Google Earth: Mount Rushmore looks great!

Peter Olson, who has previously shown us such excellent models such as Machu Picchu, the Disney Monorail and the Tenerife disaster, is at it once again.

This time, Peter has created a very detailed model of Mount Rushmore, which looks far better than the default (terrain-based) model. Check it out:

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In addition to the famous faces on the mountain, Peter also built the “Hall of Records” behind them. The Hall was never completed, but you can learn more about it on the National Parks Traveler site, as it’s quite interesting.

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To see it all for yourself, you can fly there using this KML file or you can view the details in the Google 3D Warehouse.

Your SpaceNavigator now works with SketchUp 8, and the Shadow Bug is fixed

SketchUp 8 was released last year and featured a host of improvements. However, it had one big shortcoming — the 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator no longer worked with it.

The SpaceNavigator is an excellent device, and for heavy users this was a big problem. There were some workarounds available, but no official solution until now.

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In addition, Google has released an update for SketchUp 8 that improves a few things including some export fixes and a resolution for the famous “Shadow Bug”. You can read the full release notes here.

Google is quite pleased to have conquered the shadow bug, and made a little video to celebrate:

You can get the latest version of SketchUp by going to [Help] -> [Check for Update] on Windows, or [SketchUp] -> [Check Web for Update] on Mac.