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Recap of "Exporting Shapefiles To Google Earth" Series

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in GIS, Google Earth, KML and shapefile. 4 Comments

Here’s a short post recapping my series on free (or cheap) ways to export shapefiles to Google Earth’s KML format:

Exporting Shapefiles To Google Earth I – Quick And Simple

Using GPS TrackMaker to quickly export point and line shapefiles into KML format. Not a lot of flexibility, though, and limited attribute export.

Export Shapefiles To Google Earth II – Shp2KML Converter

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.

Exporting Shapefiles To Google Earth III – shp2kml

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.

Exporting Shapefiles To Google Earth IV – Shape2Earth

The only paid solution here ($29.99), but by far the most flexible and powerful.

A Free And Easy Shapefile Coordinate Converter

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.




Digital Globes

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in Google Earth. 2 Comments

Everyone else is blogging about the recent release of version 1.4 of NASA’s World Wind digital globe, so I might as well jump in as well. But I’ll do a listing of all the free available digital globes I’ve found.

Google Earth:Tops in terms of ease of use, user base, earth imagery, supported platforms (Win, Linux, Mac). Biggest disadvantage is that it’s not free for business or commercial use.

NASA’s World Wind:

A worthy open-source alternative. Not as easy to use as Google Earth. Elevation database is superior, but baseline imagery isn’t as good. You can install a plug-in that allows you to use Microsoft’s Virtual Earth imagery, but that can only be used for non-commercial purposes. Other than that, it’s free for all uses, personal and commercial. Contains virtual globes for the Moon and Mars as well as Earth. USGS topo maps, digital orthoquads (1-meter black-and-white imagery), MODIS satellite data, Landsat data available in standard version. Supports KML and shapefiles. Extensive user community creating a wide variety of plug-ins to add additional capabilities. Currently Windows only, but a multi-platform Java version should be available later this year. Greater hardware requirements than Google Earth. Dapple is a specialized version for displaying geoscience data.

MSN Virtual Earth:

In addition to its original 2D view, Virtual Earth now has a 3D view. Has great 3D views of many cities, utilizing Microsoft’s extensive birds-eye view imagery. But only runs as a plug-in in Internet Explorer for now, and not as easy to use as Google Earth.

ArcGIS Explorer:

ESRI’s entry into the digital globe field. Lots of promise, especially as a vehicle for deploying data generated by other ESRI products, but not quite there yet. I can’t add much more to Stefan Geens excellent review. Not easy to find for download – try this link for directions (you’ll have to sign up for an ESRI Global Account). Windows only.

SkyLine Globe:

Descendent of TerraExplorer, one of the earliest 3D visualization tools. Works as a plug-in in Internet Explorer or Firefox; Windows only. Some interesting capabilities (built-in real-time GPS tracking, TrafficCam layer, custom weather, terrain tools, etc.); can plot shapefiles directly. Biggest weakness is the imagery, which appears to be mainly derived from USGS aerial photography. In cities like Tucson and San Francisco, with 0.25-meter color imagery, it looks great. Elsewhere, it looks like one-meter black-and-white digital orthoquads color-merged with Landsat imagery, which doesn’t look as good as Google Earth’s 2.4-meter color imagery.

My take: I use Google Earth as my main digital globe, since its ease of use and great imagery give it the edge. World Wind is a strong second, and I use it occasionally on my desktop; my laptop can’t handle it. Virtual Earth doesn’t have enough compelling content, or ease of use, to get me to use it that often. I’m keeping an eye on ArcGIS Explorer, but right now it’s not ready for prime time. SkyLine Globe loses major points for the quality of its imagery.




Exporting Shapefiles To Google Earth IV – Shape2Earth

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in GIS, Google Earth, KML, MapWindow and shapefile. 4 Comments

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’




Exporting Shapefiles To Google Earth III – shp2kml

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in GIS, Google Earth, KML and shapefile. 2 Comments

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’




Export Shapefiles To Google Earth II – Shp2KML Converter

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in GIS, Google Earth, KML and shapefile. 7 Comments

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’




Exporting Shapefiles To Google Earth I – Quick And Simple

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in GIS, Google Earth, KML and shapefile. 2 Comments

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’




Recap Of Google Earth Plus For Free Series

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in Google Earth and GPS. 1 Comment

Now that I’ve *finally* finished the series on how to meet or beat most of Google Earth Plus’s features without paying for it, here’s a one-post set of links to all the posts in the series.

Google Earth Plus – Do You Really Need It?

Brief summary of what features Google Earth Plus has, and which ones there are free solutions for.

Importing GPS Data Into Google Earth I – Proprietary software and EasyGPS

Importing GPS data into Google Earth using standard GPX files, proprietary GPS unit software, and EasyGPS.

Importing GPS Data Into Google Earth II – GPSBabel and GPS Visualizer

How to use GPSBabel and GPS Visualizer to download GPS data, and convert GPX and other GPS data formats into Google Earth KML format.

Exporting Data From Google Earth To A GPS Unit

Exporting point and line data out of Google Earth and into a GPS unit, something Google Earth Plus doesn’t offer as a special feature.

Using GPS Utility To Import/Export GPS Data To/From Google Earth

Another “free” program with the ability to import and export GPS data to and from Google Earth.

Importing Spreadsheet Data Into Google Earth

Google Earth Plus lets you import up to 100 coordinate points in CSV format; free options allow unlimited import.

Another Excel To KML Converter

A simple Excel spreadsheet that can take up to 50,000 sets of coordinates, name and description data, and convert it to a KML file.

US Address Geocoding For Google Earth

As part of the spreadsheet import, Google Earth Plus will let you geocode 100 addresses, but free options let you geocode thousands of addresses per day.

GPS TrackMaker: A Better Solution For GPS Export/Import With Google Earth

A post about GPS TrackMaker, totally free software for GPS export/import to Google Earth, file conversion, track editing and more.

Automatic Caching Of Google Earth Data For Offline Use

A link to the DestinSharks.com description of Google Earth Voyager, a free program for automated caching of Google Earth data for offline use. Caching Google Earth data is necessary if you’re going to be doing real-time GPS tracking with Google Earth when you don’t have an Internet connection.

Real-Time GPS Tracking In Google Earth Free – Setup

Real-Time GPS Tracking For Google Earth – Free Options I

Real-Time GPS Tracking For Google Earth – Free Options II

Real-Time GPS Tracking With Google Earth – DonationWare

Real-Time GPS Tracking With Google Earth – Paid Options

The final set of posts, dealing with how to implement real-time GPS tracking in Google Earth with free or cheap options.

And check the series listing at the bottom for more recent updates.




Automatic Caching Of Google Earth Data For Offline Use

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in data and Google Earth. 4 Comments

If you plan to do real-time GPS tracking with Google Earth, and you won’t have Internet access while doing so, you’ll need to have data for the area you’ll be doing your tracking in cached on your hard drive by Google Earth. You can do this manually by “visiting” the area in question in Google Earth while you’re connected to the Internet, but DestinSharks.com has a post on Google Earth Voyager, a free program that automates that process. Edit: Thanks to Yousuf in the comments for this download link at Download.com.




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