Michelle Kaufmann Designs

How to place your home on Google Earth

In Google Earth

• Find your site on Google Earth by entering your address info in the Fly To box.

Next go to SketchUp

• 1. Open the file with your MKD model.
• 2. Select the globe with the yellow arrow on top of it: Get Current View. This will bring your selected site location from Google Earth into your model.
• 3. One tab to the right is Toggle Terrain. Select this to bring in the topography of the site. Your building may now be submerged and/or floating.
• 4. From here you can select the entire model with the small arrow tab.
• 5. Once model is selected you can move the model up or down to get a rough idea of what the building will look like on the site. Note: this is still an extremely rough approximation of how the building may look on the site.
• 6. One tab further to the right is Place Model. This tab looks like a globe with an orange arrow on top of it. Select this tab.

This will bring your model back to Google Earth. It will take a while to load. When the bottom of the screen states that the 'streaming' is at 100% you will know you are done. In the upper right hand of the Google Earth screen you can manipulate your view of the model allowing you to zoom in or view it from different angles.

Tips: If you don't import terrain from Google Earth into SketchUp before placing yoru model in Google Earth, your model will end up at the default location (for the American English version of SketchUp, that's Boulder, Colorado.) Don't forget to turn on 3D terrain, and then move your model up onto the surface. You must do this before you place your model in Google Earth; otherwise, if the terrain at the location you are placing your model is sloped your model can end up beneath the surface.