Thursday

Google Earth Technology Preview for AutoCAD available on Autodesk Labs

Post a Comment Aug-30-2007 | Posted by Scott Sheppard | Printable Version | Level |

I am happy to be a guest author on Daily AutoCAD. In my previous posts, I noted how Autodesk Labs has a CommandComplete bonus tool and a 3D/2D Project Freewheel ShareNow utility available for AutoCAD. Autodesk Labs has one more offering specific to AutoCAD:

Google Earth Extension for AutoCAD

As the name suggests, the AutoCAD extension allows you to integrate your drawings with Google Earth. Though this technology preview has been around for some time, it was updated on May 29 to support AutoCAD 2008. The download now contains installers for AutoCAD 2007 and AutoCAD 2008 in one zip file. You download, unzip, and execute the installer that matches your version of AutoCAD.

As Shaan Hurley noted on his Between the Lines blog: After being installed, an IMPORTGEIMAGE command brings the current Google Earth view into AutoCAD as a raster image. You use this command to georeference your DWG model data to correctly position it on the earth’s surface. An IMPORTGEMESH command brings elevation data in the current Google Earth view into AutoCAD as a mesh. The GETIME command attaches time span information to AutoCAD entities which are honored by the time tool available in Google Earth. And last but not least, PUBLISHKML exports your 3D DWG model space entities to an external file for use within Google Earth.

So celebrate this day of independence by viewing your models in the context of the earth.