They created the kmz file format to allow them to combine geolocation information to place the the 3D model on the earth. So they bought SketchUp, which models in the sort of 3D (x,y,z) coordinates people are used to, and decided that the way to get those into Google Earth was to use a non-proprietary 3D modeling format: Collada (.dae). Verticals are not parallel, the ground is not flat, horizontal dimensions are measured in angles, etc.
But because kml uses (lat, lon, altitude) coordinates, it makes a very strange and awkward medium for drawing buildings. Snark aside, Google is to blame for this.īack when they owned SketchUp, they wanted a way to let users create 3D buildings to populate Google Earth for free.
