Google Earth to Simmetry3d
This tutorial documents the interface between Google Earth and Simmetry 3d.
Concepts
In this tutorial you will learn to:
• Creating a terrain grid with aerial photo from Google Earth
• Creating a peripheral terrain mesh to fit around the terrain grid
Prerequisites
• Introduction to Simmetry 3d
Google Earth
Google Earth provides a mechanism for other software packages to
interrogate it in order to either receive terrain data from it or to pass viewing
parameters back to it. Simmetry exploits this mechanism to allow terrain
information to pass from Google Earth to Simmetry and to allow Simmetry to
adjust the view in Google Earth. This mechanism is, at the time of writing,
unsupported by Google Earth, which means that they could choose to remove
it in the future.
Simmetry allows designers to design and edit an area of terrain; this area can
first be imported from Google Earth by navigating in Google Earth to the area
of interest and then using the “Google Earth Capture” in Simmetry to import
this area. In addition, the peripheral terrain to the area of interest can also be
captured and imported. This gives an excellent backdrop to the area of
interest.
NOTE : Remember to turn on “Terrain” in Google Earth otherwise all you will
capture will be flat areas.
EXERCISE 1
Capturing a terrain grid from Google Earth
• File|New
• Terrain|Google Earth Capture (If you don’t see it there then it means
that you have not installed the Google Earth Capture plugin” – Close
Simmetry3d, install the plugin and re-start Simmetry.
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• This will start Google Earth (if its not running already).
• Navigate in Google Earth to the area you are interested in.
• Make sure that the view is North aligned with no tilt. (there is a button
in the dialog box to do this for you – “Set to overhead north>>”
• Press the “<<Set from google earth” button – this will interrogate
Google Earth for the width and height of the area it is currently
showing. (You don’t have to do this – but it is helpful to see the sort of
values it provides).
• First click on the “Terrain Grid Capture” tab – this has the settings
required to generate a terrain grid.
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• The way Google Earth provides the aerial photography to other
software packages is black and white only. If this is ok for you then
press the “<<Load from google earth” button in the Terrain Texture
section of the dialog. If you want colour then switch to the Google Earth
program and choose “File|Save|Save Image”. Once you have done that
switch back to Simmetry and press the “Load” button and pick the
image file that you have just saved from Google Earth.
• Now you need to choose what the resolution of the terrain grid should
be – this is the “Sample Density” :
• Although the terrain data in Google Earth is not particularly high
resolution, if you intend to edit it in Simmetry then we recommend a
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terrain grid of at least 128*128. Notice how the aspect of the terrain
grid is maintained – it is matching the aspect of the Google Earth
window, If you want a square grid the re-size the Google Earth window
so that the 3d view is square.
• When you are happy – press the “Create Terrain Grid” button.
EXERCISE 2
Capturing a peripheral terrain mesh from Google Earth. Carrying on from
before; you have a terrain grid imported from Google Earth. Now we want to
grab the area of terrain surrounding the terrain grid – we’re not going to edit
this part we just want it to help with the visualisation.
• Either zoom out in Google Earth to the larger area you are interested in
(don’t move the centre of view though) or adjust the “Extra Area” entry
to the value you require (this will be added to the width and the height
of the area Google Earth is currently showing), and press the “Set to
google earth” button which is next to the “extra area” field.
• Now click on the “Mesh” tab – this contains the settings required to
make a triangulated mesh.
• Follow the same procedure as before to get the aerial photograph
• Similarly adjust the Sample Density values – these don’t necessarily
need to be as high as for the terrain grid; (but the “Optimise” option will
help reduce the un-needed ones).
• Check the “Optimise” box if you want the mesh to be optimised (less
triangles where the terrain is flat).
• Check the “Projected Vertices” if you want the Google Earth projection
to be applied to the vertices.
• Press the “Create Mesh” button. If you have checked the “Optimise”
box then the following dialog will appear:
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• Adjust the “Number of vertices” to the required number, then press ok.
• A mesh will be created around the terrain grid. You will notice that the
centre of the mesh overlays the terrain grid. You can remove this part
of the mesh by selecting the insert of the mesh and choosing
“Objects|Cut Terrain Hole”. If you edit the terrain grid and change the
heights at the edges then this tool can be re-applied to make sure the
edges still join up.
