Getting height information

[mrnyc]

question -- how is the official building height determined?

is by the size of the building itself, or by height from sea level?

because the local neighborhood ground level contour can really affect the height.

or maybe there is no official standard?

anyhow, thx if you can explain.

[Anders Franzén]

The official height would be counted from the ground level. At the lowest lying entrance to the building if you ask CTBUH.
When doing a drawing for SSP, it can be more interesting to include the lowest point, which in rare cases can be on a lower level than the entrance.

It's common to mark the height above sea level (or other datum levels) on elevation drawings. In those cases it's important look at the whole drawing and substract the ground level from the top level.
I've seen many cases when the official height turned out to be the height above sea level.

[Anders Franzén]

Originally Posted by Modao Zushi

Google Earth doesn't seem to work in Mainland China.

You mean it doesn't work at all or just that there's no 3D view coverage?

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by Anders Franzén

The official height would be counted from the ground level. At the lowest lying entrance to the building if you ask CTBUH.
When doing a drawing for SSP, it can be more interesting to include the lowest point, which in rare cases can be on a lower level than the entrance.

It's common to mark the height above sea level (or other datum levels) on elevation drawings. In those cases it's important look at the whole drawing and substract the ground level from the top level.
I've seen many cases when the official height turned out to be the height above sea level.

yes, i have seen that too and thats what makes it confusing, especially when just heights are given with no known noted consideration of sea level or local site level. i guess in those cases we do not know for sure, but we would assume its from the ground level, even if you can never be fully certain without more info like sea level.

anyway, thanks!

[CRKMRRMK]

well, redownloaded GE Pro Version
7.3.6.9796 (64-bit)
Thursday, February 22, 2024 10:13:06 PM UTC
OpenGL
Microsoft Windows (6.2.9200.0)
ATI Technologies Inc. (00008.00017.00010.01129)
8192×8192
3315 MB
kh.google.com
studied all functions again and again and this measure function did not came to me here in Germany. So still calculate, compare with 8 10 bld stories close with 30 m high, 3.3 or 3.5 m floor to floor or trees of 25 m to calculate "¯\_(ツ)_/¯ "

[Anders Franzén]

The cursor is always at a certain elevation when moving it over the map in Google Earth. It's shown in the lower right corner.
Provided there's laser scanned 3D-data for the area of interest, it's possible to put the cursor on top of a building and get the elevation, then get the elevation of the ground level and substract that from the top level elevation, to get the height of a building.

Not always 100 % accurate but most of the time it is. In most of the cases where official height doesn't match the height measured in Google Earth, there is an explanation. Like, the official height didn't count the penthouse/mechanical room on the roof, or the official height is height above sea level.