Google SketchUp is the most intuitive 3D modeling tool I’ve ever used. And, its the best way to create 3D models for Google Earth - especially since the modeling tool is available for free. But, as with any powerful applications, there are many tricks which can speed up the process of making your creations. And, there are more sophisticated features buried behind the intuitive interface. A couple of months ago, I wrote about the guys at go

Rising Sea Levels - Using a simple technique of wrapping the world with a sea-level sphere and scaling it bigger meter by meter, ‘Bzoltan’ (a member of the GE Community from Hungary) has posted a time animation illustrating what might happen if sea levels rose from 1 to 100 meters. Given concerns about global warming, it seems appropriate to be thinking about the effects of sea level. Load the GE file here - it will default to a view

Here’s a round up of some interesting 3D models for Google Earth viewing: King Tut - Last year, shortly after the first beta test of GE 4 came out, a GEC member called ‘atf’ released a 3D model of King Tut’s burial chamber with some textures. He has recently updated the 3D model with better textures and use of transparency so you can see the layout of the underground burial chambers of King Tut. After loading the file, make sure you op

This is an interesting twist. Instead of making Google Earth into Second Life, why not make a virtual version of Google Earth inside of Second Life? Second Life is an alternative 3D universe (or Metaverse) which lets you have an alternate version of yourself and explore a different 3D world. Josh Knauer has developed a virtual version of a Google Earth like interface which he calls GeoGlobe. He announced GeoGlobe on his blog here. You need

A member of the Google Earth Community name ‘barnabu’, who has contributed several innovative 3D models for Google Earth, produced a very cool version of the London Eye ferris wheel. This 3D London Eye can actually rotate in Google Earth by using the time animation feature - adding the 4th dimension. Download the London Eye here . After it loads, look for the time slider in the upper right of the GE screen and select the Play button (a trian

The Using Google Earth blog by Googler John Gardiner has published two new blog entries. First he provides some brief instructions on how to create a simple 3D structure in Google Earth by using the “Add->Polygon” feature (I created a simple model of the pentagon in 30 seconds using this technique)

Last week Nathan Weinberg wrote at his InsideGoogle blog comparing Google Earth’s 3D model of the Miami SuperBowl Stadium verses the one in Microsoft’s Virtual Earth 3D (VE3D). He made some pretty negative comments about Google Earth’s 3D models. So, I posted a comment that he should look at the 3D buildings in Denver for Google Earth to make a fair comparison of the capabilities

This is a cool concept implemented by Google Earth modeling innovator ‘jpwade’ (aka Joey Wade). Joey has posted some tests of taking video content and mapping the frames of the video to a 3D surface which is then placed into Google Earth and played back using the time feature of GE 4. In his example, he took a short clip of a drag race and placed it on a simulated large TV screen at a race park near Phoenix, Arizona

The archaeological site of Abu Simbel in southern Egypt is home to the fabulous twin temples built during the era of Pharaoh Ramsses II which include four 20 meter statues of the Pharaoh. The temples and statues were carefully moved by antiquities experts 60 meters up the mountainside in the 1960s out of necessity due to the building of the Aswan Dam which formed Lake Nasser

As previously mentioned (in my article last week about the University of Colorado/Boulder in 3D blog entry) Google is holding a contest for the best 3D model of a college campus created with SketchUp and posted for viewing in Google Earth. Google has just announced the contest on the Official Google Blog, and there are more details than when I first discovered the contest

Over a year ago, some folks at web design company Glooton in France released a cool network link that let you track cruise ships around the world from Costa Cruise Ships. Clicking on the placemarks for the ship location also shows you updated web cam photos from the ships. A couple of weeks ago, a Google Earth Community member called ’svens’ posted a new version of the cruise ship tracking network link which includes 3D models to show the position of the ships, and new network links to let you track the ships as they move

It probably will not surprise many of you that if you go to Google Earth 4 now with the new “Best of 3DWarehouse” building layer turned on that Google has modeled much of Boulder with photo-textured 3D buildings. After all, Boulder is where @Last Software, makers of SketchUp - and now part of Google, was founded and is still operating

Ok, you have to see this one - so, to make it easy I made a video. It made me laugh this morning. This bouncing Google Earth (from within Google Earth) was created by ‘barnabu’ and posted at the Google Earth Community (GEC). You can easily view this in GE 4 by loading the bouncing GE file , then click on the little clock icon on the left side of the time slider gadget

There is a hidden treat behind the update a couple days ago to the layers. Google has crafted a fantastic collection of 3D building models for the city of Denver, Colorado. This collection was obviously created to show of GE 4’s ability to show high quality photo textured 3D models, and is a part of the new “Best of 3D Warehouse” layer found under the “3D Buildings” layer in GE

Google has just released SketchUp 6 Pro - the latest version of their fantastic 3D modeling software. In addition, they have also released Google SketchUp 6 - the free version of SketchUp - which is particularly useful for creating 3D models for Google Earth. Either program provides an interface for placing 3D models into Google Earth

Google has released new layers today. Probably the biggest addition is the Best of 3DWarehouse Buildings layer (read more below):

New/updated layers:

Yelp Reviews - A new Featured Content layer of reviews from the web site Yelp.com which hosts reviews by people who have been there.
3D Buildings - Google has decided to make the large repository of quality 3D buildings from the 3D Warehouse easier to view

Over the holidays, ‘jpwade’ (who has contributed many 3D models to the GE Community) posted a 3D model similar to the Black Pearl ship from the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean”. He also implemented a time animation showing the ship sailing about in a bay in the islands. Load the Black Pearl model (you must be using GE 4) and hit the “Play” button (a right arrow triangular button on the right of the time slider in the upper part of the screen)

With Christmas almost here, it seems like a good time to play with toys. Here are a couple of time animations involving 3D models built using “Legos™” and “Lincoln Logs™”:

Lego Airplaine - posted by ‘barnabu’
Lincoln Logs Cabin - posted by ‘jpwade’

By the way, between Christmas and New Years I will not be writing many blog entries (only if something significant grabs my attention and doesn’t require too much time to write about). I’ll be enjoying the holidays! Happy Holidays to everyone!

One of the Google Earth Community (GEC) members called ‘pseabury’ (Paul Seabury) has published a number of KMZ files containing visualizations for a number of satellite types (Iridium, amateur radio, Globalstar, disaster monitoring, military, geodetic, geostationary, and more). Each collection shows the satellites, their footprints and cones, their subsatellite points, and their orbital data in the info balloon

Another excellent model by ‘barnabu’ posted at the Google Earth Community. This time he developed a 3D model of the Turning Torso , a 190m skyscraper in Malmö, Sweden. This was a tricky model to make (probably not as hard as it was to build the actual building though), and ‘barnabu’ gets kudos from other model makers for his efforts. According to Wikipedia, the lower two “cubes” are for offices, the top 6 “cubes” are residential luxury apartments. Definitely a sight to behold, and now easy to see from every angle in Google Earth!

On November 10, 1975 the SS Edmund Fitzgerald - a lake freighter - sank suddenly in a gale storm while on Lake Superior. According to Wikipedia:

The ship went down without a distress signal in 530 feet (162 m) of water at 46°59.9′N 85°6.6′W, in Canadian waters about 17 miles (15 nm; 27 km) from the entrance to Whitefish Bay

The guys from Computamaps have created another excellent rendering of city buildings in 3D. This time the city of Hong Kong has been rendered with 29 detailed textured buildings and over 5000 building components in total. Download Hong Kong in 3D here (3.4 MBytes). Double click on one of the detailed building placemarks to fly in closer

I have been testing this device for a while now, and I’m really glad I can finally tell you about it! 3DConnexion, a Logitech Company (who are makers of keyboards, mice, and other input devices), has just introduced the SpaceNavigator™ - a three-dimensional navigation device that offers 3D designers and enthusiasts smooth, intuitive and powerful 3D navigation control

One unexpected benefit with the new time animation feature in GE 4 is the new life it has breathed into 3D models. A couple of the regular Google Earth 3D model innovators have been doing a number of interesting things like this new Ferris Wheel animation by ‘barnabu’ who posted this at the Google Earth Community