topographics maps in sketchup??

[sergio_cohen]

Hello members of the list! Taff ins special, This is Sergio again,
from Argentina... Im now in brazil, Florianopolis, in a Ecoville on
the hills. People here are trying to make a topographic map to help
with buildings, services and everything. There are some plain maps
made in dwg formats. I was wondering wich could be te best way to
introduce the info into a skechup model. Any knowledge will be
appreciated. By the way, I will be making a geodesic dome as kitchen
and small restaurant for some spiritual events, and people passing by.
Thanks is advance, Sergio

[TaffGoch]

Sergio,

 

SketchUp has local terrain capabilities built-in, using Google Earth topo data and imagery. The subject of terrain building and "painting" can take one-or-more chapters of a book! (even though it's barely mentioned in "SketchUp for Dummies.") In SketchUp, it requires combining several tools, layers and features, so it can't be taught with just one URL link/reference.

 

I would expect that there are good online SketchUp video resources, available from here...

http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=43242 

...which includes YouTube and downloadable videos.

 

If you need more topographic detail than that provided by Google Earth, SketchUp can import USGS DEM data.

 

Any terrain surface can be "painted" with aerial photography, from USGS, Google Maps, or Microsoft (bing) maps:

http://maps.google.com/maps

http://www.bing.com/maps/

 

A topographic map (graphic image, not data) can also be "painted" onto a terrain surface.

 

All of the above can take a lot of study and trial-and-error to learn. You should start with "projected" texture tutorials...

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&tbo=p&tbs=vid%3A1&q=sketchup+projected+texture

...combined with tutorials on terrain building:

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&tbo=p&tbs=vid%3A1&q=sketchup+terrain

________________________

 

I tried my hand at it a couple of years ago:

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/cldetails?mid=2ff3fe050d0f83a549a70958796b8e8&num=50&scoring=d

 

"Indexing" a graphic image to the underlying terrain is where newcomers run into the most trouble. I have one model that demonstrates it...

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=7b8a0bd3d848e985e523d8740930d7f9

...but, I have to warn you, I don't do much "hand-holding" in the tutorial. I assume that the user already has a pretty good grasp of how to use SketchUp's tools.

 

-Taff