MapChannels writes to announce a few new features:
Holiday Maps: Create an embeddable Google Maps window with the option for additional information layers:
- Panoramio photos
- Geo-tagged Wikipedia articles
- Google Street View
- Traffic Layer
- Weather Information
- User-defined KML or GeoRSS Layers
- Index sidebar
- Hotel search using the Map Channels Hotel Directory
- Google search
- Slide Show
- Google Earth 3D (note: currently buggy, doesn’t work for me in Firefox 3)
MapChannels For Virtual Earth: Create an embeddable Virtual Earth window with KML or GeoRSS feeds (an analogue to Google Maps’ MyMaps feature, also supported by MapChannels in embeddable format).
StreetCities: New tools to combine Google’s Street View with a second view in the Google Earth plugin. This doesn’t work in Firefox 3, either.
I’ve been posting roughly four times a week on this blog, but that may slow down a bit over the next few months. After 10 hours of excavating in 100-degree temps (38-degree temps outside the US), it’s sometimes hard to summon the energy to write a post, and weekends are needed for recovery. I should still be able to get 2-3 posts up a week, and I’ll still shoot for 4, but if a week comes along with no posts, I hope you’ll understand. I should be able to resume a more normal schedule in September or October.
Published at June 24, 2008
in GPS.
An email, and comment on a previous post, led me to OKMap, a GPS mapping program that has lots of promise, but currently has a few issues. The feature set is certainly interesting:
- Open vector data in many different formats (OziExplorer, GPX, shapefile, DCW), and export/upload data
- Import raster images, and calibrate them; import raster images with worldfiles, in ECW format, or in OziExplorer format, and have them calibrated automatically. Supports many different projections and datums.
- Catalog your saved maps for easy retrieval.
- Extensive editing tools for creating and modifying waypoints, tracks, and routes.
- Real-time GPS support (NMEA)
- Data exchanges with Google Earth
In short, some of the more useful features of the paid versions of OziExplorer and GPS TrackMaker. However, this is a program that is definitely still in beta form:
- A bit buggy still - crashes occasionally
- Functions of specific features unclear in many cases
- It’s possible that I may not have been doing things correctly above, but there’s no documentation included with the program; even the downloadable help file in Italian has many pages that aren’t complete yet
- Using ECW imagery requires installation of the ECW ActiveX SDK, something not mentioned on the website, but which you find out after you start up the installation program (it’s available at this link)
- Latest version also requires that you have the J# .Net redistributable package installed, available here
The author (Gian Paolo Saliola) is very responsive to comments, and quickly fixed several bugs and quirks I pointed out to him. With enough people trying out the program and reporting issues back to him, this could soon be a very strong GPS utility program.
Cartisan Maps has several free spreadsheet tools for basic coordinate conversions; each one can handle up to 5000 sets of coordinates. Files are in Microsoft Excel format, but seem to work fine in OpenOffice 2.4.
Cartisan Map Coordinate Converter: Enter latitude and longitude in separate columns for degrees, minutes and seconds, and have them converted to a DD MM SS string, DD MM.d string, or numeric decimal degrees. The first column, labeled Hemisphere, is multiplied times the longitude, and if you leave it blank, the calculated degree value for longitude will always be zero. Enter “1″ for East longitudes, “-1″ for West longitudes, and make sure your longitude degree value is always positive; or, enter a “1″, and then enter positive and negative values for the longitude degree value. Cartisan also has a link to simple VBA code to do these transformations, which you can download.
Cartisan Total Map Coordinate Converter: Converts from decimal and DDMMSS latitude/longitude to UTM and MGRS, and back again; includes support for 14 datums, including NAD27 and WGS84. Also has another version of a converter from degrees/minutes/seconds to decimal degrees and back, similar in output to the one above.Requires that you have macros enabled in your spreadsheet program. Notes: 1. File is in the .RAR compression format; if your unzipping program can’t handle that, try 7-Zip. 2. Enter your coordinate data in the areas highlighted in green in the spreadsheet.
While labeling items in Google Earth, you’re able to modify the font color, size and opacity. But one curious omission is the inability to change the font; you’re stuck with the Google Earth standard:
The font also stays the same size regardless of how far away you are from the labeled area, which can be useful sometimes. But if you have a lot of labels, this can result in lots of labels overlapping, and cluttering up the image. Label text is also all on one line, which can lead to long labels if you want to include lots of text.
Continue reading ‘KML Text Labels For Google Earth’
If you don’t have a large-format, or even medium-format, printer, you can still print full-size maps by chopping (tiling) the image into smaller subsections, and then taping all those subsections together to re-create the original map in large format. I’ve posted before about several ways to do that generically, and another option that lets you tile georeferenced images to a specified scale. For generic tiling, there’s another option: PosteRazor. Multiplatform (Windows/Mac/Linux), open source, runs by itself (no installation required). A simple 5-step wizard walks you through the process:
- Select the image
- Specify the paper size, orientation and margins
- Choose the amount and orientation of the overlap, the areas that are redundant on the printed sheets to compensate for cutting/taping errors
- Select the number of pages to print the image on, with a live preview of the print layou
- Save the tiled images as a multi-page PDF document for printing (it’s very fast at this last step)
Doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of some of the other options, but for a simple tiling operation, PosteRazor is fast and easy.
A previous post linked to a video on how to add in-line KML validation to the Java-based text editor jEdit. There’s now another KML validation option for those who use their own editor to create KML files. Galdos Systems has created a free online KML validator; just submit a link to an online KML or KMZ file or upload the file from your computer (note: for online files, upper/lowercase matters!). You’ll get back a report page with:
- The number of errors found, recommendations and suggestions
- The specific errors found, referenced by line number in the original file
- A listing of the original KML/KMZ file with line numbers, so you can cross-reference the error specified with the line number
An error doesn’t necessarily mean a fatal error; my test file had three errors, mainly related to spec changes in KML, but works fine in Google Earth. Still, even with a working file, it’s useful to see where it doesn’t conform to specs, and for a non-working file it can help you track down the error.
Via the Google Earth Blog.
Published at June 16, 2008
in GPS and Garmin.
I’ve posted previously about Moagu, my utility that converts raster map imagery into raster-format maps for some Garmin GPS units. Moagu creates a true bitmap image for Garmin units, with advantages (accurate map and photo reproduction) and disadvantages (slow display times). An alternative approach is to convert a raster image into many small vector polygons, then code those vector polygons as a Garmin-format map. While this approach can speed up display time dramatically, it can also be harder to get good results. There’s a commercial software package called Mapwel that can do this, but I’ve recently been made aware of a freeware program called BMap2MP that also converts raster images into vector polygons, and creates map code for those polygons in the .mp Polish map format. This code can then be compiled into Garmin .img map files using the free or paid versions of cgpsmapper. I’ve spend some time playing with this program, and comparing its results with comparable maps from Moagu.
Continue reading ‘Converting Raster Maps To Garmin Vector Format With BMap2MP’
