Is it possible to extract elements from google maps?

Question

I want to make my final year project and for my idea I'd need the 3d buildings from google maps extracted somehow. Does google maps support this? Is it achievable ? I couldn't find anything really relevant on the internet.

Answer 1

I think the reason why you didn't find anything related to Google Maps is that the 3D information belongs to Google Earth. Google Maps/Earth API doesn't support this directly as far as I know.

The link below describes a process to get the information, I didn't test it and it's too complex and not mine to repeat here but basically "the only way to obtain this geometry is to capture it from the systems graphics engines (directX or opengl)." : http://zachsoflin.com/blog/2012/03/01/extract-geometry-from-google-earth-to-mesh/

If you google "Extracting 3d models from google Earth" you'll get more results.

Answer 2

I'm not sure if this will work, but have you tried 3D information from OpenStreetMap? I think some like http://www.osm-3d.org/map.htm have building height layers available, if that's what you're looking for.

Answer 3

Here you can find a tutorial for extracting the 3D models from Google Earth.