If the back side of a face points outward, the face appears black in Google Earth, no matter what material is applied to the back side of the face. Remember that SketchUp faces have a front and back. Make sure fronts of faces are facing outward Without textures projected onto the model (as explained in a moment), you can see how minimal the underlying geometry can be, even when you’re modeling a complex structure.Īs you create a model with minimal geometry, remember that you can reduce the number of sides in a circle or an arc. Tip: The key to optimizing a SketchUp model for Google Earth is to keep the model complexity as light as possible.įor example, the following figure shows a model of the Eiffel tower optimized for display in Google Earth. If you don’t geolocate your model, your model appears in Google Earth at a default location. When you geolocate your model, you ensure your model appears in the correct location in Google Earth. Select Window > Model Info, select the Geo-location option in the sidebar on the left, click Set Manual Location, and enter a latitude and longitude in the dialog box that appears. You can add a location manually in any version of SketchUp.

See Modeling Terrain and Other Rounded Shapes for details about importing and sculpting terrain as well as tips for modeling terrain that you want to display in Google Earth. Wherever you place your model on imported terrain in SketchUp determines the location of your model when you preview it in Google Earth. When you geolocate your model with the Add Location tool, you can import terrain that enables you to create your model based on the site where you plan to build it (or just display it in Google Earth). To geolocate your model in SketchUp Pro 2017, import terrain using the Add Location tool.

Google earthview