3D+Historic+Virginia+City


 * __Project Title:__** 3D Historic Virgina City
 * __Particpants:__** Pat Guiberson (patg@unr.edu); Michael K Johnson (mkj6381@yahoo.com). Alan DeTar (yolevv@charter.net), Rob Rule (rulerob@gmail.com), Derek Kirkland (dkirkland@woodrodgers.com).

__**Project Description:**__ In this project we are using the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Virginia City, NV from 1890 as our base map to rebuild a 3D model of some of the historic buildings in Sketchup. The 3D buildings will look realistic as we will be placing a photo texture on the buildings we create in Sketchup using photos we took in Virginia City. The Sanborn Map with the 3D historic buildings will be geo referenced into Google Earth where you will be able to zoom to Historic Virginia City to see some of the 3D buildings on the Sanborn Map.

Some links to help you flesh out the story (including loads of old photos, stories, and some maps): http://www.westernmininghistory.com/2006/gallery/nevada/virginia-city/modern/towns/1/ http://www.desertusa.com/Cities/nv/nv_virginiacity.html http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/nevada/vhd.htm - follow to the next page(s) and see more on your buildings. http://www.virginiacity-nv.org/ http://www.greatstreets.org/MainStreets/MainVirginiaCity.html [pg]

__**Status:**__ Photographs have been collected. Historic Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps are going to be used to establish building footprints. (04/11/07) In the process of downloading the Sanborn maps into Photoshop and mergeing them into one.(ALD) (4/12/07) Sanborn maps have been merged together as one map. Next step is to Geo Ref the map, and track down building heights. [Derek] Fri - Apr 13 - I have downloaded a DOQ of Virginia City from the Keck library, so we will be able to georeference the Sanborn map next week. Great job Derek! (Alan)

__**Discussion:**__

4/11/07 We worked on splicing the Sanborn maps together, but are having trouble connecting the maps together. We are using the 1890 maps, which are the oldest of the Sanborns [MKJ].

4/12/07 Found the key for the Sanborn Map symbols and how to read them: http://0-sanborn.umi.com.innopac.library.unr.edu/HelpFiles/bwkey.pdf It was located on the UNR Sanborn Maps home page under about Sanborn Maps. I'm currently working on photoshoping the remaining Sanborn Maps. [Derek] Here is a better key http://www.edrnet.com/reports/key.pdf [Derek]

4/12/07 Virginia City overall Sanborn Map is complete. The map looks pretty good, however there were a few spots that I couldn't line up perfectly, but I guess we can expect that since the maps were created individually by hand in 1890. I removed the extra north arrows and scales leaving one of each so that it looks like one map rather than multiple maps merged together. This site will only allow you to upload 10MB so I was unable to upload the tif, which is 630MB. If anyone is going to try and Geo Ref the map or wants the file just let me know and I'll make arrangements to get you the file before class on Wed. 4/18. Shoot me an e-mail if you have any questions or comments. Anyone found out if we can get building heights yet?

4/13/07 I created a very bacic google sketch from a sanborne map. I downloaded the map into adobe photoshop (as a tif), then imported it into sketchup. I used the foundation lines from the map to create a square, then pulled it up into 3d. It was very simple. Even experimenting it took less than an hour. After the maps are completed we can do sketch up for real. I also called around and may have found a place for the building heights. It is the Library of Congress, I guess there is historic building information on their website. I have not been there yet but will tonight or this weekend. The fourth ward school,the courthouse and st. marys church may have building plans as well. The fourth ward is based on a school originally built in the midwest. The court house was designed by a san francisco architect, so the plans may be obtainable (I will post the name of the firm when I find the name). Fortunatly these are also the most complex buildings, so drawing them from plans may be possible. Things are looking good- rob rule

4/14/07 - I found measured drawing for several buildings in the HABS/HAER site which is part of the National Park Serivce and Library of Congress. The measured drawings are for Pipers Opera House, the Fourth Ward School, and the Miners and Pythias Hall on B Street. These are very detailed and will be very helpful. On the same site, there are lots of photos from the 1937-38 of VC. It looks like the US gov did a photo survey of historic buildings at this time. Ah the good old Depression. More later....Posted 1 minute ago ||
 * [[image:http://www.wikispaces.com/user/pic/ruler-lg.jpg width="48" height="48" link="http://www.wikispaces.com/user/view/ruler"]] || **[|ruler] writes:**

4/17/07 - Guys, i e-mailed the Comstock Historic District Commision today (they prepared and updated the Walking Tour). I asked about architectural details of the buildings in the tour, specifically the building heights. Maybe they or someone they know has that info. - Alan 4/23/07 I was able to get rid of the extra white squares in photoshop, and I reduced the overall Tif image to 280MB. I also broke the over all map into 2 pieces each about 120MB. Hopefully that will be small enough for GEpro. If not I can cut them into 4ths in class. Anybody built anything in sketchup? [Derek] 4/27/07 I talked to some people at work and figured out that the reason we couldn't get the kml file in ArcGis to work is becasue it was in the WGS84 projection. Our GIS department said that we should just bring in the map and georeference it using the DOQ and then just convert it to kml leaving it in state plane. They said that is the process they normally go through and it works for them all the time. I am going to play around with it tonight hopefully so we don't have to do that on Saturday. See you guys this weekend! [Derek]

__**Some screen shots of our work in progress:**__ x



05/05/07- Break through! We can add models to Google Earth Pro! (Time for a drink) Rob



Tues. evening, 05/08/07, 8:30 PM. OK Guys - Here's the latest. I built a sample model in SketchUp and saved it (use .dae extension). Brought one of the Sanborn maps into Google Pro and then imported the model. I put the model right on the train station footprint. You have to read the elevation off the map in meters.Go to the properties of the model and set the elevation (absolute) in whole unit meters only. Then you can move the model anywhere you want. Here's what it looks like. - Alan



May 9th. We all got together in the geog computer lab and began working on various parts of the project. Derek and Rob worked on the SketchUp of most of the buildings. Alan worked on finding some maps and information to add to the poster, while Michael began working on the poster wording and part of the lay out. (MKJ) May 10th. Rob worked on more of the SketchUp while Michael worked on completing most of the language to the poster. Over the weekend Derek, Alan and Rob are going to get together to finalize the GoggleEarthPro section and move the information around on the poster for the final draft to be presented this next week. (MKJ)

My Google Earth Project Take me back to Google GOO I wanna go Home