Today the 3D Warehouse released a new feature: Building Maker (see
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/introducing-google-building-ma...)
You can try this out by pointing your browser to http://www.google.com/buildingmaker.

Building Maker is a tool designed to make it easy for anyone with a
browser and a bit of time to make photo-textured 3D models for Google
Earth.  In many ways, using Building Maker is like manipulating a very
large, very smart, collection of building blocks.  If you can assemble
blocks to match the shape of a building as seen from several images
(which we provide), you can use Building Maker.

Here's how it works.  First, make sure you have the very latest
version of Google Earth (http://earth.google.com)  (Mac users - you'll
need to get the Google Earth Plugin separately from http://code.google.com/apis/earth).
Then open a browser and point to http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/buildingmaker.
Pick from one of the fifty cities and towns where the tool is
currently available (Don't see your town?  Don't worry!  We're adding
more cities regularly.)   Zoom in, find a building, start modeling.
We'll give you several images of the building taken from different
angles.  Pick from a variety of blocks (these are smart blocks, not
like the wooden ones you grew up with) and match the blocks to the
images.   That's it.  Preview your model to see how it looks with the
photos drawn on the sides of the building and if you like it, save it
online.  Your model will go into the Google 3D Warehouse where it will
be reviewed.  If you took the time to make an accurate model, it'll
appear shortly in Google Earth with credit given to you
We urge you to give it a try and let us know what you think.

I've put up a brief page introducing Building Maker:

http://groups.google.com/group/map-your-world/web/building-maker

Cheers,
mark

I tried this today. I don't live anywhere near the areas covered, but
I tried a modelling a goods depot in Birmingham, UK.  Seems to work
pretty well, but the available shapes are a little limited... I needed
to model a curved canopy over the entrance to the building.
Manipulating the blocks is a bit tricky at times, depending on the
viewing angle.  I'd like to be able to drag a block, too.  In the end,
I had a fairly good model, but when I viewed it in 3d mode, I saw that
most of the surrounding buildings had already been auto-generated
anyhow.  To be honest, the result of the Building Maker tool was
almost indistinguishable from the auto-generated ones.  In the end, I
deleted the upload... it simply wasn't good enough.

There is another problem when a someone models a building that they
don't have details of, such as the actual function of the building,
its address, history, and so on.  One of the good things about the GE
3D models is the information provided by the model builders.  In the
case of the goods depot that I modelled, I was able to see the street
on which it is located, but I could not give the building its correct
name.  This is likely to result in a lot of buildings having non-
specific names such as "Building in Birmingham, UK".  The quality of
the 3D Warehouse GE models could suffer.  This problem could be made
worse by the option in Building Maker to have a building chosen at
random, from (I assume) anywhere in the world.

I can see this tool being useful for filling out some of the larger
cities around the world, ideally by people who have personal knowledge
of the areas, but if auto-generated models are already present, I
question the value of the human effort using Building Maker.  It would
be good if some indication were provided at the time a building is
selected, whether the building has already been auto-generated or
modelled by another person.

I don't want to sound too negative, but I think Building Maker could
make many in the GE 3D modelling community lose interest.

Thomas.

On Oct 13, 6:57 pm, Google Guide Mark <mlimber+...@google.com> wrote:

There are a couple of answers to your concerns:

You can refine the model in SketchUp. Unfortunately this doesn't work  
yet, My Models shows the number of models, but they are blank. Once  
that's fixed you could then do the fancy bits in SU and update the file.

As for details of the building, each model shows a list of  
contributors. Hopefully someone with local knowledge can step in and  
enter a better description, and would become another contributor to  
the model.

Hey Google ! Remember us up here in the great white north ? Ya that us
there on the map ... your long-time neighbor in that great big country
just to your north.

As per usual .... Canada is practically left out of the whole process.
Why is it that Canada seems to always be the last to get decent
satellite imagery etc ?

BTW - Doesn't this kind of project compete with users of SketchUp ?

On Oct 14, 2009, at 8:12 AM, Colin Holgate wrote:

I've discovered that the thumbnails are only blank in the Pro version.  
In the free version of SketchUp the Building Maker models show up ok.

On Oct 13, 10:57 pm, Google Guide Mark <mlimber+...@google.com> wrote:

It does *not* always work this way - I do have the latest version of
GE installed on my system (GE's "check for updates online" says there
are no updates available) , and I am not on a Mac. However,
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/buildingmaker says "Building
Maker is not available for Linux/mobile devices." . I'm on Linux. If
you don't support Linux, at least say so explicitly and don't pretend
that Linux users don't exist.

If you spend enough time in Google Earth, you'll see that we have lots
of quality imagery here in Canada. The world is a big place, Snow
Tiger, don't forget that! :)

Why do people see Building Maker as being in competition with Sketchup
and the kind of 3D modeling that this done with that toolset? Building
Maker serves a specific purpose, and will likely get a lot of people
into the higher quality 3D modeling in the near future. I don't
understand the snobbery about how SU models are so much better than
Building Maker, and how Building Maker is going to demoralize SU
modelers. They are apples and oranges, folks. I have never made a 3D
model for Google Earth in Sketchup, but I've done a number of models
using Building Maker. I take care to do the best job I can, and I'm
proud of the work I do, and for my contribution to the community at
large. I know that I will for sure "graduate" to full modeling using
Sketchup, but I have a steep learning curve ahead. Building Maker
allows me to contribute while I am still trying to grasp the many
concepts and methods required to build the high quality models SU
users produce.

I appreciate all of the hard work that goes in to a high-quality
model, and I look up to those modelers as mentors. Please don't
diminish our contributions as Building Maker modelers, rather look at
us as junior modelers who are helping to fill in a lot of gaps for all
of the boring, plain old square buildings that most high-quality
modelers probably wouldn't even work on.

Kudos to everyone for contributing in whatever way they are able.