KU Environmental Sciences GIS Class

Getting Started

For today's exercise you will be working in Google Earth and Sketchup. Both are available as free downloads, and you must install them on your computer:

Download Google Earth

Download Sketchup (Sketchup is free, you have to pay for Sketchup Pro)

There are Pro versions of both Google Earth and Sketchup, and if you work for a nonprofit or educational organization you can apply for a grant to get them for free:

Apply for a Google Earth Pro and Sketchup Pro Grant

We will be using various Google tools (Spreadsheets, Fusion Tables, Picasaweb albums, etc.) which require you to have a Google Account:

Create Google Account

These Google tools will work much better on Firefox or Chrome- as a general rule, Safari and Explorer do not support modern applications:

Download Firefox

Download Google Chrome

There are many resources available to help you learn Google Earth and Sketchup, for example:

Google Earth Tutorials

Sketchup Tutorials (you don't have to pay for the basic Sketchup)

And there are many examples of maps, tours, and models that you can find online:

Google Earth Gallery

Sketchup 3D Warehouse

Google Earth Pro can be used to import GIS shp files (you can also export from ArcMap as a kml file for use in Google Earth):

Importing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data in Google Earth

Class Assignment

This lesson was developed in collaboration with Dr. Kathleen Nuckolls and Ron Hall