Google has just launched a new tool that would compliment its Google Earth and Maps products – the Building Maker. It’s basically an online tool that lets you create, well yeah 3D model renderings of building structures on Google Earth.The Google Latlong blog explains the Building Maker as a cross between Google Maps and a gigantic bin of building blocks. It lets you build a building and construct a model of it using aerial photos and simple 3D shapes that will be provided by Google. Once you’re done, the Google Earth guys will examine your 3D model and if they deemed it fit, they will add it to the 3D building layers in Google Earth.
Honestly, I don’t really see any use for this tool. But if you want a fun tool that you can play around with, you may want to check out Google Building Maker.
What’s fun about this is that Google will add your 3D buildings to real cities on Google Earth. There are currently 50 cities available for you to build your 3D buildings on and Google will add more cities in the future.
Some important facts about Building Maker here:
- Building Maker is an online tool, and it runs entirely in your web browser (Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, etc.)
- Before you can add a building to Google Earth, you need to sign in to your Google Account (so you get credit for what you contribute).
- Models you create with Building Maker “live” in the Google 3D Warehouse (a giant, online repository of 3D models).
- You can use Google SketchUp (our free, general-purpose 3D modeling tool) to edit or otherwise modify anything you make with Building Maker.
- Make sure you have the latest version of Google Earth installed on your computer.
- If you’re on a Mac, you need to download the Google Earth plug-in directly.
Google Building Maker is a free online tool and is available in 14 languages.
