Hi,
I have a layout which I created in Google Earth and would like to import it to Sketchup.
I know there is a “Geo location” command in Sketchup but my problem is how do I locate my layout with the same coordinates as it is in Google Earth?
Can someone help me?
A better workflow would be to geolocate your SketchUp model and then draw your layout directly in SketchUp instead of GE. You can read the coordinates of some key point on your layout in GE and use that to geolocate the SketchUp model. But drawing the layout in GE is going to cause problems for you.
Unfortunately, since Google sold SketchUp to Trimble some years ago there is no longer the tight connection between SketchUp and Google Earth that there once was. SketchUp no longer fetches geolocation data from Google Earth, it now uses Digital Globe. They are usually close, but there is no guarantee that the DG data will match GE. There may be significant differences in level of detail, coverage, and lesser differences in coordinates. So your layout may not locate quite right on SketchUp after you geolocate the model.
Secondly, Google Earth Pro exports things you draw there as native KML geometry elements. SketchUp has no native importer for kml geometry.
This is a frequent source of confusion because SketchUp can write a kmz file. The explanation is that a kmz is actually a zipped archive, and one of the content files in the archive can be a Collada (.dae) file. SketchUp deals only with the Collada file. GE does not write Collada files in its kmz, so the reverse path into SketchUp isn’t supported.
I and a few others have experimented with extensions to import kml data into SketchUp. I think mine is fairly complete, but it is definitely beta. In samples I have seen some significant differences in elevation that I can’t explain. There are also some kml elements that are very difficult to process in SketchUp because they depend on the GE terrain below them. I don’t attempt to handle those.
That said, if you’d be willing to share your layout kml with me (here or via PM), I’ll try it and see whether my extension can handle what it contains.
Hi,
Thank you for your explanation.
Unfortunately, I can’t share this information with you.
Regards
If you use maps.google.com to find the same location, then right click and select What’s Here, you’ll see a panel at the bottom of the page that will look like:
Trimble SketchUp
4730 Walnut St Suite 201, Boulder, CO 80301
40.018473, -105.242540
Copy the lower two values and paste those into the Add Location window in SketchUp. Then import your KMZ file.
It’s quite likely that you’ll have to nudge the location, or scale the buildings, but it should get you close.
How? No such importer!
File/Import, Google Earth Files (*.kmz).
It won’t work. There is no Collada content in a GE created kmz.
What is in the layout that Rimutaka has made? If his My Place includes models, the exported KMZ includes those models.
@Rimutaka will have to answer that. He can’t share the file.
Edit: but I’m not sure what you mean by “model” or how that would get into his myplaces. So far as I know, myplaces remembers GE Placemarks, which are pure kml geometry and unintelligible to SketchUp.