Geolocation Imagery Quality

SketchUp
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• Extension Warehouse : adebeo DanielTal_GEMaker

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Thanks… will try it out later

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Is there any news on the total failure in the new Geo-Location. We are being forced away from SketchUp because of this. We need to have at least the same quality and accuracy as before but would be willing to pay a little more if the quality and accuracy improved. Most of our work is in rural areas in Oregon USA.
I have been a SketchUp pro user since 2000 and was so impressed that I traveled to the headquarters of @Last Software in Boulder, Colorado to meet the team. I have loved SketchUp all of these years and this is the first time I have been really disappointed (upset) with the company. Please get this fixed ASAP.
Thank You,
Elvin Spurling
Western Design Intl.

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This is mapping is useless to me now, came to make a model based on terrain shape :frowning: and I would import another map before I would EVER use this low quality map in a model…

5520×2160 1.05 MB
5520×2160 1.24 MB

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You have that option and since you’re using SketchUp Make for hobby use, both methods could be good options.

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Where? Is there an alternative global source for 3D terrain and imagery?

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I came up with a work around to the low res imagery in SU:

I imported the location data which gives me the low res image and the terrain. To get a better image, I locate the site address in Apple Maps and take a screen shot at an appropriate height. Then, back in SU, I import this image (have to change it from .png to .jpg) as a texture on a square I’ve modeled over the flat image imported through the geo-locate so that its the same size. I make a copy of the terrain map, paint it white, then project the new texture I made from the Apple Maps image onto this new terrain map. I end up with a much better resolution image on the same terrain map as imported. Get rid of the low res imports from SU, and now I have it.

Seems to work for me.

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Would check if the Apple Maps license aggreement covers the external processing and further usage in other applications especially if using it commercially.

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Good suggestion. It’s easily found online and not at all vague.

You must not:

(a) remove, obscure or alter any copyright notices, trademarks, or any other proprietary rights or legal notices, documents or hyperlinks that may appear in or be provided through the Service;

(b) access or use the Service in any manner that attempts to copy, extract, scrape or reutilize any portions of the data or content provided by the Service, including bulk downloads or feeds of map data or imagery, or the creation of any databases based upon results from the Service;

(c) reproduce, modify, translate, or create derivative works of the Service or any portion thereof;

Not surprisingly it is very similar to Google’s Terms of Use.

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but, of course.

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I have not tried this but see if they help;

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Lots of stated info that IMHO is questionable;

  1. The government controls the precision of imagery to be collected and in all cases that is the range of few tenths of meter of meter although they allowed some chages recently;
  2. As posted before high latitude imagery is not easy to get because of the ISP limits of most launch vehicles and of course the weight it has to lift into orbit
  3. I have seen posting claiming tiling makes the image more precise. The CCD on the payload is usually in the sub micron range; that size, the orbilt altitude and the optics on the play load as projected to the ground then control the swath width you get the and thus the preicison.;
  4. It is my understanding the data Google Maps used was sat imagery, aerial imagery and GIS. The aerial imagery would most certainly be the controlling element of the res. they published.
  5. See this link for info on the sats and spec res of them the res.
    Also note that digital Globe is the operator of the IKNOS sats
  6. For those wanting high lat data I would check what the IOGP association has.
    You say you never heard of them? Surprise every time you start SU you are using some of their data because it is in SU :grinning:
    They are in geomatics, there data is free. They do construction in the artic but I have no idea if they data you can use take some work on your part,
    See this link for sat data
    IKONOS Satellite Sensor Characteristics
    Launch Date 24 September 1999 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, USA
    Operational Life Over 7 years
    Orbit 98.1 degree, sun synchronous
    Speed on Orbit 7.5 kilometers per second
    Speed Over the Ground 6.8 kilometers per second
    Revolutions Around the Earth 14.7, every 24 hours
    Altitude 681 kilometers
    Resolution at Nadir 0.82 meters panchromatic; 3.28 meters multispectral
    Resolution 26° Off-Nadir 1.0 meter panchromatic; 4.0 meters multispectral
    Image Swath 11.3 kilometers at nadir; 13.8 kilometers at 26° off-nadir
    Equator Crossing Time Nominally 10:30 AM solar time
    Revisit Time Approximately 3 days at 40° latitude
    Dynamic Range 11-bits per pixel
    Image Bands Panchromatic, blue, green, red, near IR

Satellites Currently Operated by DigitalGlobe

WorldView-4 Satellite Sensor (0.31m)
WorldView-3 Satellite Sensor (0.31m)
WorldView-2 Satellite Sensor (0.46m)
WorldView-1 Satellite Sensor (0.46m)
GeoEye-1 Satellite Sensor (0.5m)
QuickBird Satellite Sensor (0.65m)
ref Sattelite Imaging Corp
https://www.satimagingcorp.com/satellite-sensors/ikonos/

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Bad info ref IOGP: Spent some time at their site and although they state data is free you have to joint their association to get access. After more though any imagery they have will at higher latitude that most general SU user will want. Artic http://www.iogp.org/arctic-environment/.
Instead this link can be of more interest and may change your mind on why Trimble is doing what they have done. https://www.eagleview.com/product/pictometry-imagery/oblique-imagery/

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Geez, this is terrible news. I changed jobs recently and was making a case to my new IT dept to install SU Pro. I’m glad I read this before spending the money. The Digital Globe imagery is nowhere near sufficient for my purposes. Sad day…

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PlaceMaker v2 has now integrated super high-res Nearmap aerial imagery which covers about 70% of the US population. We hope this will help solve the issue of Geolocation imagery quality for a large chunk of SU users.

Please see this thread for detailed discussion on this topic:

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