Navisworks export to Google Earth with excavations

[katiebacon]

Hi,

I'm currently modelling an underpass which is below the existing ground level. When exporting to Google Earth, the underpass is not shown as it is beneath the top of the earth. Does anyone have ideas as to how I can export the Navis file and 'remove' the area of Google earth which is 'hiding' the model? I also need to show the excavation profile if anyone has any suggestions for this too?

Regards,

Katie

[mlohden]

As far as I know this is not possible. It is my top wish list item for Google Earth Pro, but depending on how Goole have set up their data structure it might be decidedly "non-trivial".

Ideally I would like to be able to draw a polygon with placemarks as anchors (for metes and bounds) and then either set the bottom of the excavation or even just make a hole that could be filled in with a model from Navis, SketchUp, Revit, or whatever. GE already has the polygon and placemark tools so that part isn't much of a stretch. The tricky part would probably be having the GE data engine recognize and properly render a hole in the KMZ. This would also presumably require a new type definition in the KMZ file structure and so might create compatibility issues.

In the meantime I just go the other way and bring the terrain into Navis (or whatever), or, if all I need is a still image, I'll often  just overlay the images and punch the hole in Photoshop.