Orloj Ahoj!

Play video for 3D tour of Old Town Square, Prague (not a SketchUp model)

I just uploaded my 3D model version of the Orloj-- the 600-year-old Astronomical Clock and Old Town Hall in Prague. Then I found this video (above) of a detailed 3D model someone else made which is way cooler. I'm still happy with my own model though.

Mine is a hybrid Building Maker - SketchUp model, utilizing some photos I took myself while visiting Old Town Square in Prague. Check it out, and also look at this link showing a faster animated version of the clock dial (makes it easier to understand).

Representin’ Tulsa

Chris Sardinas (photo by Zoungy)

Meet Chris Sardinas. Chris is one of the "super modelers" who recently attended the Google Mapper-Modeler Summit in Zurich, and a finalist in the Google Model Your Town competition.

In this article Chris describes what motivates him to be a prolific 3D modeler for Google Earth, using the town of Tulsa, Oklahoma as an example.

Why does he do it? Read on!

SketchUp Island + GTA = Interesting

Auquicu, aka Jorge, aka winner of the Google Model Your Town competition, sent me this cool video made with Google Earth in the style of GTA (Grand Theft Auto).

Whether you are a fan of GTA or not, you'll probably enjoy it. Also thanks to Auquicu for creating the cool GTA fan header for the blog to go with this post. (GTA name and artwork is property of Rockstar Games and is not officially associated in any way with this blog).

Grand Theft Auto collage by Auquicu for SketchUp Island blog

St. Mark's Basilica in Venice

A remarkable model of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, newly added to Google Earth by Antonino G. Video tour HERE. I have added it to these 3D model collections: Favorite Thumbnails, Place of Worship, My Favorite Models

Get On the Bus!

Recently in London I was fortunate enough to ride one of those red double-decker buses similar to the old fashioned Routemaster-- but not an actual Routemaster!

Luckily, I found a collection of vintage buses on Trimble 3D Warehouse-- including Routemaster, bus of my dreams, with detailed interior!

A new Routemaster design was unveiled this week on BBC News. Have a look at the before and after photos. The former design was retired in 2005.

We Have a Winner!

Congratulations to Auquicu, aka Jorge de Albertis Bettocchi of Barranco, Lima, Peru-- winner of the Google Model Your Town Competition!

The Barranco school district will receive a $10,000 donation from Google as a result of Jorge's winning town model, chosen by a public vote.

See the collection of his town models HERE. Read the Google blog announcement HERE. Congratulations to the four runners up whose really cool town models serve to inspire as well.

Photo of Jorge is from the Google SketchUp website.

Footloose Part 2

Recently I wrote about a new, automatic feature in Google Earth that helps keep your building models aligned to the ever-shifting and updating satellite imagery beneath it.

Sometimes you may get a message on your model preview page in the 3D Warehouse which reads, "Google Earth imagery has been updated. Please check your building position and update as required."

London Bridge Is In... Arizona?

You learn something new every day. Today I discovered that the famous London Bridge ("London Bridge is falling down") is in Arizona. That's right. At least, one of them is. Allow me to explain.

Footloose

The engineers at Google have come up with a great new idea-- automatic re-adjustment of your building model's footprint to match the updated Google Earth imagery! See the joyous announcement HERE.


Now there will (hopefully) be no more fooling around with this pesky problem of slipping imagery and crooked footprints!