online form, on their all German website.

Is this what you were looking for? Hope this helped a little.

[M V]

It's incredibly easy to import the terrain info in GE into SketchUp. Literally like 3 clicks. What I want to grab is the new 3D buildings, trees, highways, etc. The models are crude, but it beats spending a week modeling 3 city blocks. Also, the issue with exporting stills from GE is the limited resolution that exports without a Pro license. $500 to export hi res makes no sense to me. I found this article about ripping the 3D data from DirectX, but it seems that Google is on to this and doesn't allow it to run inside the latest GE.

 

http://brian-horning.com/google-earth-to-3ds-using-3d-ripper-dx/

[Ernest Burden III]

Google Earth Pro is now free

[M V]

Google Earth Pro is now free

 

Woah! Thats great! hi-res aerials - woo hoo!!!!

 

I guess they realized noone was paying the $500 a year to get the few extra features.

[danielaranzubia]

did you ever find a way to extract the newest GE 3D geometry ?

[M V]

The only way I was able to get something to work, was to save out 30-40 different angle views, them import those into 123D and have Autodesk turn it into a mesh. The more exports from GE, the cleaner it will be. Very time consuming, but I did get it to work.

[Ernest Burden III]

I thought about doing that, but it is not, in reality, capturing the data which is what we would all probably like to be able to do. Still, it is clever.

 

I have saved out a view and camera-mapped it to make basic massing for buildings, also a lot of time that feels wasted.

[thomasallen]

The best way these days is to just click on the buildings you need and download their sketchup models one by one. You won't be able to grab the new lidar data, only the models from previous Google earth/maps models.

 

The guy at " http://www.3dcadbrowser.com/ " has some of the old models already exported meshed and mapped. He may cut you a discount if you email him. The site has gotten a bit pricier than it once was.

[Scott Dombrowski]

I hadn't considered the 123D approach, I'll have to give it a try. What I did was set up my camera moves in Google Earth and export that as a movie. Then, I imported the movie into After Effects and ran a 3D camera track on the footage and used the AE3D script (script,

, tutorial 2) to send the camera and point cloud data to 3ds Max. Then it was just a matter of compositing my render over the GE backplate while making sure that I had some masking elements to make it look like cars were driving behind GE buildings.

 

The downside is that camera animation in GE is a real dog and you have to keep things simple.