Displaying Your progeCAD Model in Google Earth

One of the really cool new features of progeCAD 2009 Professional is posting your model to Google Earth so you can see what it will look like in it’s natural surroundings…

Below is a short walk through showing you how you can use the Google Earth import and export to get your model into Google Earth precisely at it’s future location on the real Earth!

To publish your 3D model into Google Earth, you should know its position on the earth’s surface. The easiest method to find it is firstly to import a Google Earth area view into progeCAD.

You can import the current Google Earth view into progeCAD and use this raster image as a background for a drawing or, that is more important, to give a geographical reference of your DWG model position on the earth’s surface.
Carrying out this command you have to bring an image into progeCAD, and adjust the image position according to your model until you see it is in the proper position on the earth’s surface.
To proceed with this command:
1. Start Google Earth, and zoom to the location on the earth’s surface where you want to put your model in.
2. Be sure you are looking perpendicular to the earth’s surface (that is, the view doesn’t have any rotation.)
3. Zoom in to capture enough detail of the location area.
4. Keep Google Earth maximized. Do not minimize or close Google Earth application.
5. Here’s what your display might look like

Importing image in progeCAD
1.Start progeCAD and open your file 3D in the plan view.

2.Select the button on the Google Earth toolbar or type IMPORTGEIMAGE in the progeCAD Command Line

3.Set drawing units for picture scaling

Use the Draw Order command to send an image below. Do one of the following:
Choose Tools > Draw Order.
On the Tools toolbar, click the Draw Order tool
Type draworder and then press Enter.
Select the entity you want to reorder, and then press Enter.
In the prompt box, specify the new drawing order, and then press Enter.
If you are reordering above or under, select the entity you want the first entity to be above or below, and then press Enter.

The image displayed in the drawing is a JPG file and it is stored in the same directory as the DWG file.

To publish 3D DWG data to Google Earth, use the button on the progeCAD Google Earth toolbar, or type PUBLISHKML in the command line.

in the dialog box of the command, use the “Get georeference data from picture” button and select Google Earth’s image previously inserted to pick your Earth position.

If the position and rotation of a model relative to the image are correct, there’s no need to modify the orientation of the Y axis to North.

The output file name is given automatically from the DWG file name and directory.

Colors of published entities in Google Earth match progeCAD’s object colors.

The Kmz file generated by export has the same name and it is stored in the same folder as the DWG file. Use the import function of Google Earth to bring your project to life!

If you want to try this command in progeCAD you can download the Full Free 30-day Trial of progeCAD 2009 Professional at iCADsales.com. Once you have progeCAD installed on your computer you can use any existing AutoCAD model and do the steps above to visualize your model in the real world.