TOPIC:

We were asked to verify if this free version of Google Earth Pro is genuine, and it does appear to be, as it is being promoted on Google's own web page.

http://www.google.co.uk/earth/download/gep/agree.html

What we cant determine is if it will remain free forever....

To all Visual Building - Google Earth users...

You will all be pleased to know that you can now get Google Earth PRO for FREE.
Download the Google Earth Pro version from the Google website, and when you register it, use the license key: GEPFREE

You can now import higher resolution images into Visual Building and measure areas and lengths a lot easier using the more advanced measuring tools.

Thank you very very much. This video has saved me hours of trial and error with the 3 products concerned. I was looking for a more complicated solution and did not realise that it would be so easy to import into Google Earth.

Have you thought about sponsoring a Google Earth layer so that all your Visual Building users can show off their buildings publicly in their perceived locations?

Its quite very easy and does not really warrant a video. (post note: but I quickly added one anyway :) )

Visual Building Basic:

1. In Visual Building Basic select a 3D view of your building. (This is applicable to all versions of Visual Building except Lite which cant export .3ds files).

Its best not to have any background or environment layer showing.

2. Select the menu Export / 3D Formats / 3DS Object to start the export of your 3D model as a 3ds object.

In the Export Project dialog you do not need to select any of the options.

SketchUp

3. Using the free version of Sketchup create a new project - you can use the Google Earth Modeling template supplied with Sketchup.

4. With the menu option File / Import menu, select the .3ds option and load in your 3ds file created with Visual Building to load and place it.

5. In the View / Edge style menu- deselect the Edges entry.

6. You now need to tell Google Earth where to locate your building and you can do this using the File / Geo Location / Add location menu. Enter your postcode where you want to place your building. Grab the terrain area and this will import an area,

7. You can now move / rotate the 3D building as required using the Sketchup tools. You may need to scale the model using the Tools / Scale tool.

8. Select File / Preview in Google Earth to view in Google Earth.


9. From SketchUp you can also export the model as a Collada file (.dae) which you can also import directly into Google Earth.


Google SketchUp™ is a trademark of Google Inc.
Google Earth™ is a trademark of Google Inc.

I see there are references in this forum to placing a completed Visual Building project onto Google Earth as a 3D building. Do you have a tutorial video demonstrating how to do this. Im using Visual Building Basic and the free version of Google Earth.