How To Use Google Earth In Autocad 2021 Official

I didn’t have time for a new survey. But I had Google Earth and AutoCAD.

I traced the gravel road over the aligned image using a polyline. I drew the shed’s foundation 12 feet from the road and 30 feet south of the largest pine tree. Because the underlying map was real-world coordinates, I could even extract elevation points from Google Earth’s terrain (by exporting a contour KML and importing it as 3D polylines).

Back in AutoCAD (I was using 2023), I typed (or GEO for short). A dialog box appeared. I chose “Import a KML or KMZ file.” I selected the KML I’d saved from Google Earth. how to use google earth in autocad

It was a Tuesday afternoon when my client sent me a frantic email: “The new utility shed needs to align exactly with the existing gravel road and that stand of pine trees. But the site survey is two years old.”

I went back to Google Earth, captured a fresh top-down screenshot (without any added polygons), and saved it as a JPG. Back in AutoCAD, I used the command and placed that JPG. I didn’t have time for a new survey

Two hours later, I sent the client a DWG with the shed, the road, and a note: “Coordinates match Google Earth’s current imagery. Verified with two known landmarks.”

I added a simple polygon over the gravel road and saved it as a KML file. Then I used to export a high-resolution screenshot of the area. But that alone wouldn’t work—it had no scale in AutoCAD. I drew the shed’s foundation 12 feet from

He replied, “How did you do that without a new survey?”