Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world’s geographic information at your fingertips. Fly from space to your neighborhood. Type in an address and zoom right in. Search for schools, parks, restaurants, and hotels. Get driving directions. Tilt and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings. Save and share your searches and favorites. Even add your own annotations.
Google Earth lets you do smooth sailing flybyes of the entire Earth. You can easily fly to any spot on the globe, by entering any associated data, like street addresses, place names or lat/long coordinates. There are overlays that put additional information on the map, like roads, international boundaries, terrain, 3D buildings, crime statistics, schools, stadiums, any number of interesting stuff. You can do Local searches in the program, with icons on the map and a display on the side showing your results.
You can leave notes, called "placemarks" all over the map, so you can remember where all sorts of places are. Searches and placemarks can be saved as bookmarks in "My Places". Everything can be output in an XML format called KML, that will allow the vast popularity of Google Maps to continue in Earth. You can also email a JPEG of the map, or send a KMZ file if you know the recipient has Earth installed.
Features:
- Sophisticated streaming technology delivers the data to you as you need it.
- Imagery and 3D data depict the entire earth - Terabytes of aerial and satellite imagery depict cities around the world in high-resolution detail.
- Local search lets you search for restaurants, hotels, and even driving directions. Results show in your 3D earth view. Easy to layer multiple searches, save results to folders, and share with others.
- Layers show parks, schools, hospitals, airports, retail, and more.
- Overlays – import site plans, design sketches and even scanned blueprints.
- Annotate the view with lines and polygons.
- Spreadsheet import - ingest up to 2,500 locations by address or lat/lon.
- KML – data exchange format let your share useful annotations.
Use it for:
- Planning a trip
- Getting driving directions
- Finding a house or apartment
- Finding a local business
- Exploring the world
Tips : How to Get 3D Buildings in Google Earth Flight Simulator
1. Enter Flight Simulator mode - Select "Tools->Enter Flight Simulator". Optional: fly to a city which has 3D buildings (tip: San Francisco, Baltimore, Atlanta, Raleigh, Charlotte - these all have lots of 3D buildings). NOTE: - there is a bug in GE 4.3 if you select the "Current View" option in the "Enter Flight Simulator" window, you may end up at an higher altitude than you expect upon starting the flight (much higher). Just fly back down to the city level.
2. Open the Sidebar - Sidebar shortcut - Press 'Ctrl + Alt + B' (or + Option + B' on the Mac) to bring up the sidebar
3. Turn on 3D Buildings - Turn these on in the Layers pane in the lower left after the sidebar opens.
4. Turn Off Sidebar - IMPORTANT - before resuming the flight simulator, turn off the sidebar by hitting the sidebar shortcut from step 2
5. Resume flight - Now you can resume flying the flight simulator by hitting the SPACE key and the 3D buildings should stay on for your current flight.
Now With GPS Support...
Google Earth for Pilots
This is part of a new series exploring Google Earth uses for different professions/hobbies.
If you're a pilot, there are many ways Google Earth can be used to really enhance your trip plans both from an aviation and ground-based perspective. But, Google Earth goes way beyond just trip planning as a tool for pilots. I'm a pilot myself, and have been using Google Earth to enhance my flying experiences for nearly three years.
Tips : How to Get 3D Buildings in Google Earth Flight Simulator
1. Enter Flight Simulator mode - Select "Tools->Enter Flight Simulator". Optional: fly to a city which has 3D buildings (tip: San Francisco, Baltimore, Atlanta, Raleigh, Charlotte - these all have lots of 3D buildings). NOTE: - there is a bug in GE 4.3 if you select the "Current View" option in the "Enter Flight Simulator" window, you may end up at an higher altitude than you expect upon starting the flight (much higher). Just fly back down to the city level.
2. Open the Sidebar - Sidebar shortcut - Press 'Ctrl + Alt + B' (or + Option + B' on the Mac) to bring up the sidebar
3. Turn on 3D Buildings - Turn these on in the Layers pane in the lower left after the sidebar opens.
4. Turn Off Sidebar - IMPORTANT - before resuming the flight simulator, turn off the sidebar by hitting the sidebar shortcut from step 2
5. Resume flight - Now you can resume flying the flight simulator by hitting the SPACE key and the 3D buildings should stay on for your current flight.
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