How to get vertical dimensions from maps and street view available on Google?

[Robert Burzynski]

Hi

I would like to build build models for Goodgle Earth of several simple buildings which are in my town.

I believer that pictures for building's roof and facades I can get from google satelite view and street view. But the problem is with dimensions. Where can I get them without measuring buildings with a laser meter?

Could you please advise how I can get vertical dimensions from maps, street view pictures or Bird Eye View.

Is it "acceptable" to use pictures from Bing Maps Bird View to build 3D model and submit it to Google Earth?

Cheers,

Robert

[Julio Signorelli]

 Robert i use  some times Birdeye view pictures, if your photo is not deform, you make a square on the footing of the building, then starting at the left lower corner strecc the picture until  you fill the square that is the high about, i don't know if i explain this correctly

[Randy]

Robert,

 

Use any photographs you have. They can be from Google, or you can go out and shoot them yourself if you have a camera. When you're ready to begin (Building Maker or Sketchup), start with the flat terrain, not a 3D terrain view.

1. Position your view directly above (bird's-eye view) the structure.
2. Looking straight down upon the roof. Align/set the axis to coincide with the building's perimeter. Then, trace the outer edges of the building's foundation/footprint. When you close the geometry, a face will be created.
3. Use the push/pull tool on the face and pull up the building to add height. (just guess for now on how hight.)
4. Use photos that are "squared" (i.e not skewed) and apply the exterior photo textures to the building's walls as follows:
   
   Begin on a corner nerest the axis.  Apply the photo texture by clicking once at the corner, then move he mouse towards the opposite/diagnial corner. Stop when the photo texture image meets either the height or width of the face. Whichever it meets first. If your photos are accurate and their dimensions are intact, then the image itself will dictate how high the roof and walls should be. Just adjust the heights as needed after you apply the wall textures.

With the photo textures applied to the exterior walls, simply trace all the windows and doors if you want to add additional details. Keep in mind the most of your work will be spent on cleaning and optimizing the images in preparation for use.

 

Hope this helps,

Randy

[Phil Croft]

Good advice, very well explained !!

On Jan 17, 3:00 am, Randy <randypprev...@aol.com> wrote:
> Robert,
>
> Use any photographs you have. They can be from Google, or you can go out
> and shoot them yourself if you have a camera. When you're ready to begin
> (Building Maker or Sketchup), start with the flat terrain, not a 3D terrain
> view.
>

>    1. Position your view directly above (bird's-eye view) the structure.
>    2. Looking straight down upon the roof. Align/set the axis to coincide

>    with the building's perimeter. Then, trace the outer edges of the
>    building's foundation/footprint. When you close the geometry, a face will
>    be created.

>    3. Use the push/pull tool on the face and pull up the building to add

>    height. (just guess for now on how hight.)

>    4. Use photos that are "squared" (i.e not skewed) and apply the

[Robert Burzynski]

Hi Randy,

Thank you very much for your help.

I followed it and it works fine.

The only issue I still have is having "square" photos of building elevations.

I used street view pictures as my best  "square" photos. Unfortunately, neither Building Maker not Bird View (45Deg) is not available from Google in my area.

Once again thank you for your help.

Kind regards,

Robert Burzynski

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[Robert Burzynski]

Hi Julio.

Yes, your explanation was also useful for me.

Kind regards,

Robert Burzynski

On 16 January 2012 21:37, Julio Signorelli <juliosi...@xplornet.ca> wrote:

 Robert i use  some times Birdeye view pictures, if your photo is not deform, you make a square on the footing of the building, then starting at the left lower corner strecc the picture until  you fill the square that is the high about, i don't know if i explain this correctly

--

[Randy]

Hi Robert,

 

You still have a few options ...

 

If "squared" photos aren't available, go outside and take a photograph of the building yourself. Do you have a digital camera? A camera phone? Friends? A K-mart? Go buy a camera--you'll need one eventually.

 

Are you a bad photographer? That's ok. It's very rare that photos are "ready to use" when you get them so some amount of image cleanup is needed. So, while you're cleaning up your images, straighten/square them too. Photoshop works great.

 

Don't have an image editing application? Get one. You'll need it eventually. I'd be happy to square them up for you if you can get the image to me. Or, give me the address of the building.

 

Randy

[mjdog]

Here's an alternative method for Robert's step #3:


What I often do is take one picture that has the building's full width and height (or at least a height that's convenient to use).  (As Robert points out, a square photo is best.  If that's not possible, I try to square it using Adobe Lightroom's lens correction tools).    Then I bring that picture into Photoshop (or you can use a free or less expensive program) and get the ratio of dimensions between height and width (I created a simple spreadsheet to do this).  Since the building footprint will have the width, the ratio of dimensions will give me the height of the building.   So, when I'm pulling up the building, I have a good idea how far to pull it up.  

When I bring in my photo-textures, they should align closely with this initial "box", although there's usually some tweaking necessary.

[Jose Manuel]

Hi guys,

I usually use another method to check the actual hight:

- In Google Earth you can check the date of the snap shot.
- Once in Sketchup use the date for the shadows to fit the building
height.
I have tested it in my area, previously knowing the actual height of
the building in the erection drawings, and it matches quite well.

This could be, another alternative to compare.

Have fun.

[isidro del pino]

es muy sencillo,la toma de una foto,por ejemplo de su fachada,es igual resultanta que la vista en la ubicacion del modelo.1 foto parcela,2foto a vista terrestre.3 cambia el tamaño de la foto en sketchup con la tecla s y desplaza el raton hasta conseguir el tamaño de la vista de satelite y asi cara tras cara del modelo,y si no usa street view, y aprobechando la ocacion un fuerte saludo a julio signorelli y pedir a google si podemos crear un buscador de soluciones para google earth y sketchup y que todos aportemos en nuestras dudas un sitio donde con solo exponer una duda nos encontremos con respuestas a cada situacion,google tiene la llave para esta propuesta,un saludo

[Beryl Reid]

Hi Robert,

Sometimes, I have to use the "bird's eye view" from Bing Maps to get the information I need about complicated roofs and structures. Have you tried that? It seems to cover most areas. Go to Bing Maps, find the area and use the pulldown menu at top to choose the bird's eye version.

[Randy]

There is a formula for calculating building height if you have some of the measurements... see examples below

 

The formula: 

(tan(angle) x distance) + eye height = building height

 

Pseudo Example:

      Angle = 37 degrees
   Distance = 25 meters
 Eye height = 1.75 meters

 

 height = (tan(37) x 25) + 1.75
 height = (0.75355 x 25) + 1.75
 height = 18.83885 + 1.75;
 height = 20.58 meters

 

Coded Example:

 var ta = 37, d = 25, eh = 1.75;
 var a = tan(ta) * d;
 a += eh;

[peterg/gipuzkoa3d]

Hola

La opcion que Beryl comenta yo también la utilizo siempre, y cuando
digo siempre es siempre en todos los modelos. ¡¡

Supereficaz ¡¡ te permite comparar respecto a los edificios
cercanos.. el resto es habilidad.. y tener un poco de vista..

Best ¡¡

peterg

On 19 ene, 03:52, Randy <randypprev...@aol.com> wrote:
> Hay una fórmula para el cálculo de la altura del edificio si usted tiene algunas de lasmedidas ...ver ejemplos más abajo
>
> * La fórmula: *  (TAN (ángulo) x distancia) + altura de los ojos = altura del edificio
>
> * Ejemplo Pseudo: *      = ángulo de 37 grados   Distancia = 25 metros de altura de los ojos = 1,75 metros
>
>  height = (tan (37) x 25) + 1.75 = altura (0.75355 x 25) + 1.75 = altura 18.83885 + 1,75; height = 20,58 metros
>
> * Ejemplo codificado: * var ta = 37, d = 25, ¿eh = 1,75; var a = tan (ta) * d, a + = eh;

[SnowTiger]

I usually follow the same system as explained by Jose Manuel.
I find that most satellite images "appear" to be taken around the same time of day (ie. between 11am and 1pm local time) as this is likely the best lighting time for the images with the shortest shadows.

Since there is no Time Stamp with the Date Stamp, one must experiment a bit.
But the method Jose and I use, does work quite well (i.e. using push/pull to extrude the building to the correct height, matching the shadow shown in the satellite image).

On the other hand, I do take several other things into consideration.
Things such as the type of construction (commercial or residential or industrial) as this will often help determine how tall each Storey is (allowing me to make calculations to determine if my push/pull/shadow method has resulted in an accurate height.
For example, "most" homes have 8 foot storeys where as many commercial or industrial storeys can be from 10 feet to 16 feet (sometimes as much as 24 feet from floor to ceiling).
Also you can consider things such as what might the roof and floor construction assemblies look like. For example, 2x10 floors for houses or 16 or 24 inch deep open-web steel floor/roof trusses. These things can help determine the overall floor-to-floor dimension estimate which can then be multiplied by the number of storeys the building has.

If worse comes to worst, you can always take your own photos and/or phone someone in the building to inquire about dimensions mentioned above (I have done that a couple times ... although, I was thought of a bit strangely I think !!).

I would like to add, that Cropped Images tend to lose their Scale which can lead to incorrectly scaled models.
I'm not sure where I read that statement, but I believe it was at Adobe PhotoShop's website.

[SnowTiger]

Randy ... Brilliant.

I didn't read far enough to notice your post until after I already posted.
I was going to say that having done actual Shadow Studies (including 1 study for a court case), I should have considered working the same calculations backwards to determine the building height and/or otherwise use Trigonometry to determine building height.

I personally despise using Trig (because math isn't one of my strong points .. that is IF I actually have any strong points !!), but it has it's place in the real world.
This is one of those occasions where it can be very handy.

[J.Stevenson]

Robert,

Another method that I've used lately (when I don't have access to good
squared pictures) is to base my vertical stretch on the known height
dimension of a standard sized door.

In North America a normal, standard door (the part that moves inside
the frame) is 6'-8", or 2.032m high. So, do an initial stretch of the
building in the vertical dimension. Use Sketchup->Streetview to apply
a well-select texture to the front facade of the 3D building
(hopefully the texture has at least one normal sized door - be careful
with sunken doorways!). Draw a rectangle directly on the front face
outlining this door. Add dimensions for width and height. As a
check, standard width should be something like 2'-8" or 0.84m, but
this could be as high as 3' (0.3048m) on a commercial property with
over-sized door widths.

Now select the entire building as a group. Use the Tools->Scale
feature to stretch or shrink the entire building (including the
rectangle-door and dimension) in the Z-direction until the door is
precisely the right height (2.032m). This should set this wall
(front) height correctly. The rest of the walls and other features
like roof line details can then be textured/added.

I've used this method and have had very good consistent results -
including getting a string of row-buildings (Storefronts) to match
very nicely. Of course, if you can get an actual archetectural
elevation height measurement (or know it) this is always the best
way.

-Jon