Google is looking to create 3D renderings of buildings featured in Google Earth, but it needs your help. The company on Tuesday announced the launch of Google Building Maker, a feature that will let users create 3D models of buildings in select cities.
"We like to think of Building Maker as a cross between Google Maps and a gigantic bin of building blocks," Mark Limber, Google product manager, and Matt Simpson, Google user experience designer, wrote in a blog post. "Basically, you pick a building and construct a model of it using aerial photos and simple 3D shapes – both of which we provide."
Images created using Building Maker can be submitted to Google's 3D Warehouse. Google will then review submissions and accepted images will include a user credit. Think you can improve upon an existing 3D image? Submit your model and Google will review that too for a possible replacement.
To get started, visit Google Building Maker and select a location. Zoom into a city and pick a building by moving the red pin on top of it. Click "start building" and if you have the correct Google Earth plug-in installed, the program will let you align blocks with a building's edges, and save. Google provides six images to start.
A viewer will allow you to preview the building in Google Earth before it is submitted to the Google 3D Warehouse.
Building Maker is currently available in 21 U.S. cities, including Philadelphia, Atlanta, Seattle, Denver, San Francisco, Chicago, Austin, and Dallas. Across the pond, the feature is available in 16 European cities, including Dublin, Athens, Barcelona, Venice, and Budapest, as well as nine Japanese cities, like Tokyo.
A more detailed list is available on Google Sketch Up.
Building Maker is supported in all browsers, though Mac users will have to download the Google Earth plug-in directly. Users will need a Google account to submit to the 3D Warehouse.
No comments:
Post a Comment