Download Google Earth "Gray Buildings" models

Question

I need to work with the 3d model of some places. Google Earth has the 3d building layer with "Gray Buildings" in it. This would be exactly what I would require. Is there any way to get the 3d models that are used? Is there a Google Earth API (other than the Javascript stuff)? (I'm working in .net) that would help?

Or is there at least a manual solution how I can get these models, say, into Sketchup?

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

There is currently no way to download models from within Google Earth. Also, even is there was - extracting data is against the TOS. Many of the models come from government or private sources so there are issues with licencing the data as a whole. It is worth noting however that a lot of the models in Google Earth are located on the Sketch up 3dwarehouse so maybe you could get that data you want from there?

Also, to work with the javascript api from managed code you might want to check this control library I have put together. Whilst the controls themselves may not be applicable, the ideas behind them should get you under way. http://code.google.com/p/winforms-geplugin-control-library/ essentially there are a series of wrappers and helpers that let you seamlessly integrate the plugin into a winforms application.

You can also read more about Cities in 3d (the name of the project that developed the low-res building layer) here: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwh/citiesin3d/

Answer 2

While there still isn't support for getting building geometry from Google's APIs, OpenStreetMaps does expose some data you can use. Check out this guide here:

http://wiki.flightgear.org/OpenStreetMap_buildings

Making a request like

http://overpass-api.de/api/xapi?way[bbox=-74.02037,40.69704,-73.96922,40.73971][building=*][@meta]

Will return an XML with building's base outlines and (in some cases) heights. You can use this info to extrude some very simple buildings: https://i.stack.imgur.com/266tj.png

To fill in the missing height values (and they're missing on most buildings), I try to use the area of the building's footprint to determine how tall it might be compared to nearby buildings. Unfortunately, until Google is able to make their models public, this will have to do.