Location Placement

A Location Placement puts your 3D building model on its real site, inside Google’s photorealistic 3D map. You see the design in its actual surroundings — streets, neighbours, trees, sun — and capture views of it that you can render straight away.

When to use

• You want to check how a design sits in its real context.
• You need site views of a project as a starting point for renders.
• You want quick, consistent views of the same model from several angles.

Getting started

1. Open the plus menu and choose Location Placement, then click to place the card on the canvas.
2. Add your model: upload a GLB, FBX, OBJ, DAE, STL or zipped OBJ, or send it straight from the CAD plugin.
3. Check the import dialog: it shows the model’s size on the map and the unit it read from the file or guessed from the size. Fix the unit if the size looks wrong (a house that is “18 km across” is in millimetres).
4. Open the studio and search the address.
5. Move, rotate or scale the model onto its plot. Ground puts it on the terrain.

The first live 3D view in a visit uses one 3D session (the price is shown on the button before anything is charged).

On the canvas card

• Explore 3D goes live and hands you the controls in one click (it zooms the canvas in first when the card is too small).
• Drag to pan, right-drag or wheel-drag to orbit, scroll to zoom, W A S D to fly. Esc or a click outside stops, and the card keeps the last view.
• While exploring, pick a frame ratio and press Capture: the view lands on the canvas as an image, titled with the short place name.

In the studio

Camera

Input	Does
Left-drag	Pan — the point you grab stays under the cursor
Wheel-drag / right-drag	Orbit around the point under the cursor (or the selected model)
Scroll	Zoom toward the cursor
W A S D	Fly where you look; while held, the mouse steers
Q / E	Turn
Space / C	Up / down (Shift is faster)
− / +	Step back / closer (the Back / Closer buttons: click to step, hold to keep moving)
Home	Fly back to the model
Ctrl+Shift+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Y	Previous / next view

The camera never goes below the ground and its speed follows your height. On a trackpad, switch to trackpad mode (top right): swipe to orbit, Shift + swipe to pan, pinch to zoom. On a touch screen: one finger pans, two fingers pinch, twist and tilt, and a joystick flies.

Placing the model

Input	Does
Click the model	Select it
1 / 2 / 3	Move / Rotate / Scale
Drag an arrow	Move along that axis
Drag the centre dot	Move freely; the model stays where you drop it
L	Unlock the scale axes (locked, scaling is even)
Shift while dragging	Snap: 1 m, 15°, 10 %
G	Put the model on the ground under it
Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y	Undo / redo model changes

Move here brings the model to the centre of the view. While scaling, the real size shows beside the cursor; Reset size returns to 100 %.

Lens and views

• Lens: focal length 8–135 mm (16 mm by default) with presets.
• Keep verticals straight keeps the camera level so vertical lines stay vertical; looking up or down shifts the picture instead, like a shift lens. The Shift sliders move the picture by hand.
• Views: save the current view with its lens; hover a saved view to see it larger, click to go back to it. A view remembers its address and where the model stood: one saved at another address is marked with that address, and clicking it offers to explore there or move the placement there. At the same address, if the model has moved since, a note offers to put it back (Ctrl+Z undoes that; the address switch itself is not undone).
• Frame shows exactly what a capture keeps; Capture sends the view to the canvas.
• Sun & shadows and ground flattening live in the tools panel.

Look

• Model style: Original (the file’s materials), Clay, or Line drawing (white faces with lines). In Clay and Line drawing, Keep glass see-through leaves the glazing transparent, so you see into the building.
• Edge lines: outline the model’s corners, steps and silhouette — on the model only, never on the map. Settings (fold them away with the arrow): thickness (down to a 0.5 px hairline for finely detailed buildings), detail (more catches smaller folds and steps), opacity and colour.
• Colour: True colour (faithful, vivid materials) or Filmic (softer, the earlier look).
• The look is saved with the placement, so the card and captures match.
• Captures are rendered at least 3072 px on the long side, smoothed.

Exploring other addresses

With a model placed, searching another address asks what you want:

• Explore this address: the map goes there; your model stays at its own address and nothing about the placement changes. A bar shows where you are, with Back to the model (the view you left) and Move the placement here; Home also takes you back, framed on the model. You can save views and capture while exploring.
• Move the placement here: the address and the model move together; the model lands in the middle of your view (where you are looking, even if you panned away from the searched address), or at the address point when the view shows only sky.

A saved view from another address offers the same choice; moving the placement there brings the model back exactly where it stood in that view.

Leaving the studio or the card and coming back continues from the view you left (an explored view is not kept: the card stays on the placement).

Model size and units

The 3D map is in real metres, so the model must be too. glTF files are always in metres; FBX and Collada files carry their unit; OBJ and STL do not, so the unit is guessed from the size and you should check it. For models sent from a CAD plugin, the server compares the uploaded size with the size the plugin reported; if they disagree, the studio offers Convert to meters.

Tips

• 16–35 mm with Keep verticals straight gives classic architectural views.
• Use Ground after replacing or moving a model far across the site.
• Save the views you like: thumbnails make them easy to find again.

Related: 3D Assets · Frames