Google Building Maker

enjo13 · #1 Posted **Oct 13, 2009, 6:43 PM**

New tool from Google that should greatly simplify adding buildings to Google Earth.

Lets see every building in the Mountain West added

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/...ing-maker.html

Okayyou · #2 Posted **Oct 14, 2009, 1:34 AM**

nice find. I made about 5 tonight, let's see if they get added to the 3D warehouse. This is one instance where I am happy Denver has a lot of boxy buildings; makes modeling them a breeze.

esirhgih · #3 Posted **Oct 14, 2009, 1:47 AM**

Boo!

They don't support this in Salt Lake City yet. They haven't got the oblique aerial photos that are needed to provide the textures.

jedikermit · #4 Posted **Oct 29, 2009, 6:22 PM**

Do we know when they'll be adding Salt Lake City? I'd love to see more SLC buildings in Google Earth as 3-D structures...I was going to have my students do some as a project, but they're not able to yet. Any word?

jedikermit · #5 Posted **Oct 29, 2009, 6:35 PM**

...I was just looking at downtown SLC in Google Earth again, and it looks like there are only ten 3-D buildings modeled already. Were those done with Google Sketchup? And is that easy to learn? I thought a forum member here had modeled at least a few of the SLC buildings. It would be fun to be able to do some more.

Skyscrapers4Me · #6 Posted **Nov 1, 2009, 8:34 AM**

The Google Sketchup buildings are very labor intensive, at least if you want them to be accurate and to look realistic.

I post buildings under the name blackdogprod. There are a lot of tricks and good old-fashioned work that go into making these models.

Between \'em\ \'āch\ (formerly known as Orpheum ) and myself, we've created more than a few decent looking buildings. There are other decent modelers in Salt Lake who have added a couple too.

I have thousands of building pics I've taken or found around the Internet (thanks, T-Mac

) . I've got probably 50 half done models. The problem is, I'm a fanatic about detail and accuracy. I don't want to post garbage models anymore.

Building Maker is so much easier to use. It's like "instant building" to me.
I wish they'd get those obliques imported for Salt Lake. The oblique pics are VERY nice...no trees or power lines (for the most part) to edit out using Photoshop or GIMP.

Anyhow, when we finally DO get Building Maker for Salt Lake, everyone better start using it. Otherwise, half the buildings will be mine

jedikermit · #7 Posted **Nov 1, 2009, 1:09 PM**

Thanks for the info--and I'm glad you're such a fanatic about detail. Once those oblique shots are up and running for SLC, you'll have a lot of help. Until then...quit your job and work on getting more buildings finished with Sketchup!

Skyscrapers4Me · #8 Posted **May 9, 2010, 11:21 PM**

I posted a file with "the tallest building in every country" on Google Earth Hacks under my handle "blackdogprod". Feel free to download and comment.