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Archive for the 'geocoding' Category

Convert An Excel Address Spreadsheet Into A KML File (And Then Into A Geocoded CSV Text File) With KMLGeocode And KMLReport

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in Google Earth, KML and geocoding. 3 Comments

KMLGeocode (full UTK download page here) takes an address file in Excel (or XML) format, and creates a Google Earth KML file that plots geocodable addresses in the correct position. Load an address XLS file into the program (like this sample data also available on the download page):

KMLGeocode

You have to specify the column names that contain the key address fields required for geocoding, as well as the output KML filename. Once done, create the KML output file and open it in Google Earth. Addresses that could be geocoded will be plotted with orange pushpins:

geocoderesults

Clicking on  pushpin will bring up all the data fields for a record in the spreadsheet, not just the specified ones. Addresses that couldn’t be geocoded are given yellow pushpin designations, and will either show up plotted in a general location, or not plotted at all in Google Earth (though they will be listed in the Place pane under the KML file listing:

geocodeplaces

To embed the actual geographic coordinates for each of these addresses, right-click on the KML file listing (people.kml in the above example), and save it as another KML file with a different name. You can now open this different KML file in the KML Geocode Report program:

geocodereport

Specify the name of a text output file; this output will be a spreadsheet-readable CSV file that contains the original spreadsheet data with the longitude and latitude of geocodable addresses appended at the end as X and Y coordinates:

ID,Name,Group,Street,Street2,City,State,Zip,Phone,Email,X,Y


 11, Suzanne White, Office of Information Resources, 312 8th Ave North, Suite 1600, Nashville, TN, 37243, 615-253-4799, suzanne.white@state.tn.us,-86.784031,36.164133


 12, Kurt Snider, US Fish and Wildlife Service, 446 Neal St, , Cookeville, TN, 38501, 931-528-6481, kurt_snider@fws.gov,-85.497903,36.138056


 14, David Tirpak, Comptroller of the Treasury, 505 Deaderick St, Suite 1700, Nashville, TN, 37243-0277, 615-401-7820, david.tirpak@state.tn.us,-86.781603,36.165238

The “UnMatched” file is supposed to contain the non-geocodable addresses in KML format (at least, according to the PDF manual for these programs), but it didn’t show up for the sample data when I tried it. When you “Process” the files, in addition to the output file above, you’ll get a pop-up telling you the overall geocoding success percentage:

matchpercent

Note: When installing both programs, the installation directory is listed simply as “C:\Program Files\”; however, unless you specify the new name, it is installed in the directory “C:\Program Files\BRalston”, and “BRalston” is the folder in the Start Menu where you’ll find the program shortcut icons.




Georeferencing A General Textual Location With BioGeomancer

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in Google Maps, cartography and geocoding. Closed

In the good old days, before 1994 or so, when commercial handheld GPS units first came onto the market, locations were often described in general textual terms, like “28 miles NNW of Gila Bend”, or “5 kilometers east of Mount Whitney”. BioGeoMancer Classic and BioGeomancer Workbench can parse these kind of textual descriptions, and convert them to a set of geographic coordinates.

The older Classic version has a text-only interface with limited options:

classic

And gives a text output:

results

matching

The “Map” option in Classic doesn’t seem to work, but the XML option does. Since the Classic version is no longer under development, it’s likely to stay in this format

The newer BioGeomancer Workbench version, still under development, has a Google Maps based interface. Enter a locality like “5 kilometers east of Mount Whitney”, and get a list of localities with their locations plotted in Google Maps:

WhitneyList

In this case, I was looking for Mount Whitney in CA, but it came up with an additional one in NY. By using “5 kilometers east of Mount Whitney, CA” as the location reference, the NY locality would be dropped:

CAWhitney

The more general geographic info you can add, the better you will be able to narrow down the possibilities. It looks like you need commas to delimit geographic data, since “5 kilometers east of Mount Whitney CA” won’t return any results.

Zooming in on the northern localities shows them plotted, along with the location uncertainty as a darker circle:

closeup

Clicking on a placemark brings up options to change the uncertainty radius, delete the placemark, delete all the other placemarks, or zoom in:

bgbubble

The only way to save the data now is to copy it from BioGeomancer and paste it into a different application. The help page indicates that in the future, you’ll have the option to save the data in spreadsheet format, and also do batch text georeferencing.




Digipoint, Export Of Google Maps Point Coordinates, Upgraded To Version 3

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in DEM, DXF, GPX, Google Maps, KML, Web apps, geocoding and shapefile. 3 Comments

I’ve posted before about Digipoint (version 1 and version 2), a web app that lets you select points in a Google Maps interface, then export their coordinates in a variety of formats. Version 3 of Digipoint is now out, with some modest improvements:

  • A new interface, a bit easier to use, and which works better in browsers where the default font size has been modified
  • Fly-to: Specify an address, country, or location, and the map will automatically go there. There are also a limited number of pre-specified country/region links, where  clicking on the link takes you to the area automatically
  • In previous versions, you had to copy/paste text for a particular export format like CSV or KML; you can now download the file automatically
  • For exported shapefiles, a corresponding prj file is also created to specify the coordinate system (your choice of geographic or UTM; WGS84)
  • Help section added

Still supports the same export formats as before: CSV, TXT, TAB, BLN (Surfer), GPX, KML, DXF and shapefile. Versions one and two are still available if you want them, but there’s no good reason to use them anymore.




Online Geocoding, Address Verification And Shortest Path Utilities From the USC GIS Research Laboratory

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in geocoding. Closed

The USC GIS Research Laboratory offers a number of online geographic applications and Web APIs. You have to register for the services, and you’ll get 5000 use credits. After those are used up, the services are free for non-profit and non-commercial enterprises, as long as you cite/reference their use somewhere. For commercial use, if you post an attribution to the service on your website, and also allow them to use your name/logo on their website, you can also use it for free; if not, you can also buy processing credits from them. See this page on usage costs for more info.

Continue reading ‘Online Geocoding, Address Verification And Shortest Path Utilities From the USC GIS Research Laboratory’




Tiny Geocoder

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in Google Maps and geocoding. 2 Comments

Tiny Geocoder is a small, simple web geocoder; type in an address or geographic location, and get back the approximate latitude/longitude for that location, and a Google Map view with that location plotted:

12-1-2008-10.03.26 AM

If you have a Google Map API key (free), you can generate code to create a static link to this map (static meaning just the image itself, not scrollable or zoomable).

And for web gearheads, there’s a simple and free API available for geocoding and reverse geocoding. Here’s an example of geocoding for Provo, Utah, and reverse geocoding for 37,-110.




Batch Geocoding And Reverse Geocoding With MicroPath Geocode

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in geocoding and spreadsheet. 3 Comments

5/2/2009: Doesn’t appear to be available anymore, but you can always check the MicroPath website. Otherwise, click on the “geocoding” category on the right for more options.

A few days ago, I covered the free gMapExplorer from Micropath, a stand-alone augmented Google Maps and Google Earth browser. Micropath has another useful stand-alone program called Geocode that can geocode an address (convert it to latitude/longitude), as well as reverse geocode (take a latitude/longitude position and find the nearest address). And you can do this either one address or coordinate set at a time, or in batch mode by creating a comma-separated value (CSV) file with the required data. Read the included PDF help file to make sure you put the data in the correct format, and also name the file correctly and put it into the program directory. The program comes with sample CSV files for both batch geocoding:

11-16-2008-9.35.15 PM

And reverse geocoding:

11-16-2008-9.37.15 PM

Output CSV files with this information are generated, and can be found in the program directory under a specified name. If you need to convert them to KML format, I’ve posted before about a program that can do that. Double-click on an address line to open your default browser and plot the address/position in Google Maps.

One oddity, at least in Windows Vista – every time you start up the program, the install program window comes up. But it doesn’t seem to affect the actual program startup time significantly, nor interfere with functionality.




Get A Postal Address By Clicking In Google Maps

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in Google Maps and geocoding. Closed

Know where a building is, but don’t know the street address? This Digital Inspiration page lets you click on a location in Google Maps, and brings up the nearest street address (“reverse geocoding”):

Reverse geocoding in Google Maps

Via Lifehacker.




Worldwide Reverse Geocoding With Google Maps

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in Google Maps and geocoding. Closed

Via the Mapperz Blog, Nico Goeminne has created a reverse geocoder using the Google Maps API that brings up the closest street to a point of interest. Select a country/area that Google Maps supports geocoding for, zoom to the area in that country you’re interested in, and click on the map at your location of interest to create a marker. You’ll get the latitude/longitude of the point you clicked on, the name of the closest street, and the reference latitude/longitude for that street. A maximum of three markers on the map at one time, and a limit of 10,000 lookups a day if you use the source code for your own purposes.

For the US, more address-specific reverse geocoding is available at both the Reverse Geocoder for the United States and the Geonames Reverse Address Geocode.




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