3dconvertkmzshapefile
I have 3D buildings in .kmz file. I can see them in Google Earth, but I cannot import them to ArcGIS. What I've tried until now:
Any ideas how to solve this problem?
kmz with imagery (like Garmin Custom Maps) are raster files. So you have to use Add Raster Layer, not Add vector layer. Unfortunately, GDAL only supprts kml as vector layers.
The problem is that the unzipped img files do not have georeferencing information stored by themselves. This is stored in the doc.kml file; but this is not in a format GDAL understands.
You have to georeference the files manually with the information of the kml file.
Tere is a plugin for creating Garmin Custom Maps out of QGIS, but unfortunately nothing to load them into QGIS.
If you render raster data into map tiles you have to choose whether you want to create a Google Earth tiles (in Plate Carree) for displaying in KML/KMZ or Google Maps tiles (Mercator) for displaying in the web viewers such as OpenLayers, Google Maps, Leaflet, etc.
These uses two different map projections. Cartographically correct solution is to render two different tile sets with MapTiler (http://www.maptiler.com/) and host these separately.
In the MapTiler in the first screen you can make this choice, either "Mercator tiles" or "Google Earth".
I would recommend to go for two different datasets.
Technically, a hack which would display the Mercator tiles in Google Earth could be done as well - this could run for the deep-zoomed viewes - but if your data covers large regions (countries,states,continents) the differences between the map projections would already be visible as a north-south shift while zooming. See my documentation and source code in python at http://www.maptiler.org/google-maps-coordinates-tile-bounds-projection/ if you are into this approach. Still this is a hack and proper solution is mentioned above - with two distinct tilesets.
Best Answer
ArcGIS can read KML files and since 9.3 also KMZ via the Data Interoperability Extension. From version 10 you must install this separately. The basic version of DI extension does not require a special licence and certainly lets you read GML and (from memory) I think it also reads KML. I have been used to having the full version so I forget where the free version starts and stops.
For a non-ArcGIS solution this thread should help as it is related to your question and suggests other tools you could try.
However, the shapefile format only supports 2.5D and so you couldn't import proper 3D features to the shapefile format anyway. For that you will need something like PostGIS 2.