An intriguing idea: Robin Capper, a New Zealand CAD professional who blogs, sees a future where Google Earth becomes a common ground, so to speak, for architects and others who use computers to model buildings:
A BIM project that extended to a site, or maybe suburban layout, can now be placed in context. Anyone with a broadband net connection can have the world on their desktop today. Your project is part of that world.
He references this article in an online trade publication, but go via Robin, he has an interesting take on it.
(Acronym alert: BIM = Building Information Modeling; AEC = Architecture, Engineering & Construction, and CAD = Computer Aided Design.)
As an avid follower of Google Earth — mostly waiting for the Mac edition so I can actually use it — I’ve been wondering, doesn’t the fact that US geodata measures by the US Survey Foot, and therefore the Statute Mile, rather than the International Mile, throw off the imagery somewhat when trying to match topographic data from the USGS with other sources? Is Google Earth really as precise as it could or should be for engineering purposes? In terms of a truly precise CAD application, how deep would the ramifications of this be? If Google has “shrunk” their datasets just ever-so-slightly on the US maps, to match the international datasets they were integrating them with, is it possible that co√∂rdinates in the US could be skewed from their imagery? If so, no accurate CAD integration would be possible; future developers ought to be warned of this, if it’s the case.
Josh Strike
Just as a last note, I’ve gotta say it’s a pretty cool and tempting idea to use Earth as a platform for building a metaverse. I’m just wondering about it from an real-world engineering standpoint.