Google Earth 3D to building simulation

A few months ago, Google opened up to the possibility to import 3D geometry using 3D tiles (about LOD2.2). This makes it possible for our users to get free 3D data from 2500 cities in almost 50 countries. In combination with OpenStreetMap (usually LOD0.1) this can be quite powerful, especially in cities that lack open 3D geometrical data of buildings. You can read more about 3D tiles here https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/maps-platform/create-immersive-3d-map-experiences-photorealistic-3d-tiles

It is not a single push of a button solution but at least it can save a lot of time and money in projects. Here are a few things that I have learned so far:

• OpenStreatMap buildings are quite simple and can often be used as they are as shading objects and building bodies but the height is almost always wrong. These objects can?be manually adjusted using heights from Google Earth.
• The quality from Google Earth is not great and can be quite dated. It is best to look at the area you are interested in before you import it.
• Avoid too large imported areas (1 km2 is fine) and avoid the highest image resolution (buildings with more details) since this produces a huge amount of data.
• I have not found a method to automize the height connection between Google earth and OpenStreetMap. Also I have not found a way to extract windows or roof shapes but I am working on it.

So far I have used Blsom for Blender https://prochitecture.gumroad.com/l/blender-osm to get the data from Google and OpenStreetMap. It is free but you need to register a bank card to get a Google API Key. Please note that this is an experimental service from Google and they can change/cancel it without warning.

I know there are other sources for open and closed data semantic city models of various formats but so far Google Earth and OpenStreetMap is the most complete dataset I have found.