HOW TO ADD A JPG MAP to a solid slab or surface Archicad

[Anonymous]

Guys.
I would really like to know how i can take a picture from google earth.
plant it ontop of a solid slab or toposurface, so that it is visable in 3d.
Also how can i set the map, so the slab and the map are to correct scale ?


Thanks.
Ian

[Karl Ottenstein]

Here is an "ancient", pre-Google Earth, tip that I wrote up in 2003. It should answer your question...

http://www.archispectives.com/tips/121-textures.htm

The key is to have known, scalable points in your image. So, take your Google Earth image into a photo editor and remove any distortion and crop it to known points. Create geometry in AC that is the size of those known points and orient the image to fit.

HTH,
Karl

[Dwight]

Pressing "U" in Googlurth views an undistorted 'top down' view.
Pressing "R" in Googlurth makes that view place North at the top.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Dwight wrote:
Pressing "U" in Googlurth views an undistorted 'top down' view.
Pressing "R" in Googlurth makes that view place North at the top.

Thanks, Dwight! Had been wanting shortcuts for both of those forever...

But, "undistorted" is not quite right - perhaps "least distorted": the planes or satellites that took the images are not (cannot be) exactly overhead for every point in every image. Google adjusts these images to map to the surface and stitch together, but still some Photoshop can be necessary... For example, a perfectly rectilinear portion of a flat multi block downtown may not measure 90 degree corners and equal opposite sides even if the survey shows that to be the case ...and so will not map precisely onto a rectangular slab without image futzing; sometimes GE's image "stitching" is not perfect either (particularly in mountainous areas), and you can see a street jog mysteriously... again, Photoshop and distorting the image onto an overlay of known survey data to the rescue... For small sites, without an image stitch going through it, the image is probably close enough. 😉

Cheers,
Karl