How to retrieve 3D models from Google Earth?

Question

I want to retrieve all 3D models on some area from Google Earth. How can this be achieved?

Answer 1

There is currently no way to download all the models from within Google Earth. Also, even is there was - extracting data is against the TOS. This is due to the fact that many of the models come from government or private sources so there are issues with licencing the data as a whole.

It is worth noting however that a lot of the models in Google Earth are located on the Sketch up 3dwarehouse so maybe you could get that data you want from there?

You can also read more about Cities in 3d (the name of the project that developed the building layer) here: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwh/citiesin3d/