Upcoming Change to Add Location

Wow the new resolution is much lower than I used to, will this improve in the future?

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Can you post an image and provide the location you are looking at?

The new imagery and terrain is now unusable for my professional work. I’m very annoyed.

I have the option of downloading detailed map and aerial data (including 0.5m 3d contours) direct from my Local Government Authority, but it’s in GIS & DXF format, so it’s difficult to bring into sketchup.

I also need Sketchup to recognize a local cadastral grid system, (not only WGS).
…And I need it to recognise and import GIS formats properly, including geo-referenced JPGs/PNGs, PDFs, SHP, MXD etc, preferably all through a live data link system.

It’s a shame that I have a number of Trimble SX10 scanners & other robotic total stations, some with amazing 360deg cameras, and professional aerial drones that can capture quality data - but there’s currently no useful way of getting that into SketchUp.

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Did you try Trimble Scan Explorer extension? You can import real world projects into SketchUp. With all the resources you have acces to, sounds to me you’ll be less infactuated then most of others here.
I have Words, Pages and some pencils, too, but they did not get me the novel I intended to write…:smile:

So most of the Nordic countries are left out? The southernmost point of continental Finland is at about 59.8 deg north :frowning:

Unfortunately that is correct. I’m working with our data team to fill this gap.

It seems the northern limit might even be a bit further south.

I just tried the new Add Location mechanism at 45N 90W … aka Poniatowski, WI, United States

No Location Terrain layer or terrain geometry was created.
All that came into SU was the Location Snapshot assigned to its respective layer.

Add Location worked as expected when I tried it near Chicago 42N 88W

UPDATE:

Tried Add Location for Poniatowski this morning and it worked. Go figure…

Hello Cotty,
I’m confused as to how your Digital Globe Imagery screenshot above is so much clearer than any of my attempts at Geo location with SU 2017.
Mine is a meaningless, unusable, blurry mess?!?

They are screenshots from their web pages, not from within SketchUp.

The data is definitely there. I think you hit a spot that spans several seams in the data tiles. Basically a bug. The team is looking into it.

~B )

Are you zoomed in as far as possible before you ‘grab’ the location? The quality of the imagery depends on your zoom level since the imported image is essentially just a screen grab of the map viewer.

Not sure how to insert pictures, it’s also interesting to see that the latest imagery comes in offset from the original…

[/uploads/default/original/3X/6/3/634f0f6738c032dc77ceba99599e1dc9b0f001d7.jpg][/uploads/default/original/3X/5/8/582c2c6689b61e625fc2745beede09f917798979.jpg]

Martin Taylor
Sr. Engineering Specialist
Office Ph: 360.786.5970
Cell Ph: 360.701.8518

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I wouldn’t mind paying for Pro if it had a geo location facility that worked. The new facility is useless. Surely SketchUp Pro users should have the option of paying a reasonable fee to Google Earth to allow access to usable images.

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OK, I don’t come by here very often, so I just found this out a few days ago. My business relies heavily upon having good image resolution of homes. Digital Globe’s current data is subpar for my professional work. These are questions:

  1. I guess I could still take a screenshot, and then import it into Sketchup. However, I will lose the scale. How can I adjust for the scale when I don’t know the ratio?

  2. Is there a comparable software where I can trace over the outlines of houses (to scale?). Does AutoCAD do this?

  3. And just for my own curiosity… how much was Google charging for continuation of their map data?

Thanks!

Regards,
Andy

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Looks like we are in the same biz. My (unacceptable) workaround is to save an image from Google Earth with a scale indicator, import it into Sketchup, draw a line the length of the scale indicator, use the tape measure tool to rescale the model, explode the image, create a component from it, lock the component, geolocate it, unlock the resulting geolocated image, delete it, and then proceed with my workflow.

Trimble, are you listening? Totally ridiculous compared to my prior workflow.

And, it’s far less accurate because the scaling is error prone.

The add location tool was what made me embrace Sketchup Pro over AutoCAD in the first place. Now I find it almost unbearable to use Sketchup for my purposes.

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You would need to know some dimension in the imported image. Then you can resize the image to the correct dimensions.

So far I’ve seen lots of griping about Digital Globe but no one has made any suggestions for alternatives.

It’s not a matter of how much they were charging. The thing is, Google has chosen to remove access to the Maps API. It’s just not an option anymore due to Google’s business decisions.

I’m sure the SketchUp team would have preferred to stick with Google if they could. They wouldn’t have had to make changes to the Location stuff and they wouldn’t have had to deal with a bunch of upset users.

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Resizing imported imagery is not nearly as accurate as the previous solution was. I don’t think it is the user community’s responsibility to solve Trimble’s problem. We are identifying that there is a problem. As paying customers, we expect Trimble to address our “griping.”

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Trimble is already aware of the problem due to the incessant griping. They are trying to address it.

No other solutions have been brought to the table.

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PVPro, please e-mail me at andrew.tkelly@yahoo.com and I’ll share some possible solutions for doing our kind of work. Too long to type here. -Andy

Instead of trying to import low quality Digital Globe or Google data, ideally I would have a fast way of retrieving the high quality data offered by our Local Government GIS Server (typical of what we get in Australia & NZ) - Contours, aerial imagery, property parcel boundaries, underground services, etc. It’s all free and very high quality.

here’s one of the portals:
https://geomapspublic.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/viewer/index.html

It’s easy to import the DWG data into sketchup ( not the KMZ or SHP…hopefully one day!) but the Aerial imagery doesn’t come in with a georeferenced point or scale, so unsure how to get it lined up accurately.

I also think im missing some of the data eg colours for lines, asset classes, etc. (not sure if that’s the case…difficult to know)

I don’t suppose anybody could take a look for me? :slight_smile:

(The data extract option is the Spanner icon in the toolbar and you will need to email a request to download the data but it’s automated and takes moments)

You’ll also notice the DWG comes in at a long distance from the Sketchup model origin. It is correctly located, but I’m unable to model with it unless I move the axis. This presents a problem when exchanging drawings with professional engineers, architects etc. because moving the axis means I’ve broken the consistent element in our designs and this can lead to catastrophic errors in setting out new buildings, roads, etc.

Is there a particular extension or workflow I should be using to bring in GIS-style data to Sketchup Pro? I’d love to know! :smiley:
Thanks!

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