archicad 16 google earth connection

[Anonymous]

Hi,

is the google earth connection available for archicad 16 yet? thanks

[Dwight]

Well, following the instructions on the newly released mac kmz import add-on, all i get in Archicad is a white rectangle, so thanks for the advice on using SketchUp, but 'no!'.
Can you review the instructions for the new Add-on and let me know how you do?

[Karl Ottenstein]

Karl wrote:
Exporting the model to GE on Mac (64) - doesn't work properly because Project North is ignored ... the export is done as if Project North is set to 90 degrees regardless of the setting. Or, at least in my project with North is 135 degrees, it is ignored.

This bug has been verified by tech support and is now in the system as 144688. The workaround given by tech support is to temporarily rotate the model before exporting...(and then of course be really careful not to save your changes to the model file)...

[Karl Ottenstein]

Dwight wrote:
Well, following the instructions on the newly released mac kmz import add-on, all i get in Archicad is a white rectangle, so thanks for the advice on using SketchUp, but 'no!'.
Can you review the instructions for the new Add-on and let me know how you do?

Let me know what parts didn't seem to work as expected. All seems fine for me - given that 64 bit Windows (and Mac) has limitations.

I was able to bring in single placemarks and polygon placemarks saved as KMZ from Google Earth just fine into AC ... geolocated the model properly. (Using the instructions to save the placemark elevation as 'absolute' has an issue on the GE side that it exports 0 as the elevation - so I manually entered the elevation shown in the GE window for the location.) On Mac / 64 bit Windows, this required saving as KMZ from GE, and Merging the saved KMZ file into the model file.

I was able to export the model back to GE - other than the rotation bug noted below with project north being ignored.

Terrain import on Mac / 64 bit Windows: Using the free Sketchup 8, I was able to capture a desired rectangular area that was brought into the SU model. I saved that as a SKP file, then Merged that skp file into the AC project.

The merge of an SKP model file creates an embedded object. Strangely, the default parameters for that object are to NOT show the terrain, so you need to check the box to show terrain - and then set Terrain Type to 'Elevated' (default for some odd reason is flat).

Attached screenshot of AC 3D window after Sketchup capture, save, merge, and editing params to show terrain.

Hardly a step by step. Let me know if a step by step with screenshots - maybe on the Wiki - would be helpful.

Cheers,
Karl

PS Again: all of these things are automatic on 32 bit Windows systems, but for Macs and 64 bit Windows systems, the extra step of using the free version of SketchUp 8 (or whatever Pro version you might have) is required. The new thing in SU 8 is that you do not open the GE window and navigate there for the cooperative capture between SU and GE as in earlier versions of SU. Instead, the geolocate dialogin SU communicates directly with Googles servers.

[David Collins]

As Karl says, the A16 Google Earth add-on works with one or two clicks in 32 bit windows. Here's a nice cheap trick for tracing site contours using the GE terraine object:

Convert the GE terraine object into a morph. In the 2d window a morph shows a line in plan where it intersects with the floor plan cut plane.

So you can trace the contours in the morph terraine by setting the floor plan cut plane at your desired height intervals. Just make sure the "height to next story" value in story settings is larger than the overall height of the morph.

[David Maudlin]

David wrote:
Here's a nice cheap trick for tracing site contours using the GE terraine object:

Convert the GE terraine object into a morph. In the 2d window a morph shows a line in plan where it intersects with the floor plan cut plane.

So you can trace the contours in the morph terraine by setting the floor plan cut plane at your desired height intervals. Just make sure the "height to next story" value in story settings is larger than the overall height of the morph.

To get lines from the Morph that can be pasted into the 2D Plan for contour plans (rather than tracing over the Floor Plan Cut Plane, which does not have snap points), you can use a technique similar to this one that converts Mesh contours to Lines:
Extracting Contour Lines From a Mesh

David

[Karl Ottenstein]

David wrote:
Convert the GE terraine object into a morph...

...but keep a copy of the original object. There is a limitation in the morph conversion procedure such that the texture mapping of the Google Earth imagery is lost upon conversion. A real shame as smoothing the rough terrain from GE would be a nifty use of the Morph tool.

[David Collins]

David wrote:
To get lines from the Morph that can be pasted into the 2D Plan for contour plans (rather than tracing over the Floor Plan Cut Plane, which does not have snap points)....

Nice tutorial, David. Actually my target here was to produce a site mesh with contours using the 3d data from the GE import. In this instance, it was a benefit that you can't snap to the contours that are displayed with the floor plan cut plane. I just used them as a general guidleine for the judicious manual input of contours (ridges) on a new mesh. Less fuss and quicker to my old school mind.

Karl wrote:
... There is a limitation in the morph conversion procedure such that the texture mapping of the Google Earth imagery is lost.

The texture mapping need not be lost, even with a morph. Easy enough to save the same view in Google Earth as a jpg, load it into a custom library and create a new material texture with the same dimensions as the new mesh. This will map nicely over either a morph or a mesh object. Set the origin and direction with "Align 3d Texture" in the 3d window.

[David Maudlin]

David wrote:

David wrote:
To get lines from the Morph that can be pasted into the 2D Plan for contour plans (rather than tracing over the Floor Plan Cut Plane, which does not have snap points)....

Nice tutorial, David. Actually my target here was to produce a site mesh with contours using the 3d data from the GE import. In this instance, it was a benefit that you can't snap to the contours that are displayed with the floor plan cut plane. I just used them as a general guidleine for the judicious manual input of contours (ridges) on a new mesh. Less fuss and quicker to my old school mind.

David:

This tutorial is to extract 2D contour lines from the Mesh (or now Morph) as discussed in this thread:
Getting contour lines from a mesh

I agree that just adding points for the 3D aspect is the right way to go.

David

[Karl Ottenstein]

David wrote:
The texture mapping need not be lost, even with a morph. Easy enough to save the same view in Google Earth as a jpg, load it into a custom library and create a new material texture with the same dimensions as the new mesh. This will map nicely over either a morph or a mesh object. Set the origin and direction with "Align 3d Texture" in the 3d window.

Wish that were true, but it doesn't work depending on the mesh shape / steepness. Texture mis-alignment issue (and inability to align in 3d) is in the bug system. 😞

Also...P.S.... in the 'old' days, it WAS easy for Mac users to save the GE view equal to the created terrain. However, on Mac ... steps in my post below ... the only way to capture GE terrain is via SketchUp ... which does not interface with GE any longer, but grabs the info dynamically from the Google database, so there is no view to save like in the GE 'save as image' option... The SketchUp import by the Mac GE Connection add-on creates a new material with that texture though... but the material with that texture will not apply onto the Morph surface, at least on Mac.

😞

K

[Karl Ottenstein]

Karl wrote:

David wrote:
The texture mapping need not be lost, even with a morph. Easy enough to save the same view in Google Earth as a jpg, load it into a custom library and create a new material texture with the same dimensions as the new mesh. This will map nicely over either a morph or a mesh object. Set the origin and direction with "Align 3d Texture" in the 3d window.

Wish that were true, but it doesn't work depending on the mesh shape / steepness. Texture mis-alignment issue (and inability to align in 3d) is in the bug system. 😞

Update and apologies and thanks, David:

You're right that a material with the texture can indeed be applied to the rectangular GE captured terrain - even on a Mac. (The bug I mentioned applies only to irregularly-shaped (not rectilinear) meshes that are converted to Morphs- the alignment there is rotated, and there are no hotspots created to support re-alignment.)

On Mac I had not dug deep enough into what the GS Google Connectivity add-on generated when it created the material-with-texture to apply to the terrain object created upon importing the Sketchup SKP file (saved from free SketchUp after geo-locating/capturing the terrain).

The Morph created from the SKP terrain file initially shows just a blur for its top texture and the material parameter is even locked - not really sure what I did to eventually unlock (enable) it...

The reason for the blur, is the Material that the Google Connectivity add-on creates for the terrain object is set to map the texture image to 1 meter square, regardless of the physical dimensions of the captured terrain. (The object itself does the scaling.)

Duplicating the material and setting the texture size correctly, then aligning in 3D (mainly setting the origin to the lower left corner) gets the Morph to display the proper texture. Smoothing Morph edges gives a final superior result. Because of the smoothness, this is the best looking Google Earth terrain ever seen inside of AC itself!

To get the texture size correct, one has to look at the parameters for the width/height of the original imported terrain object (from that SKP file)... and double them and enter that amount in the size fields for the duplicated material (replacing the 1 meter values).

The imported object's texture appears dark - and adjusting the generated material's ambient and diffuse sliders make no difference in appearance. But, the duplicated, scaled texture applied to the Morph is a normal AC material and brightening the ambient and diffuse brightens it up nicely.

See attached screenshot showing the left/lower brighter Morph with smooth edges and the imported GE via SKP object terrain with sharp edges on the right.

So many extra steps for all of this on Mac (and presumably 64 bit Windows?), that I should write up a coherent tutorial at some point...

Thanks,
Karl