I am looking for a way to import trees from ESRI shapefiles into SketchUp.
At present I am using QGIS to load urban shapefiles, KMZ, etc and to export them again as shapefiles using the correct CRS settings. Buildlings import fine into SU through the Spirix shapefile loader but the tree files are just reference points (no polylines) and so nothing loads.
PlaceMaker (which I use too) and CADMAPPER will give me the trees that are in the maps they draw from but usually they don’t provide anywhere near the number of trees that are in the urban GIS records. I’m trying to figure out how the trees are imported to OSM and I’m wondering if there is a way to import council supplied tree shapefiles into JOSM as objects and then export them through OSM2WORLD (or whatever) back to SketchUp. There seems to be such a big missing plugin somewhere to get this data to SketchUp. These trees don’t need to be sent back into the Open Street Maps database but could just be used locally for local export.
I have in the past used Esri’s City Engine to load the urban shapefiles and then through their COLLADA pluging to move the model into Sketchup where we rendered it. This was such an expensive solution that we never continued with it. COLLADA actually was the best plugin I’ve used in SU to import 3D objects.
All the relevant data for trees is included in the shapefile Attributes Table (Name, co-ordinates, species, height, etc). The CityEngine import loaded up relevant trees that, when exported back to SU through COLLADA were separate 2D components that I could then exchange for 3D components from my own libraries which could then be rendered beautifully.
I have rambled a bit but I’m trying to paint a picture of what I’m doing and trying to achieve.
There are some guidelines you have to follow to do an import into OSM: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Import
- is license compatible
- describe how you want to do your import on the wiki, make sure you do not create duplicates
- get support for your import in the local community
- check with the import mailing list if everything is OK
- go ahead.
There have been imports of trees in the past. Lot’s of trees have been mapped by hand as well.
It should be noted that these rules only apply if you want to import data into the public OpenStreetMap database. It’s not a problem as long as you only open and export data locally in JOSM, for example, as long as you do not upload to OSM servers.
There appears to be a plugin called OpenData for JOSM, which has support for opening shapefiles (haven’t used it myself yet). You could then easily save the result as an OSM XML file, which is supported by most tools from the OSM ecosystem.