Note: See this series of posts for info on converting shapefiles to KML format.
In the last post, I covered a mildly painful way to convert the vector data (points, paths, and polygons) in Google Earth KML files to shapefile format, while keeping at least the name associated with the points and paths. Today, I’ll describe a simpler and faster two-step process, but one that unfortunately doesn’t keep the name or any of the other KML data associated with the original shapes.
Continue reading ‘Another Way To Convert Google Earth KML Files To Shapefiles’
No new content – just a consolidated listing of the posts in this series.
Description of basic shapefile viewing, and modifying views using attribute data.
Opening, querying, editing, and otherwise modifying shapefile attribute tables.
Creating shapefile layers, adding shapes, modifying shapes, and adding attributes.
Advanced shapefile manipulation, including merging, erasing, clipping, selection by mask, and buffering.
Using MapWindow to re-project shapefiles into different coordinate systems and datums.
Note: See this series of posts for info on converting shapefiles to KML format.
I haven’t really found a good way to transform KML files to shapefile format, and certainly not one that preserves most of the attribute information or data associated with the shapes in the KML file. But I’ve come up with a mildly painful, multi-step hack that will allow you to convert the point, path and polygon shapes to shapefile format, and which allows you to keep at least the object name associated with points and paths.
Continue reading ‘Converting Google Earth KML Files To Shapefile Format’
This is the final installment in my screencast series on MapWindow GIS. In addition to an easy-to-use shapefile editor, MapWindow has some advanced tools for combining, manipulating, and selecting from shapefile layers that aren’t all that common in freeware GIS software.
Continue reading ‘Intro To MapWindow IV – Advanced Vector Tools’
Not too long ago, I posted about a free US Census TIGER to shapefile converter that works with older TIGER files, with the TIGER 2006 1st edition, and will be updated to work with the 2006 2nd edition TIGER files. Just found out that it won’t have to be updated to deal with future versions. Upcoming editions of TIGER will be issued in:
- Shapefile format
- TIGER/GML
- WebTIGER, a Web Feature Service (WFS)
- Web Mapserver (WMS), delivering data in raster graphic and SVG format
See the Census web page on “The Future Of TIGER/Line” for more info. No more paying $399 for TIGER data and the data converters.
Stumbled across another free Excel spreadsheet that uses the Yahoo geocoder to convert addresses to geographic coordinates. Simple, basic, but does the job.
A link to a compressed version of ExcelGeocoder is available at the top of this page. Run the program to uncompress the spreadsheet, then open it up in Excel. It requires Visual Basic for Applications, so it won’t currently run in OpenOffice, but apparently VBA compatibility is coming soon to OpenOffice’s Calc spreadsheet and other components.The program uses Yahoo’s Geocoder, and requires you to enter a Yahoo ID in the Settings And Instructions tab, a remainder from when you had to register to use the service. Since registration is apparently no longer necessary, you can enter anything you want for a Yahoo ID, but you have to enter something. Paste your address data into the appropriate columns in the spreadsheet, click on the Geocode button in the upper left, and you’ll get back latitude/longitude for those addresses (up to 5,000 per day is allowed by Yahoo).
If you want to use this geocoded data in Google Earth, you can use excel2kml, or if you save the resulting data in CSV format, you can use csv2kml to convert it into a Google Earth file. You can also convert it into a point shapefile using software that I’ll be covering soon.
Third in the MapWindow screencast series is a quick runthrough of MapWindow’s shapefile editing capabilities. I think it’s one of the easiest to use of all the freeware GIS programs I’ve seen.
Continue reading ‘Intro To MapWindow GIS III – Shapefile Editing’
In 1999, the United States Geological Survey published a two-volume atlas of distribution and climatic data for the trees and woody shrubs of North America. The two-volume set costs $63, but the entire contents, including digital versions of the climate and distribution data, is available online for all you treehuggers out there.
Continue reading ‘Digital Atlas Of North American Woody Plants’
