Just a recap of a multi-part series on exporting and importing GIS data to and from GPS units, so that I can have a single posting to list in the “Special Series” sidebar section. If you’ve read it before, there’s nothing new.
Description of how to use DNRGarmin to export shapefile data from Garmin GPS units.
Covers shapefile data import from non-Garmin GPS units.
How to import point, line and polygon shapefile data into a GPS unit.
Brief description of capabilities of demo version of OziExplorer.
Second in my series of screencasts on MapWindow GIS is a brief look at MapWindow’s shapefile attribute data handling. It has some nice extra features that you might not find in other freeware GIS programs.
Continue reading ‘Intro To MapWindow GIS II – Shapefile Attribute Tables’
I’ve posted about MapWindow in earlier posts on Shape2Earth (a shapefile to KML converter), and on reprojecting shapefiles from one coordinate system to another. So I figured it was time to take a longer look at some of MapWindow’s GIS capabilities, since it’s one of the best open source shapefile viewers and editors out there, and has many other useful functions. In addition, GIS novices might find this series useful as a general introduction to GIS programs, since it covers some of the basic operations applicable to other GIS programs as well.
Continue reading ‘Introduction To MapWindow GIS I – Shapefile Viewing’
I love rocks. I love dirt. And I love the maps that show them. A good geology map is visually like a weird hybrid between a Peter Max poster and Jackson Pollock drip painting, but also tells a story spanning several billion years of Earth’s history. I’ve found a few websites where you can find and download geology maps in a variety of formats.
Continue reading ‘Rocks And Dirt – Geology And Soil Maps Of The US And World’
Here’s a short post recapping my series on free (or cheap) ways to export shapefiles to Google Earth’s KML format:
Using GPS TrackMaker to quickly export point and line shapefiles into KML format. Not a lot of flexibility, though, and limited attribute export.
Shp2KML exports point, line and polygon shapefiles, with more attribute data than GPS TrackMaker. No ability to modify KML plots based on attribute data, limiting usefulness, especially for polygons.
shp2kml uses a wizard approach to export shapefile data to KML format. Allows you to export multiple attributes, and to vary plot color depending on attribute value. Has some problems with large shapefiles.
The only paid solution here ($29.99), but by far the most flexible and powerful.
Since the first two solutions above require the shapefile to be in Google Earth’s native coordinate system (geographic coordinates, WGS84 datum), here’s a great program to convert shapefiles in virtually any coordinate system to the right one for Google Earth.
Many programs these days come with the built-in capability to produce output in the PDF format. For those that don’t, there’s a free program called PDFCreator that adds a printer driver to Windows; print to PDFCreator, and instead of hard copy output, your print results go into a standard PDF file, readable by Acrobat Reader or any other PDF-capable program. But what makes this a “GeoTool”?
Continue reading ‘PDFCreator’
The U.S. Census Bureau produces TIGER/Line vector data files (Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing). From the Census Bureau’s TIGER overview:
“The TIGER/Line files are a digital database of geographic features, such as roads, railroads, rivers, lakes, legal boundaries, census statistical boundaries, etc. covering the entire United States. The data base contains information about these features such as their location in latitude and longitude, the name, the type of feature, address ranges for most streets, the geographic relationship to other features, and other related information.”
These TIGER files are updated yearly, and contain some of the most current digital data for US streets and addresses. Most GIS programs can’t open TIGER vector files, and ESRI only has free TIGER data in shapefile format for the year 2000. Now a TIGER-to-shapefile converter that used to be a paid commercial program has been released as open source software, free for any use, along with a number of other useful TIGER and Census demographic data utilities.
Continue reading ‘Converting US Census TIGER Data Into Shapefiles For Free’
The Mapperz blog has a new post on ArcGIS 9.2’s Simplify Polygon feature:
“Simplifies a polygon by removing small fluctuations or extraneous bends from its boundary while preserving its essential shape.”
A nice tool to have to simplify polygon shapefiles with too high a level of detail. But suppose you don’t have ArcGIS 9.2 (at around $1500 list)? There’s a free web-based shapefile utility that does something similar.
Continue reading ‘Simplifying Line And Polygon Shapefiles’
