Shapefiles can be created in any coordinate system, and are often (and annoyingly) found in a coordinate system different than the one you’d like them to be in. For example, several of the shapefile to KML converters posted about recently require that the shapefile be in Google Earth’s native coordinate system: geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude), WGS84 datum; what do you do if your shapefile is in a different coordinate system, like UTM, Lambert Conformal Conic, or State Plane Coordinate System? There are lots of free conversion utilities out there that can reproject shapefiles from one coordinate system/datum to another, but there’s one I prefer because it’s fast and easy to use.
Continue reading ‘A Free And Easy Shapefile Coordinate Converter’
The three previous posts in this series have examined completely free options for exporting shapefile data into Google Earth’s KML format. Each of those had advantages and disadvantages, with the biggest advantage for all being that they’re completely free.Today I’ll take a look at an option that isn’t free, but which at $29.99 I would classify as “cheap”, especially given its capabilities. And the free demo version lets you import up to 1000 features, enough to evaluate whether it meets your needs.
Continue reading ‘Exporting Shapefiles To Google Earth IV – Shape2Earth’
Note: shp2kml seems to be currently unavailable; try AFFMapper as an alternative.
Two earlier posts talked about free, quick and simple ways to export shapefile data to Google Earth’s KML format. Both had limitations on how much of the shapefile’s attribute data could be imported into the KML file, and how the shapefile data could be displayed, especially polygon shapefiles. There are two programs I know of that allow you to export shapefile data to KML format with multiple attributes, and also modify the colors with which the shapefile data is plotted based on attribute data. One program is completely free, but has quirks and limitations; the other is not free but cheap, and is more flexible and capable. Today’s post looks at the free one.
Continue reading ‘Exporting Shapefiles To Google Earth III – shp2kml’
In the first post of this series, GPS TrackMaker was used as a simple way to export point and line shapefile data to Google Earth’s KML format. But GPS TrackMaker is limited in its ability to export shapefile attribute data; it can only export one attribute to label each shape plotted. And it has difficulty dealing with shapefiles that have large numbers of vertices. Today’s post will deal with a simple free program that allows you to export data from multiple attributes to the KML file, and which also seems to have fewer problems with large shapefiles.
Continue reading ‘Export Shapefiles To Google Earth II – Shp2KML Converter’
There’s lots of cool and useful geographic data being produced in Google Earth’s native KML file format these days. But there’s also lots of geographic data available online in the standard shapefile format, compatible with most GIS software. Extensions to ArcGIS, like Brian Flood’s Arc2Earth ($99/$299) and Valery Hronusov’s KMLer ($20/$35/$50), can create KML files from ArcGIS data, but these are not only expensive but require that you have ArcGIS 9 or higher installed, a program that lists for $1500. It would be nice if there were cheaper alternatives, and there are.
Continue reading ‘Exporting Shapefiles To Google Earth I – Quick And Simple’
Shapefiles are the most common format for GIS vector data, and just about every GIS program, free or commercial, can open them. Unfortunately, older vector data is often in the ArcINFO interchange E00 format which, unlike shapefiles, isn’t a well-documented format. Many free GIS programs can’t open E00 files at all, and even those few that can often have problems handling them correctly. But there’s a fairly simple two-stage process that can accurately convert vector E00 files into shapefile format.
Continue reading ‘Converting E00 Vector Data To Shapefiles – A Free And Fairly Painless Approach’
Rich of GPS TrackLog points out that the demo version of OziExplorer has the ability to open shapefiles, and export the data to a GPS. I’d avoided looking at OziExplorer because I thought it was shareware, and you’re obligated to pay $85 for registration to use it. But Rich is right – the demo version does let you import shapefiles, and send them to a GPS. And it does a bunch more as well:
Continue reading ‘GPS/GIS/Google Earth Import/Export With OziExplorer’
GPS units are often used to gather data for export to, and use in, GIS. But there may be times when you might want to do the opposite – take GIS data and export it to a GPS. For example, you might have an area shapefile demarcating survey areas, and it could be helpful to import the boundaries of that area into your GPS unit, so that you’ll know when you’re inside (or outside) the survey area. Or you might have a point shapefile with the positions of sampling spots; it would be convenient to be able to import those sampling spot positions into a GPS as waypoints, and then use the waypoint positions to navigate to them. Two of the programs I’ve posted about earlier have the capability to import GIS data in shapefile format into a GPS unit.
Continue reading ‘Importing GIS Data Into a GPS Unit’
