Official Street View Website

For Google's official website on Street View locations (present and future) and much more, go to:

Friday, April 11, 2008

And the SketchUp Crowd goes Wild!

If you haven't used Google SketchUp in a long time (like, forever), then you most certainly have to get it. SketchUp is an extremely easy-to-use 3D modeling software. SketchUppers from all over the world are modeling buildings with SketchUp and putting them into Google Earth; these are the buildings you see in the Google Earth 3D Buildings Layer. Both SketchUp and Earth are free, so give Google a hand and start modeling!

The 3D Warehouse is where every single 3D model sent to Google is kept and stored.

Just recently, the 3D Warehouse added Street View to model description pages, if the address provided is covered.

Why was this done? Well, SketchUp models are great, but they have to be "painted" with photographs of the building so the model looks realistic enough for Google Earth, but these photos have to be low-resolution enough so the model won't crash the program when the whole city is put together. Street View photos cover many angles, and are of low resolution, and this makes them perfect for SketchUp. This model of the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia uses Street View photographs.

The 3D Warehouse is full of cool stuff, so get SketchUp and tour the site!

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