AutoCAD
AutoCAD, or Automatic Computer-Aided Design, was a nessecary program through the beginning of the project. The building footprints derived from LIDAR data were not totally square, as in the corners of each building edge was not at 90-degree angles, but usually only a few degrees off (89.99, 87.6, etc.) SketchUp could not accept this. A few of the workers spent weeks fixing each individual building footprint so that all angles were at 90-degrees. Then they could be imported into SketchUp to further the process.
Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST), University of Arkansas
http://www.cast.uark.edu
contact: Malcolm Williamson malcolm@cast.uark.edu or Snow L. Winters snowball@cast.uark.edu