Just got an E-mail from Steven at Computamaps who has posted a fabulous 3D model collection representing most of downtown Vancouver in 3D 
. You will need to use Google Earth 4 Beta to see these models as they are not only colorful, but some of the buildings are textured with more details. According to Steven, the model collection has over 5000 objects, but the size of the download is only 1.2 Mbytes. They have fully modeled the Science World building, One Wall Center, Morris Wosk (site of GeoWeb 2006 where they are officially announcing this new model collection), and many more. Steven says this model collection “shows off the power of combining SketchUp and GE to render the urban environment.”
Computamaps also modeled the recently released downtown Cape Town in 3D. Great work guys! Anybody can begin creating 3D models using the free Google Sketchup and upload them into Google Earth or the 3DWarehouse. Keep it up, the rest of the major cities of the world will gradually be made availabe in 3D as well.
About Frank Taylor
Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.
This looks great. The different colours remind me of the SimCity a few years ago (green for residential etc). Perhaps someone will write a similar game using a real world city?
WOW! What can I say. I’m moving there later this year and have had this image as my desktop inspiration for the past year … http://www.12voltbar.com/images/canada/yvr_from_east.jpg
THANKS FOR THE WONDERFUL WORK!
One of the best cities in the world to live, if not the best.
Certainly a beautiful city, you have the mountains so close and the sea even closer. Not many places have that.
It is not very often that I am able to see the city from a bird’s perspective, so I appreciate this new project very much. I can say that it is even more beautiful from above.
Is there any way that we could get a copy of this file in dwg, dxf, or skp format?
It would be much appreciated.
cheers!
i am an architecture student at UBC and i would really appreciate a copy of this file in dwg, dxf, or skp format as well. the model would be used for educational purposes only- the vancouver sketchup model i have is from years ago and is completely outdated.
thanks!
I love this, i plan on moving there for a year to go to VFS, so ive been studying up on the city, just lovely!
Getting these models into real estate searches would be great for buyers to picture the situation of a property.
The thing that’s really amazing about this map is that a bunch of people drew all those buildings for Google for FREE. Calgary, where I live, has 3D building views in Google as well, and one of my um…clients explained that there’s basically a bunch of people that draw 3D buildings for Google as a hobby. The models are incredibly detailed… like you can zoom in and look at the individual window panes in the new version of Google Earth. Crazy!
This is nothing compared to google street view’s images, which are already available in my realestate search engine.
I love vancouver… I’ve been here for 4 years now and its definitely one of the most beautiful cities i’ve ever been to. The women are also gorgeous!
I have never been to Vancouver but once I saw it in 3D will definitely be visiting it soon.