software for 3d rendering of a topographical image

Hi, I'm in the process of purchasing some land to start a homestead in a few years. I was wondering if anyone out there knows of any software that can take a topographical image from say Google Earth and render it in 3d. I was hoping to use this software to plan the homestead based on the current topography. Basically, I'm looking for software anyone could recommend for planning a homestead. I was hoping to be able to download a free version but any kind of software that can achieve this will do. Please let me know.

Take a look at Sketchup

I 2nd the vote for sketchup.  Building, planning, using layers to track current and future use... its great.  you can import images of a property from your county assessor or other geographical information systems to get boundaries, hazard areas, etc.

I havent done "make a topo,into 3d"

Google earth can also have images projected onto its surfaces, so you can make the topography display other maps like annual rainfall or wetlands etc.... the resolution is such that they aren't great for a homestead,map but for searching for new land, it can be useful.

I did lots of googling 'how to,do X in sketch up or how to get google earth to do Y" to use those software packages, since the tutorials didn't cover what i wanted to do with them.

one last thought about topos.....

On my property at least,  the topos are smooth and suggest my hill is like an upside down soup bowl.  my hill is actually like a hand palm down on a table.  Maybe the tree canopy is deceptive or the map makers resolution is such that only a few points establish the contour but.... there is no substitue for walking the property to know the true lay of the land.

Also websoilsurvey   from USGS is awesome.

Sketchup works great! It's easy enough to roughly draw the topography and then add the actual homestead to that. This will be fun! Thanks again!

I can only second Joseph's warning. Google earth suggests the slope towards the river here is quite gentle. In reality there is a plateau, followed by a 10m drop and then 40° slope (which I have not managed to climb down yet!)

I’ve tried this with google earth and sketch up but was really struggling to get accurate elevation data.

I eventually ended up using free lidar data from http://opentopo.sdsc.edu/login which got me incredible accuracy (I can see individual trees and the power poles on the side of the road)

I’ve been using QGIS (free and open source) to generate topo lines at whatever scale I want (currently using 50cm) and generate channel diagrams (where water collects and flows across our land?

QGIS is super powerful but can be a bit frustrating when learning to use it. I’ve also added a plugin that lets me export my data as an STL file so I can 3d print the place :)

Once you’ve generated topo lines it’s easy to export the shape file to google earth so you can draw in your ponds and swales there with more accurate information.

Good luck!