Interactive Earth

Converting KML to Shapefiles

2011-07-28T17:18:00.000-07:00

An update to the free and open source KML2Shapefile extension for MapWindow GIS has been posted. There are a number of fixes to and enhancements to make conversion faster and easier.

KML has really taken off as a format for posting geospatial data on the Web. Bringing that data into a GIS offers a lot of analytic options for a great price.

Shape2Earth 2.0

2011-05-05T06:47:00.000-07:00

Shape2Earth for MapWindow GIS provides simple tools for converting shapefiles to Keyhole Markup Language (KML) for viewing GIS data in Google Earth. It runs as a plugin to the free and open source MapWindow GIS, which is an excellent .NET based GIS desktop application. The purpose of releasing Shape2Earth as a plugin to MapWindow was to take advantage of all of the shapefile tools that MapWindow makes available.

One drawback to this approach was that using MapWindow required a little bit of knowledge on general GIS workflows. Users needed to download MapWindow, then download Shape2Earth into a specific directory so that MapWindow could see it as a plugin, activate Shape2Earth in MapWindow, load a shapefile, and then know how to adjust the symbology of the shapefile using MapWindow, and then export the shapefile to KML using MapWindow.

Shape2Earth 2.0 works on top of the new Shape2EarthEngine, and greatly simplifies the process. Users can run Shape2Earth 2.0 without having to launch any additional programs. Shape2EarthEngine provides its own shapefile reader and symbol rendering engine. It does not require the use of MapWindow GIS, or any of its components.

While Shape2EarthEngine has been decoupled from MapWindow GIS, it can still run as a plugin to MapWindow, just like the original Shape2Earth. This lets users take advantage of all that MapWindow has to offer in terms of managing shapefiles and cartographically defining the symbology for export as a KML file.

Besides being able to run stand-alone, or with MapWindow, Shape2Earth 2.0 offers many new and improved options for letting people create compelling Google Earth maps using shapefiles.

Shape2Earth 2.0 and Shape2EarthEngine are still under development. I hope to have it available for beta testing by current Shape2Earth customers in the coming months.

Google Earth Portable Server

2011-01-17T10:14:00.000-08:00

Google is now offering a Google Earth Portable Server as part of their enterprise offerings. This architecture lets users select their area of interest from a web page with the Google Earth Plugin embedded in it. This are is extracted and downloaded on to their computer, and is served to the Google Earth Enterprise client, or to a web page with the Google Earth Plugin.

This configuration offers a lot of flexibility for use, and can run completely disconnected from the network. This is a big deal for government and DoD customers.

Similar solutions in the past made use of Linux virtual machines running a Google Earth Server connected to a Windows machine. The new configuration is much more elegant and manageable.

This architecture will make a lot of sense for military use. Soldiers could select there are of interest from an NGA server, and then download their imager, vector data, and applications as a deployable bundle that can operate disconnected, or in conjunction with other services.

Kml2Shapefile for MapWindow GIS

2010-03-05T15:30:00.001-08:00

Kml2Shapefile has been released as an open source KML/KMZ to shapefile converter. It is a plugin for the free MapWindow GIS. It needs a bit more testing. There are a lot of KML files out there.

I was going to provide the option to reproject the data, but decided the the user can do that easy enough in MapWindow after the shapefile has been created.

Kml2Shapefile will split the geometries out of KML into separate shapefiles (points, lines, polygons) and supports Z values and multipoints.

Currently, you can save the following as attributes:

Placemark name
Placemark snippet
Placemark description
Description HTML tables (needs more testing)
Lat/Long of point data
Elevation of point data

The ability to save custom schema's will come later. I thought it was best to get this our for testing.

Shapefiles for Web Mapping

2009-12-19T07:39:00.000-08:00

KML is becoming a standard way to display geospatial data on the internet. With all of the really good web mapping platforms available today, you can take your pick on how you would like to show off your GIS data to a large audience.

Shape2Earth can get your GIS data on the web quickly by converting your shapefiles to KML for display in Google Earth, Google Maps, or Bing Maps.

Here is a quick example of showing off GIS data in Google's App Engine platform with Google Earth. It's important to note that this capability is essentially free. Google will host your spatial application. All you have to do is put it together.

Shapefiles in in Google's App Engine (select the Shape2Earth layers on the right).

Shape2Earth Users Guide

2009-12-16T05:47:00.000-08:00

Shape2Earth has a much needed Users Guide on line to help get people going converting shapefiles to KML. Shape2Earth is very easy to use, but there is a lot that can be done with it in conjunction with MapWindow, and this guide should help those without a GIS background.

There is still some work to be done on the Guide, but I thought that getting the current information out there was more important than having 100% of the content filled out.

Shape2Earth 2.0 is also under works. It is mostly a redesigned form that takes into account lessons learned from Shape2Earth 1.0 for MapWindow. Shape2Earth 2.0 will still work with MapWindow to take advantage of its advanced GIS capabilities, but will also be able to run independently. The core management and conversion has been moved into Shape2Earth Engine. This will make it much easier for things such as batch converting of shapefiles, and embedding Shape2Earth into other applications

Shape2Earth for MapWindow GIS 4.7 Released

2009-11-21T16:20:00.000-08:00

Shape2Earth for MapWindow 4.7 has been released. Shape2Earth is the quickest, easiest, and cheapest way to convert shapefiles into Keyhole Markup Language (KML) for viewing in Google Earth.

This version of Shape2Earth offers a number of improvements, including:

1. Better handling of complex geometries
2. Ability to add custom balloon styles
3. Exporting of selected data, or data in a specific area
4. Sorting of spatial features into KML Folders based on an attribute
5. Higher accuracy on geo-referenced Google Earth image captures

Shape2Earth has been downloaded over 32,000 times in the last 18 months, and has been found to be exceptionally useful and cost effective by local and federal government agencies, as well as industry leaders in a multitude of professional specialties.

Download Shape2Earth and try it on your own data today.

MapWindow GIS User and Developer Conference

2009-10-02T12:17:00.000-07:00

The 1st International MapWindow GIS User and Developer Conference will be held in Orlando, FL, from 31 March to 2 April 2010.

MapWindow is a .NET, open source, easy to use, desktop GIS that can be extended through plugins.

Shape2Earth4GPS Alpha

2009-05-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

I have been working on a Google Earth based application that uses their new Plugin in a .NET Form called Shape2Earth4GPS. It is an experiment on being able to edit spatial data (in this case, GPS data) directly on the Globe.

Currently, it works very well for digitizing your waypoints and routes, and then saving them as GPX files to upload into your favorite GPS receiver. You can also load and edit your existing waypoints, routes, and tracks.

If anyone would like to act as a beta tester for Shape2Earth4GPS, please send me a note at sabin21@gmail.com

ArcGIS Explorer - Color Coding Shapefile Data

2009-05-28T13:57:00.000-07:00

I’ve been working on an ArcGIS Explorer stand-alone application that needs to let users select buildings inside of a buffer that is created around a user defined point. The attributes of the selected buildings and their colors need to be changed to indicate their status. The user will also be able to click on a building to select it, and then be able to change the status of the building (by changing the color/attribute of the selected building).

Using shapefiles, a file based personal geodatabase, or an ArcSDE geodatabase won’t work, because it does not look like you can have an attribute based coloring scheme. There also does not appear to by any way to extrude the shapefiles, and the building need to be 3D.
I can use KML to extrude buildings and change the color of individual features, but I cannot run any of the spatial operations on a KML file.

I am getting around this by using both shapefiles and KML. I’m using the ArcGIS Explorer API to generate KML form the shapefiles on the fly. Each KML Placemark has an ID that is equal to the shapefile FeatureID. I’m using the API to select features from the shapefile based on a point (for selecting an individual building) or by area (to select t group of buildings from a buffer). I can then open the XML/KML file, get the associated Placemarks by matching their Id to the FID, change their style to reflect the change in attribution, and then reload to view the change.

This seems to be a nice way to get around some of the limitations in ArcGIS Explorer to make it quite a bit more useful for my application requirements. This method also seems to work with file based personal geodatabases and ArcSDE.

Create and Edit GPX In Google Earth

2009-02-27T14:52:00.000-08:00

The Google Earth plugin is offering many new opportunities for writing custom web-based and desktop applications. iEarth is an experiment that uses Google Earth as the map for interacting with GPS and GIS data.

The Google Earth plugin is intended for use in a web page, but can also be embedded in a desktop application in a web control or referenced as an ActiveX control.

A common method for embedding the Google Earth plugin in a desktop application can be viewed online as a part of the Google Earth code samples.

Part of what makes the Google Earth plugin so much more flexible than its desktop counterpart is the programmatic control that is given to developers through its API.

Not only can spatial data be loaded as KML, but the source data can be directly manipulated through the Google Earth interface.

An example of this is the GPX editor seen below.

GPX is an XML based exchange format for GPS data such as waypoints, routes, and tracks. The GPX editor in iEarth can load existing GPX data for viewing or editing, and also lets users digitize and edit data from scratch. The data is translated into KML for viewing in Google Earth, but is kept in internally in the GPX format for saving.

This same method can be used with Shapefiles. The next release of Shape2Earth will embed a link to the shapefile so that editing spatial or attribute data in iEarth will also edit the shapefile.

Google Earth Plugin in iEarth

Digitize a GPX Waypoint and enter data

View the GPX attributes in the Google Earth Balloon

Digitize Routes in Google Earth and save as GPX for use in GPS Receivers

Right click on existing data to edit the attribute data

ESRI Online Services + Microsoft Virtual Earth

2008-07-30T15:31:00.000-07:00

An announcement from ESRI and Microsoft.

Users of ESRI’s ArcGIS will now be able to directly load base map data from the Microsoft Virtual Earth platform into the ArcGIS 9.3 Desktop and Explorer. Data layers will include the high resolution street maps, imagery, and hybrid that we have become accustom to seeing in Microsoft’s Virtual Earth.

Access to this data requires a subscription to ArcGIS Online Service.

Imagery can be previewed at http://resources.esri.com/arcgisonlineservices.

Virtual Earth ASP.NET Control

2008-07-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

Using the Virtual Earth map in your web page is nothing new. What is new about this control is that you can drop it into your ASP.NET project in Visual Studio and get it running without the need for any client side JavaScript. All of the parameters can be set in Visual Studio and all of the code to manipulate and interact with the map and map data and can be written in server side .net code.

The Windows Live Dev Blog points out that the map can be made even more interactive through the use of ASP.NET AJAX.

This control is one of several that Microsoft is offering as part of their Live Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio.

Shapefile to GeoRSS for Google Maps

2008-07-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

The most recent version of Shape2Earth includes a functional prototype for converting shapefiles to a GeoRSS format. It currently works with simple lines and points. Attribute data can be selected to be embedded in the GeoRSS feed.

Select the attributes you wish to export to GeoRSS

Attributes can be embedded in the xml, listed as a table, or both

GeoRSS is a very popular format, and is particularly useful for serving data to web mapping applications such as Google Maps.

View the Google Map/GeoRSS sample to see how point GIS data can be viewed.

Google Earth Custom Icon Editor

2008-06-24T09:01:00.000-07:00

The Shape2Earth icon editor for creating KML files has been greatly enhanced recently. Users now have an interface that is very similar to the one they use in Google Earth, and the ability to add their own custom icons to point data.

New icon selection window pulls icons from the Google Earth folder

Custom icons can be added to the pallete

Custom icons will stay in the icon window for later use

Shape2Earth icons can be changed when the user 'hovers' over an icon in Google Earth

Leica TITAN

2008-04-18T08:39:00.000-07:00

Leica Titan has actually been out for a while. There is a post on OgleEarth from December 2006 when the first product was just coming out. My first try with it was not so smooth. But recent updates have gone much better.

It appears to be your standard 3d earth browser, but is oriented more towards data sharing and collaboration. It has a built in instant messanger to share your spatial data with others.

Leica Titan Globe

Search for a Place and zoom

Load a shapefile. It seems to be able to handle many different formats.

You can change feature colors (not based on attributes).

Click on a loaded feature to view attributes

You can also load photos and place notes on the Earth to send to others. Performance was not to bad, though navigation was a bit touchy and took some getting used to. It seemed to me to be a bit like ArcGIS Explorer, but without the extensibility.

Leica TITAN is available for download.

Google Earth Version 4.3 Released

2008-04-17T20:17:00.000-07:00

Google Earth 4.3 was released on Wednesday, April 15. The biggest changes for most people (not power users of course) is a revamped navigation control and much different lighting on the planet.

The new lighting makes the Earth look much brighter, and the orientation of the light can be changed by moving the position of the Sun based on the time of day. This does not really make Google Earth better, it just makes it look different than in the past.

The new navigation control takes some getting used to, but it does let users move in ways that were not really possible before. There is more of a hover mode that makes is easier to move around when you are zoomed in close to an object, such as a model. This is a much bigger deal to me. Google Earth has always been good for navigating on a global scale, but needs some better controls for moving around a regional or smaller scale.

I had some problems with Google Earth locking up on me. I am staying with 4.2 until the next release, which typically cleans up a lot of issues.

Much better write ups on new functionality and a video can be seen at Google Earth Blog, and at Google LatLon , with some nice general thoughts at OgleEarth.

Open Source Geospatial Metadata Editor

2008-03-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

One of the most important and often overlooked aspects of geospatial data is the associated metadata. In a nutshell, metadata is “data about data”. It provides the background information on the what, when, where, and how of a spatial dataset.

As an example, if you are going to be making decisions based on a spatial dataset, you need to know how accurate and/or precise the data is. Data may have been collected using high grade survey equipment, or it may have been digitized from the educated guess of a subject matter export. Both of these data may be useful, as long as the user knows about these accuracy issues.
ESRI provides two different metadata editors in ArcCatalog. One uses the FGDC metadata profile, and the other an ISO profile (both have some extra ESRI elements added).

The new release of MapWindow GIS (a freely available, open source GIS) has an excellent metadata extension that provides a number of metadata creation, management, and visualization tools.

The Editor can be launched from MapWindow, and can show metadata from a loaded shapefile, or from a metadata xml file loaded from the user interface. Metadata can also be viewed using a number of built in styles sheets.

The metadata editor seems to work very nicely. One change I would like to see would be the ability to store user contact information so that newly created metadata could be updated more easily.

The Metadata Editor can be launched from MapWindow

A simple to use TreeView lets users navigate through metadata elements

I would like to see a change so that users can save contact profiles for quick loading.

Of course this is open source, so there is nothing stopping me!

Metadata can be quickly viewed using a number of built in style-sheets.

MapWindow GIS 4.5 Release Candidate 2

2008-03-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

The MapWindow Team released a second candidate for MapWindow GIS 4.5. The second candidate release was due to all of the new enhancements that are packaged with this version of MapWindow.

MapWindow is a Microsoft .NET based, extensible, open source, geographic information system (GIS) for the desktop. It has an active user community, and has been releasing new versions at a regular pace. It's plugin model allows developers to quickly create powerful, custom tools that can be streamlined for specific business purposes at a fraction of the cost when compared to more robust systems.

MapWindow is an excellent GIS package for those who want some basic GIS functionality. I find myself using MapWindow much more often than ArcMap for my day-to-day GIS work. It's just much quicker to start up and getting going with for my run of the mill GIS work.
The most recent 4.5 candidate offers a number of new plugins that are making MapWindow even better. Among them are:

A Great Metadata creation, viewing, and editing tool.
A GPS connection and tracking plugin.
A connection to PostGIS data
Google Geocoder Tool.
Enhancements to the Shapefile Editor

These are in addition to a number of other plugin extensions that have already been made available.

And, of course, there is the Shape2Earth shareware plugin that converts GIS data to KML for viewing in Google Earth and Google Maps.

KML for Web Mapping

2008-02-04T14:26:00.000-08:00

Keyhole Markup Language (KML) is starting to become a de facto standard for transmitting spatial data. Both Google Maps and Microsoft's Virtual Earth have added support for viewing KML data. In both of these cases, it is necessary to make the KML file available on the web so that Google and/or Microsoft can access the file and process it to be viewed in their map controls.

Google Map's, as you might imagine, is getting much better at displaying KML on their web map. The example below shows a KML file (created by Shape2Earth) showing the total number of households by state.

First in Google Map:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://shape2earth.com/Documents/states_NumHouseholds.kml

Then in Virtual Earth.

http://maps.live.com/?mapurl=http://shape2earth.com/Documents/states_NumHouseholds.kml

Note how the geometries in Virtual Earth do not line up very well, and in some cases, are not visible at all. Virtual Earth also seems to automatically add a center point, and does not adhere to the KML coloring scheme. If you switch to 3D mode, the geometries will line up much better, but the fill color seems to be absent.

It looks like any investments that you might be making in KML converters are going to be beneficial for some time to come.

Create Your Own Google Earth Application

2008-01-29T13:17:00.001-08:00

Building an application to work with Google Earth is pretty easy to do. This article will walk through the creation of a very simple application to capture different views in Google Earth.

To begin with, you will need to download Microsoft's Visual Studion Express Edition for C# (available for free at http://www.microsoft.com/express/vcsharp/).

Once Visual Studio is installed, select 'New Project' from the 'File' menu. In the New Project dialog box, select 'Windows Forms Application' and name your application 'FirstGeApp' (see below). Then select OK.

Once the new form is visible, right click on it and select 'Properties'. A properties window should appear in the lower right hand corner of Visual Studio. Change the following Form properties:

Name = frmViewCapture

Text = View Capture

TopMost = True

The TopMost property will keep your form on top of all other applications. This works well when interacting with Google Earth.

Once you have set the Form properties, we will add a MenuStrip control to the form, to do this, click on the Toolbox on the left side of the Visual Studio. When the tools appear, click on the pushpin icon to keep the tools open (see above).

After this, look for the 'MenuStrip' control and drag it onto your form.

Once the MenuStrip is on your Form, click on it to enter text. In the example below, I have added a 'File' menu and a "Capture View" menu. You can keep the default setting for both of these.

Next, we are going to add a TreeView control to store our captured views. Find TreeView from the Toobox pallete and drag it onto the form. Once you have done so, change the 'Dock' property of the TreeView to "Fill" (see bel0w). This will make the TreeView take up our whole Form.

Next, add an ImageList control. You can drag this control onto the Form, or drag it to the bottom part of Visual Studio (see below).

After you have added the ImageList, right click on and select 'Choose images' (see above). In the next dialog box, select "Add". Navigate to an icon of your choice (I used
C:\Program Files\Google\Google Earth\GoogleEarth.ico).

Once you have added the image, click on the TreeView in the form and look in the Properties on the right. Set the following properties:

ImageList = imageList1
ImageIndex = 0

Next, you will need to add a reference to Google Earth. To do so, look for 'References' in the Solution Explorer in the upper right hand panel of Visual Studio. Right click References and select "Add Reference". In the dialog box that comes up, select the 'Browse' tab. Browse to
C:\Program Files\Google\Google Earth\googleearth.dll (depending on your installation) and add it as a reference.

Next, click on Form1 in the Solution Explorer and select Code View (see below).

Now we are going to add some code. You will see code similar to below. Add the underlined code to project.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace FirstGeApp
{
public partial class frmViewCapture : Form
{
//Add a reference to the Google Earth Library
private EARTHLib.ApplicationGEClass _ge = new EARTHLib.ApplicationGEClass();
//Make an integer to keep track of our Google Earth Views
private int _viewNum = 0;

public frmViewCapture()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
}
}

Next, we will nee an event handler to capture the view. The simplest way to do this is to go back to your form and double-click "Capture View" on the menu that you added to your form. Visual Studio will automatically add the code below to handle the click event for this menu item.

private void captureViewToolStripMenuItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{

}

Next, we will add some code to actually handle this event. Write the following method underneath the captureViewToolStripMenuItem_Click method.

private void captureGeView()
{
//Get the current Google Earth Camera
EARTHLib.CameraInfoGE cam = _ge.GetCamera(1);
//Increment the number of views
_viewNum++;
//Create a Node for the tree view
TreeNode node = new TreeNode("View " + _viewNum.ToString());
//Add a reference the the GE Camera to the node
node.Tag = cam;
//Add the node to the tree view
this.treeView1.Nodes.Add(node);
}

Now, add "captureGeView();" to the captureViewToolStripMenuItem_Click method.

The next step is to add code to actually move Google Earth to each of the capture views. Go back to the Form and click on the TreeView control (treeView1). On top of the properties box, you will see an icon that looks like a bolt of lightening. Select this to see events for the TreeView. Double Click on MouseDown to automatically add a handler (see below).

This will add a "treeView1MouseDown" method to your code. Add the following code in this method.

private void treeView1_MouseDown(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
//Get the clicked node
TreeNode node = this.treeView1.GetNodeAt(new Point(e.X, e.Y));
if (node != null)
{
//Get the cam from the tree view tag reference
EARTHLib.CameraInfoGE camera = (EARTHLib.CameraInfoGE)node.Tag;
//Move the GE View
moveGE(camera);
}
}

And the following

private void moveGE(EARTHLib.CameraInfoGE cam)
{
//Set the Google Earth Camera View
_ge.SetCamera(cam, .5); //Change this number to alter your speed
}

Now Press F5 on your keyboard to run. Google Earth will open with your application. Clicking "Capture View" will add a view to your Tree View. Clicking on a node on your TreeView will move you to that node

Can you name this stadium?

You can take this much farther by adding user input to name each view and alter the speed. Chain them together to creat a tour or export to KML.

Build Your Own Google Earth Control

2008-01-28T09:48:00.000-08:00

If anyone is interested in writing your own Google Earth Control that can be embedded in your applicaiton, there is good information on how to do so using C# at Google Groups for KML.

Also, you can see delphi code to do the same thing at googleearthairlines.

Create a Google Earth Toolbar / Form

2008-01-21T09:52:00.001-08:00

A third option for integrating customized tools with Google Earth is pretty simple, you just write an application that hovers over Google Earth. It just like a floating tool bar or form that you can use to access your custom applications.

In the sample below, the application is sized to look like an extension to the Google Earth toolbar. It keeps track of the location of Google Earth so that it can stay in the same location. Different applications that interact with Google Earth can be launched from this toolbar.

Notice below the extension to the Google Earth Toolbar.

As an example, a custom Spatial Bookmark tool can save the current view of Google Earth for quick reference. Notice below how when this button is clicked on, a drop down menu of options is presented.

After selecting 'Create', a Windows form is launched. This form lets users name the current bookmark and set the zoom-to speed for when it selected.

Any of a number of spatial bookmarks can be save and accessed from the drop-down menu (see below).

The bookmark data itself is saved locally as an XML document. Different XML spatial bookmark documents can be saved and managed (see below).

In addition to saving bookmarks, the view itself can be sent through a web service to other people participating in a shared Google Earth collaboration.

Embed Google Earth Into Your Application

2008-01-21T07:34:00.000-08:00

This method for customizing the Google Earth Interface, embedding the Google Earth render window (the actual map window) into your own applications, was apparently pioneered Luca Rocchi and his Google Earth Airlines application. Luca figured out that you could grab the GE map window using its Windows handle to place it into your own application. He has used this to plop GE into web applications, but the ActiveX control that he provides for free can also be used in any COM compliant language (such as VB.Net or C#). I have used this plugin (and a similar one of my own design) to access external applications from Google Earth.

This method lets you completely encapsulate Google Earth with your own tools. However, it also hides the Google Earth tools. To get around this, you can assign the entire Google Earth application to be a child to your own custom application. Interestingly, not too long after Luca released his 'Google Earth Airlines' plugin, Google provided a method in their API to directly access the Windows Handle of both the render window (actual map) and the application window (the full application).

Custom Google Earth Applications with Network Links

2008-01-21T07:17:00.000-08:00

As posted previously, there are five general ways in which to provide custom control to Google Earth.

Use built-in network links and server side scripting to serve custom data dynamically.
Embed the Google Earth render window into your own application.
Build customized applications that always hover over Google Earth.
Use JavaScript in the built in web browser.
Use a Flash application in a pop-up balloon.

Using this first option does not really use the API, nor does it really let you modify the user interface. It uses the very flexible, built-in, KML capabilities that the Google Earth client provides for free.

To use it, you need to have a web server that can respond to a network link request from Google Earth. The request can have a number of client parameters in it, such as the view information. This can be used to generate a return KML document whose content is based on the area that a user is looking at. A network link KML file can be added to Google Earth that sends this request to update the KML document on a time basis, or whenever the user zooms and stops.

This method can get pretty sophisticated. The Regions KML tag allows users to define the visual region of interest for specified data in the KML document. This is a great way to handle very large datasets.

A network-link KML document can be created that defines a number of different, thematic, KML documents, which can be loaded and unloaded every time the user enters a defined region. Brian Flood offers an excellent example of how this can be applied to large geospatial data sets using Arc2Earth.

Customizing the Google Earth Interface

2008-01-21T06:55:00.000-08:00

Ever since people became aware that it was possible to allow external software applications to interact with Google Earth using their API (which seems to be in perpetual beta stage), they have been trying to figure out how best to integrate their custom applications into Google Earth.

While almost all of the initial efforts dealt with taking existing applications and simply loading their data into GE in a KML format, later efforts involved trying to make all functionality directly accessible form the Google Earth application itself.

The basic problem, however, is that Google Earth does not provide a framework to extend its user interface. You cannot simply add a new button to their toolbar that fires off your own application, as you can in many GIS and Office software packages.

A couple of tricks have been developed to make Google Earth application extensions appear to work seamlessly with Google Earth. They generally fall into five categories.

Use built-in network links and server side scripting to serve custom data dynamically.
Embed the Google Earth render window into your own application.
Build customized applications that always hover over Google Earth.
Use JavaScript in the built in web browser.
Use a Flash application in a pop-up balloon.

Has anyone come up with their own way get their application to work with Google Earth?

Publish Your Own Google Map Without a Server

2008-01-10T11:53:00.000-08:00

If you would like to publish your own Google Map, but do not have a server to place it on, there are some greate options to get you started without needing a server.

I ran across this web page recently that has a number of excellent tutorials for using Google's Page Creator. The Google Pages site is fantastic for putting together really quick and easy web pages. It also will let's you publish your own Google Maps Web Page using the this tutorial.

I used this tutorial to put together my own sample Google Map. This is pretty basic, but could be spiced up quite a bit with added funtionality.

Creating Hybrid Spatial Solutions: Commercial and Open Source

2008-01-05T07:54:00.000-08:00

Open source geospatial systems and tools have really taken off in recent years, as has the open source community at large. While an open source geospatial solution may be enticing to some GIS managers, there remain a number of hurdles for them to be effectively employed.

Chief among these hurdles are the lack of documentation, training, and the added difficulties of configuring or extending open source solutions (it’s tough to get a good ArcSDE administrator, it’s tougher still to get a good PostGIS administrator). In addition to this, while open source is starting to provide a rather comprehensive suite of software that includes desktop and web based GIS tools and services, as well as database storage and support, they still tend to lack a good data management framework. I suspect that the reason for this is because developers of open source spatial software want their work to be able to do something relatively fast. So they tend to make them work on existing GIS data (such as shapefiles) rather then put a heavy emphasis on creating and managing spatial data from scratch.

Most GIS may be reluctant to move too quickly towards an open source solution when they already have a functionally proprietary system in place. Even though moving towards open source may be compelling due to the potential cost savings in licensing fees, those savings are offset by concerns over being able to manage the system and maintain current capabilities.

The most likely scenario in the near future is to start seeing the appearance of hybrid solutions.

As an example, a GIS shop may decide that their use of ArcEditor (or ArcInfo), ArcSDE and ArcIMS (or ArcServer) may be overkill for their specific requirements. While this software provides an enormous amount of capability, this may not actually be required. It may be possible for them to effectively manage their spatial data using an ArcMap license to manage the spatial data, and then have that data pushed into a PostGIS database for corporate or enterprise attribute editing and visualization. The key is to leverage the power of both commercial and open source solutions towards cheaper and oftentimes more powerful solution.

SDSFIE Data Dictionaries for Trimble GPS

2007-10-04T15:15:00.000-07:00

The Spatial Data Standards for Facilities, Infrastructure, and Environment (SDSFIE) provides a template for creating standardized geospatial standard for storing data. There are tools that can be used to automatically create SDSFIE Geodatabases (as well as other formats), but there have been no tools that could automatically generate SDSFIE compliant Data Dictionaries to be used for data collection by Trimble GPS units. The SDS2DDF application was designed to do just that.

The SDS2DDF is a VB 6 application that creates an ascii file that can be imported into Trimbles Data Dictionary Editor, and then into their GeoExplorer (and other) GPS receivers for field collection.

The above graphic shows the SDS2DDF as soon as it has been opened. Users can select to navigate through SDSFIE Feature Classes either by class, or grouped by Feature Dataset. The browser below shows the browse by Feature Dataset option. Users can also conduct a search by keyword to find a Feature Class that best meets there needs.

The user above has selected three Feature Classes. After selecting OK, the Feature Classes are loaded into the Main application screen (below).

Users can then browse through all of the loaded attributes for each Feature Class and determine which ones they would like to export to the final data dictionary. They can also view the description and domain values (if present) for each attribute field.

Users can also change certian properties for each feature, such as the alias name to be used (below).

Users can also change certain aspects on how the data is collected by the GPS receiver.

Once complete, the file is saved as an ASCII file (below).

To get the data into Trimble's Data Dictionary Editor, the user just selects 'Import ASCII file" from the 'File' menu.

The data can then be modified and saved as a DDF file for use in a Trimble GPS receiver.

Microsoft Photosynth Promises a Truly Immersive Experience

2007-09-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

Microsoft's Photosynth

Photosynth is a remarkable product that is being developed by Microsoft in their Live Labs. It can merge hundreds of photos from many different angles to create a truly incredible, fluid, visual experience. I found its navigation to be extremely easy and flexible.

I can only imagine what capabilities this might provide if they merge it with Virtual Earth. This may provide a truly immersive experience at many different scales. Users could zoom from the macro to micro in an instance. It appears to be able to server an enormous amount of data very quickly.

It looks like Photosynth is part of a larger effort to change how we can visually interact with our limited monitors (check out Seadragon). This promises to deliver some very exciting results in the not to distant future for the geo-community.

You can download Photosynthes from the Live Lab website. There are also a couple of good videos to watch at the Live Lab site, and on at TED.

Flight Simulator Built into Google Earth 4.2

2007-09-05T16:24:00.000-07:00

A friend pointed out to me today that there is a hidden feature in the new Google Earth 4.2 release. If you click on the Earth and hit ctrl+alt+a, you will get a dialog box for a flight simulation mode in Google Earth flying either an F-16 or an SR22 aircraft. You can also select to start from an airfield, or from your current point of view. A heads-up display appears as soon as you get into the flight mode.

After you have entered this mode for the first time, you will be able to access it from the Tools menu in Google Earth.

I do not have a joystick on my computer, and the control seem to be a bit touchy, but this is very interesting as a hidden feature. Keep your fingers crossed that they keep working on this and turn it into something useful.

Click Ctrl + Alt + A after clicking on the globe to activate. Once activated, Enter Flight Mode is available from the Google Earth Tools menu

Fly around with a Heads up Display.

GIS and KML

2007-08-19T15:36:00.001-07:00

When Google released Google Earth as a free download several years ago, people quickly learned what Keyhole Markup Language (KML). GIS professionals were quick to build translators to convert their data from several different formats into KML for viewing in Google Earth. The better of these tools let the user maintain the mapping symbology from their GIS software platform into the KML.

In the last couple of years, and enormous amount of geospatial data has been converted to KML to be viewed in Google Earth. In response, may geospatial visualization packages started to let users load KML into their own viewers. So where does KML actually fit into the whole geospatial realm? Will it become a standardized way to store geospatial data?

KML has a couple of things going for it. It’s based on XML and is well documented. It represents a pretty good method for encoding spatial data and symbology (and, to a lesser extent, attribution). But by far the biggest thing KML has going for it is that it is native to Google Earth. To that end, KML is really oriented toward defining displayable geospatial data. I have yet to see any code that performs any geosprocessing on KML, and there is a lot of overhead with KML then with, as an example, a shapefile.

So where does KML fit in compared to GIS data? I think that the answer to that lies with what people with a GIS background typically do with KML. They dynamically generate it from traditional geospatial data stores (shapefiles, geodatabases, etc), and they allow their own viewers to load and see KML files.

KML is serving the role that is usually found within GIS software. Whenever a file is loaded, a symbology class is assigned to it to define how the data will look in the map. Most people, other than programmers, never actually see this information. They only see the windows that let them alter the symbology of data, and the data itself. Some GIS packages allow users to save “layer” information that references the originating spatial data (an ESRI ‘.lyr’ file is an example).

So, in conclusion, it appears that KML represents what is typically in in-memory representation of geospatial and symbology data in most geospatial software applications, offering KML authors a very unique, open, specification at that level of representation.

Targeted Solutions with ArcGIS Explorer

2007-08-19T07:10:00.000-07:00

ArcGIS Explorer is described by ESRI as being a “lightweight client for ArcServer”. Interestingly, ArcGIS Explorer is not actually tied to any other ESRI products. It and an SDK to develop customized tasks are free to download, and (as far as I can tell) free to deploy.

What this means is that ArcGIS Explorer can be used as an interface for all sorts of geospatial applications in a manner similar to Google Earth, Virtual Earth, and WorldWind using free and open source geospatial software components. Any processing logic that can be connected to any of these earth browsers can similarly be connected to ArcGIS Explorer. The current strength of ArcGIS Explorer in this category is the ability to customize the interface to hold any new toolsets.

I am really hoping to be able to work on some targeted geospatial applications that can very cheaply take advantage to this visualization platform.

Google Earth as a Geographic Information System

2007-01-09T15:37:00.000-08:00

The first work that I did with Google Earth and KML was to build a converter in ArcMap that would export all of the selected layers out to KML. We used this for an emergency response tool set that worked in ArcMap. The idea was that the mapping would be managed by someone trained in using GIS who would them automatically kick-out KML updates to a server to be viewed using GE networklinks by commanders.

This worked really well, but at the time, I wondered if it would be possible for Google Earth to act more as an interactive partner rather than a static viewer. When it came to having GIS capabilities, Google Earth has never really been considered (for good reason).

However, the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if GIS type functions used for command and control applications could not be accessed and used by Google Earth. What I really wanted to do was to used open-source functions with not license restrictions to create a GIS back end, and then have Google Earth act as the interface.

When Google Earth officially announced that they had a COM API, I started looking a bit more at the possibility of being able to interact more effectively with Google Earth. I noticed some update functions that I thought might help . I first mentioned this in the beginning of December when I wrote New Google Earth API Allows for GIS Type Interaction.

I was able to use this new API function to select coordinates directly from Google Earth. This has huge implications, as I can use these coordinates to Select and Identify GIS data. I can now marry this capability with Shape2Earth, which allows me to Import GIS directly into Google Earth.

So, now I can load GIS data directly into Google Earth, and I can query and select this data using Google Earth. The next thing I want to do is actually create data and launch geoprocessing functions from Google Earth. Here is how I do that.

To start with, I have the Google Earth Render window embedded in my application (I'm using GoogleEarthAirlines to do this), and I have loaded GIS data using a modified form of Shape2Earth.

To show how I can interact with Google Earth similar to a GIS, I'll walk through an emergency response scenario. I am given a building at which there is an incident, I can do a quick search using either the building name, ID, or a coordinate. I use MapWindow GIS components to search for the building information in the shapefile, and then zoom to the location.

When I get to the area of interest, I want to Cordon (buffer) off the affected area. I first select my Cordon tool and click on Google Earth to set the center point (I could also select the building and create a cordon around that). The point (or selected feature) is sent to my cordon tool. I then select the size of the cordon, the measurement units (feet, meters, etc.), and the number of rings I would like. In this case, 2000 feet with 1 ring.

MapWindow GIS components are used to create the buffer (shown below). Shape2Earth creates a kml file and a shapefile to represent the new geospatial data set.

The next thing I want to do is determine what buildings are impacted by this event. MapWindow GIS components select the buildings using the cordon polygon. Shape2Earth modifies the color of the kml and reloads is quickly into Google Earth (see below). The same process is used to select affected roads, and to set up traffic control points to isolate the area.

All of these new data are saved as kml with associated shapefiles as described in Importing GIS Data into Google Earth.

Since my GIS data and KML are linked, and I can grab coordinates off of the map, I can change the status of buildings simply by clicking on them in Google Earth (note that the orientation of Google Earth does not matter, not does the location that you click). This brings up a dialog box that lets me edit the GIS data which also changes the color of the KML.

Above, GIS data is selected and edited directly in Google Earth.

Below, the KML file is update and reloaded.

Combining the visualization of Google Earth with the power of GIS leads to some very effective capabilities. The data can be immediately served out to other clients, such as another Google Earth as seen in the graphics below.

GIS Data viewed and edited in Google Earth above

Created GIS data viewed in another Google Earth Client in near real-time

Besides being able to edit GIS attribute data, we can create GIS data by digitizing directly on Google Earth. The graphic above shows a sketched route that is converted to a shapefile.

Importing GIS Data into Google Earth

2007-01-09T15:34:00.000-08:00

Google Earth has often been described as a geospatial data browser. The reason for this is simple ... while Google Earth is fantastic for visualization, it does not do (nor has it been intended to do) many traditional GIS tasks. As an example, you cannot really query GIS data or directly access attribute data. You also cannot edit or manage geospatial data. Google Earth is really intended to do one thing very well, and that is to display geospatial data on a visually appealing framework. There have been many efforts by a lot of people to try and wring GIS type capabilities out of Google Earth. Many of the more successful ones used a combination of network links and data embedded in the description tag (and visible in the callout balloon) to link points to other data available on servers. What would really make things easier would be if users could click on Google Earth and grab coordinates. If we could do this, then we could attach geospatial capabilities behind Google Earth to make it act as a GIS interface. The new Google Earth API (and a lot of trickery) have now made that possible. The first thing I wanted to do was to be able to create toolbars that could be accessible in Google Earth. Since I could not do that, I started looking into grabbing the Google Earth Windows handle so that I could embed the viewer in my application. I had a 75% solution in the bag when I stumbled on GoogleEarthAirlines. GoogleEarthAirlines is an ActiveX control written in Delphi that does just what I was planning to do. When I found this, I put my control on the backburner and started using this. The graphic below shows the GoogleEarthAirlines control in my application.

The plan now is to link GIS data with KML. KML will act as the layer file that does nothing more than render my GIS data. to get the GIS data into Google Earth, I used a modified form of Shape2Earth. Shape2Earth converts the shapefiles to KML, and then writes an XML file that links the two files together.

Shape2Earth is used to create height values of GIS Data

Basic colors for the output KML are selected

A Unique ID is selected from the Attribute field. This will be used to attach to databases through Google Earth

The steps above walk through loading a shapefile into the Google Earth GIS application. Now, we use our trickery to click on Google Earth and grab a coordinate. This is done using the method described here.

The great thing about this method is that it does not matter what the orientation of Google Earth is. It will always return the coordinate that you clicked.

In the graphic below, I have selected the ID button, and then clicked on a building. The application uses geoprocessing capabilities provided by the open source GIS application MapWindow. It loads the selected shapefile, and uses the coordinate to determine what has been selected. The result is the ability to directly access geospatial attribute data by clicking directly in Google Earth.

The same method can be used to select multiple features, as is shown below.

Select Tool lets the user drag a selection box across Google Earth

MapWindow components are used to select the geospatial features and display their attributes

Now that we can do some basic GIS type functions directly in Google Earth, we can start doing more sophisticated workflows. The next step is to actually create GIS data directly in Google Earth. That has already been done, and will be posted here shortly.

Shape2Earth Version 1.0

2007-01-04T06:03:00.000-08:00

After three beta testing periods, and a lot of new enhancements and optimizations, Shape2Earth Version 1.0 has been released for download at http://shape2earth.com/.

Shape2Earth uses freely available Geographic Information System (GIS) software to convert shapefiles into color coded Keyhole Markup Language (KML) files for visualization in Google Earth.

Shape2Earth provides a powerful tool for people and organizations who do not wish to invest thousands of dollars in professional GIS software in order to create powerful and compelling visual information. Shape2Earth can also quickly expand the capability of those who already have a significant investment in GIS for the lowest price possible.

Download Shape2Earth, and then look at the online blog to see what shape2earth can do for you.

Physiographic Regions of the U.S.

Labeling KML Part 2

2006-12-09T13:18:00.000-08:00

I wrote previously on how Shape2Earth can now create center-points from polygons that can be used for labeling. The next thing I need to do is create the same functionality for lines. This is a bit trickier than for polygons. Imagine using the bounding envelope for the Missouri River to create a center-point to label the River. Its just not going to be in a very effective place.

The idea I am going to take a crack at is to use one of the points in the feature itself. I'll probably just pick the middle point and use that as the label. This should get the label reasonably close, and then let users make minor adjustments to its location in Google Earth.

New Google Earth API Allows for GIS Type Interaction

2006-12-07T16:13:00.000-08:00

I am not sure that this is what the Google Earth engineers had in mind when they released it, but new COM API exposes a method called “GetPointOnTerrainFromScreenCoords”.

If you pass this method normalized screen coordinates from the GE Render window, it will return the Latitude, Longitude, and elevation of that point in Google Earth. This opens up an enormous amount of potential for using Google Earth as your GIS interface.

Google has always maintained that they are not a GIS, and they are right. But they have a great visualization system. All that is needed is a way to interact with their interface in a way that makes sense for GIS types of applications. All of the GIS activity can than go on behind the scene.

As an example, I can now click anywhere on Google Earth and capture the coordinates. I can also drag a rectangle across the screen and define its actual location within GE. I can then pass this data back to GIS representation (such as a shapefile) of the loaded KML data. The result is a color coded selection set of data, or a new window that holds whatever feature data I would like to see from another server (or local data).

I can also use the coordinate to calculate a buffer that is loaded in as KML. I can also use this data to select other data.
You can also create very quick sketches directly in Google Earth that can be saved as shapefiles, or sent out to other clients for collaboration. Much more to come on this.

GIS for Google Earth: Final Testing

2006-12-07T15:33:00.000-08:00

[Note: Final testing for Shape2Earth is complete. Shape2Earth Version 1.0 is has been released as shareware, and is available for download at http://shape2earth.com/shp2e.aspx]

The final beta version of Shape2Earth is ready for testing. I am particularly interested in international users, as I have had some issues with coordinates being written without decimals, and I want to make sure that is working.

This version also has a licensing manager built in to it. It will operate in full mode for 7 days, but then must be licensed.

Beta testers will receive the license to extend the use of the software until the final release.

Any interested persons may contact me at Sabin21@gmail.com

Labeling GIS Data with Shape2Earth

2006-12-07T06:26:00.000-08:00

One of the most requested functional additions for Shape2Earth has been the ability to label polygons. This is now possible with the use of a centroid function that creates a point in the middle of the polygon for the label.

In the example below, I will be labeling major lakes in the United States.

First, I open up Shape2Earth from MapWindow GIS

Then, from the Properties tab, I select the points that I want to use for the labels using the Enhanced Point Selector dialog box.

If I want there to be only text, I make the size of the icon zero, and do not add a label rollover. If I want to make it a bit fancier, I can select one point for the label, and another that is displayed when the user rolls over it.

Finally, I can select which attribute field I want to use to label each polygon. I can also select to sort the features so that they will be displayed in alphabetical order.

A simple result is show below.

These methods can be used to make some rather sophisticated views in Google Earth

Personal Geodatabase Feature Classes in Shape2Earth

2006-12-05T18:38:00.000-08:00

Another interesting thing that I have been poking around at for some time is the ability to read ESRI Access Personal Geodatabases directly from their binary representation without the need for ArcObjects. The trickiest part of this was having to interpolate curves. I have this working to a reasonable degree.

The current prototype exports PGDB feature classes to KML, Shapefiles, and into SQL for importing GIS data into PostGIS, and has been tested with PGDBs created with ArcGIS 9.1 and 9.2. This opens more data for use with Shape2Earth.

I have been assuming that the same binary structure used in Access databases are also used by ArcSDE, but have not had the chance to test this theory out.

This same method could be used to create and edit Personal Geodatabase (and ArcSDE for that matter), but I doubt I’ll ever have the time to see this through.

Shape2Earth Beta 3

2006-10-30T06:45:00.000-08:00

[UPDATE:
Shape2Earth Beta 3 input provided an enormous amount of help in the finalization of Shape2Earth. Shape2Earth Version 1.0 is now available for download at http://shape2earth.com]

I have recently been able to start work on Shape2Earth Beta 3. Work so far has focused on a couple of fixes and enhancements or adjustments to current functionality.

I am cleaning up the 3D section and adding the ability to use Z values. Clamping features to the Earth will happen automatically if there are no height values (greater than zero) for all of the points in the feature.

Shape2Earth has better handling for zero geometries, which are very common in data that is typically derived from CADD. Previously, if there were any features with zero geometry, the resulting kml document would be blank of any data.

I would like for Shape2Earth to be able to handle the sorting of features based on an attribute to be a bit more user friendly. It currently requires the user to set three different values in three different areas to work. This will be consolidated into a single area.

I will probably build a separate form that can be used to better control the symbology of the features. Users will have an easier time selecting point symbols, and will have greater control over setting the colors for lines and polygons.

I have added a centroid function that creates a ‘center-point’ for polygons. This can be used for labeling.

I am adding better instructions on how to make sure that the shapefile is projected properly.

Users will also be able to only export a subset of the features in the feature class (such as only those in the current view, or those that have been selected).

Users will be able to export the view as a PNG overlay image.

I am also doing some experimenting with collada models. In some cases, lifelike models can be used to represent the features from the shapefile. This can be used in conjunction with the new features found in KML 2.1 to display features at different distances as different symbols (a generic circle at a great distance would be displayed as a model when the user gets close enough to see the model appropriately).

Shape2Earth Instructions

2006-07-06T13:03:00.000-07:00

Shape2Earth is a quick and easy way to convert GIS files into Keyhole Markup Language for viewing in Google Earth.

Instructions on how to use Shape2Earth Version 1.0 have been posted at this Shape2Earth Users Blog.

Advanced Touring in Google Earth

2006-06-26T19:43:00.000-07:00

Way back when I first started investigating using Google Earth as a near real-time visualization client for a GIS, I stumbled upon GE’s very small API. For those of you not familiar with the term, an API is the Application Programming Interface for an application. It provides programmatic control to certain parts of the program.

The API for Google Earth is very small and experimental. The GE engineers did not make it publicly known, and do not support it (I am somewhat inclined to believe that that might change in the future). One of the things you can do is tell GE where to move to and how fast to move there. You can also tell it to load a kml file. I used these two very simple commands to create long running tours. You can really make some neat things happen when you have GE slowly spiral in and then quickly change directions. Coupling this with the dynamic loading and unloading of data makes for some really powerful visual presentations. These original tours were hard coded, and were begging for some automation.

To create the tours, I had built a small application that would capture the Latitude, Longitude, Range, Tilt, and Azimuth of my current view in GE. I could then paste the data into my move function in the Tour applications.

Over time, I have changed things quite a bit so that I can persist the views in XML. I can also set the movement speed and movement hold time using the user interface to get better movement effects, and then jump back and forth between each view to see how the overall movement looks.

I have also written a little utility so that you can export the tour as point placemarks in Google Earth. These placemarks keep the name and description information (viewed in the information balloon), and lets the application act as a very quick way to set placemarks defining features found in GE.

Once a tour has been made, it can be saved as XML and used by others (assuming they have the same program). Eventually, I should be able to set it up so that people can quickly create their own fly-throughs and data loading sequences to demonstrate and or brief.

Some examples of how this can be used is as an education briefing (fly around to different geological areas of interest and load data to both highlight the area display text to describe it), operational briefings (Air Force pilots can be taken through a mission with data popping into view and described as required), engineering (this has already been used to tour through large scale engineering, construction, and logistics phases).

The uses are nearly endless.

Google Earth -- World Wind -- ArcExplorer

2006-06-18T07:11:00.000-07:00

I was recently at an Air Force conference where Google Earth, NASA’s World Wind, and ESRI’s ArcExplorer where prominently displayed. The serious interest that organizations like the Air Force are putting into these platforms has given me the opportunity to explore each of these platforms a bit more in depth.

I am still using Google Earth a great deal. I don’t believe that it can currently be challenged in its ease of use and clean navigation. My 5 year old loves to play with Google Earth, and has no trouble getting around the planet to points of interest. Their KML data representation and the use of Network links to serve data offer a very interesting and open way to create very unique customizations. For organizations with a very large amount of data, it is tough to beat their server products. This would work very well for the Air Force, which could leverage their own imagery holdings with other services and NGA to create their own world for Air Force specific applications and visualizations.

Things I wish they would do …. Currently, Google Earth offers a couple of methods to integrate existing GIS data into their system. You can load KML files, or you can purchase their Fusion product that compiles your data into a format that can be hosted by their Earth Server product into a Google Earth Enterprise Client (the Google Earth Browser with extended features). You have two options with the Earth Server. You can either have a hybrid system in which you load your vector data into the Earth Server and view it against the Keyhole server imagery. Or you can get Enterprise Pro, and host ALL of the data in your own world.

The whole Google Earth product line is really an enterprise system. It works best when everything is put together. I would like to see what I would term an organizational level system (as opposed to enterprise). An example would be using a Windows 2003 Server to host organizational data (to include imagery) that can be securely fused with the larger Keyhole imagery server. The great majority of organizations don’t want to just load their vector data in the big Linux based Google Earth Server in a hybrid mode, or be responsible for populating an entire world if they have localized imagery. They want to view their holdings fused against the Google data.

Secondly, if the Google Earth Client could expose some additional capabilities to developers in their API, the GIS community could rapidly start tacking on some pretty sophisticated geoprocessing capabilities.

I finally got around to downloading the World Wind source code, and started investigating their method for creating Plugins. I have seen World Wind improve quite a bit over the last year. And believe that it will continue to get better. Its unique power in this game is that it is open source and license free. They automatically provide the ability to completely customize the user interface and provide the ability for any developer to integrate any type of GIS data. I am currently working on an extension that uses Yahoos geocoding service to search for locations and zoom to them in WW.

I have only seen ESRI’s ArcExplorer in Beta. I will withhold my comments on it until it is released. It will probably work very well for anyone who already has an investment in an ESRI based system. I am looking forward to doing some development work with it before the end of the year.

Download Shape2Earth Beta 2

2006-06-01T13:22:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Shape2Earth Beta 2 testing has closed. Shape2Earth Version 1.0 hase been released as shareware, and is available for download below.

http://www.shape2earth.com

Shape2Earth Beta 2 Testing

2006-05-14T19:40:00.000-07:00

[Note: Shape2Earth Version 1.0 has been released as shareware and is available for downloading and evaluating at http://shape2earth.com. The evaluation period described below has resulted in dramatic enhancements to Shape2Earth.]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A couple of people have taken the time to look at and test Shape2Earth Beta 2. The Beta 2 application has a number of enhancements over the initial test release. There are a couple of consistent requests between the two releases that I will begin to work on shortly.

While feedback has been very positive overall, a couple of issues I have received so far deal with the install package and shapefiles behaving badly. I’ll need to implement a better error handling system so that people will know if the problem is with the shapefile or with Shape2Earth.

Wider use has helped to weed out issues. With that in mind, I would like to invite anyone who is interested in testing Shape2Earth Beta 2 to please send a request to me at Sabin21@gmail.com.

For those interested, I would recommend downloading and installing MapWindow GIS before requesting to test Shape2Earth Beta 2.

As I compile feedback and start adding improvements for Beta 3, I will start to send out a more format questionnaire to beta testing participants.

Shape2Earth Beta 2

2006-04-17T14:30:00.000-07:00

[NOTE: Shape2Earth Version 1.0 has been released for download at http://shape2earth.com]

There are a number of nice enhancements added to Shape2Earth for the Beta 2 release.

Optimized Speed
Shape2Earth has been optimized and is much faster when writing KML.

Query Attribute Data
Users can query GIS attribute data using keyword inputs, can sort fields, and can zoom to selected features in Google Earth. This is very helpful for large datasets, and for polygons that are not selectable in Google Earth.

On-The-Fly Reprojecting
Users no longer have to reproject their data to WGS84 before converting. Shape2Earth can now re-project on the fly from the original projection to Google Earth’s projection.

Enhanced Point Options
Users have a better selection on which graphics to use to represent point features. They also have the option of changing the size and color of a point when the mouse hovers over it in Google Earth. Similarly, users can set up the KML so that the attribute used to name the feature is only visible when the point is hovered over (see below).

Improved Interface
The Shape2Earth interface has been compacted, with tools being moved from the Form to a toolbar on the top. This helps when people want to interact with Shape2Earth and Google Earth at the same time. The ability to keep the Shape2Earth Form on top of Google Earth all of the time has been added to the options menu.

Querying GIS Data in Google Earth

2006-04-01T19:21:00.000-08:00

Feedback has been coming in from people who have been kind enough to test Shape2Earth Beta 1. So far, I have been quite pleased with the results. There do not appear to be any major glitches. I'm still open for more people to try it out if they would like.

Someone pointed out that it would be nice to be able to alphabetically sort the features in KML so that people could more easily find them in Google Earth. This is a great idea, and I’ll be looking into a sorting method soon. In the meantime, I started investigating how to query the data in a manner similar to the way that we query GIS data. The basic idea is to query and/or sort features in Shape2Earth using their attributes, and then zoom to their location in Google Earth.

To do this, I have added an additional tab to the Shape2Earth form. It loads all of the attribute data of the shapefile into a data grid. Data is only loaded when requested in order to optimize performance for users who only want to convert data to KML.

Once selected, all of the attributes are loaded into the table. In this example, I have already loaded a shapefile of world volcanoes into Google Earth as a KML network link. Each feature in the table of contents in Google Earth has the name of the volcano, but they are not in alphabetical order.

With the attribute data from the KMLs companion shapefile loaded into Shape2Earth, I have a couple of options for finding a particular feature. I can sort the table based on any of the fields (see below) and then manually select the feature in the table that I would like to zoom to in Google Earth.

I can also search for attributes using a text field to enter values. I can look for specific values, or use a 'like' clause to match close values. In this example, I have entered 'helens' to query for Mount Saint Helens. I have one record that matches this query, and I can view it by itself by clicking 'View Selected'.

I can return to the rest of the table by clicking "Shop All". To zoom to my selected feature, I simple click on "Zoom to Selected", and then watch as Google Earth gracefully zooms to the item I have selected.

To make this querying capability as fluid and useful as possible, I have added an option that allows for Shape2Earth to always sit on top of Google Earth. This provides the ability to really smoothly navigate through Google Earth usinattributeribute data.

So far, it has worked fantastically for points and polygons the size of buildings. I'll have to add some geometric functions for it to work appropriately for large polygons. GE does not let you set the MapView coordinates that way that a typical GIS does. So I will need to mimic this using a center-point and distance.

Importing Shapefiles into Google Earth

2006-03-24T11:54:00.000-08:00

[Note: The methods described below can now be done entirely within Google Earth. Refer to Using Google Earth as a GIS form more information. For translating shapefiles to KML, Shape2Earth Version 1.0 has been released as shareware.]

The image (show above) of Keyhole Markup Language (KML) data in Google Earth was created entirely with shapefiles and GIS software that is freely available over the Internet. OpenJUMP was used to create the buffer around a school. MapWindow GIS was used to apply the symbology. Shape2Earth (which works as a plug-in for MapWindow) was used to convert the shapefile to KML, which was then loaded in Google Earth for visualization.

Above: OpenJUMP (open source GIS written in Java) is used to create a buffer around the selected building.

Above: The buildings and buffer shapefile are loaded into MapWindow GIS (open source GIS written in .NET). Symbology is applied, and Shape2Earth is used to convert the shapefile and symbology into KML.

Now that Shape2Earth is in beta testing, I have had the opportunity to get some great feedback on its functionality, and have seen some REALLY cool KMLs created by a number of people througout the world.

Shape2Earth Beta Nearing Release

2006-03-18T19:04:00.000-08:00

I think that the Shape2Earth shapefile to KML coverter for Google Earth is just about ready to be released to a number of beta testing volunteers. I was debating whether or not I should spend some additional time optimizing certian sections of code. I'm leaning more towards just getting it out there. I'm not going to worry so much about making it able to run just a little bit faster. There is more than enough functionality available now to make it well worth looking at. I 'm really excited about getting feed back to see what I should focus on next.

Shape2Earth GIS Attributes

2006-03-16T21:08:00.000-08:00

I decided to let Shape2Earth write GIS attribute data into the KML files for viewing in Google Earth. It actually did not take that long to write the code for this. I am letting the user decide which attributes they want to write, and then extract the data from the shapefile and write them into html for viewing in the description balloon. They also get to select which field will be used for the feature name.

This should keep Shape2Earth more in line with the capability offered by Google Earth's GIS import module. I'll be sending the first Shape2Earth Beta to a number of volunteers within the week.

Shape2Earth Beta Testing

2006-03-11T21:45:00.000-08:00

[NOTE: Since this post was first published, Shape2Earth Version 1.0 has been released as Shareware.]

I spent part of the day looking to see what kind of free shapefiles are out there for use with my newly dubbed Shape2Earth open source GIS shapefile to KML converter. The simple answer is that there are "tons". I played around quite a bit trying to poke holes in Shape2Earth. Things seem pretty stable at this point, but I want to get it out to more people to see what breaks.

If anyone is interested in getting being a beta tester of Shape2Earth, please send me a note at Sabin21@gmail.com.

Below are a couple of quick maps I made with downloaded shapefiles.

Building footprints, Carrboro, North Carolina.

Average size of farms in Iowa by county .

Migration of Africanized Honey Bees in US by county.

Building footprints, Austin, Texas.

Exploring GIS Data in Google Earth

2006-03-07T14:35:00.000-08:00

[Note: Shape2Earth is now available for Download]

Last week I wrote about the work I was doing with open source GIS to create a shapefile to KML converter that took advantage of the editing and symbolism that was offered through MapWindow GIS (Shapefile to KML using Open Source GIS). I thought I would follow up with a couple of other interesting things you can do with this application. In particular, I thought I would show some ways that you can explore GIS attribute data using the reload capability.

I'll start off with a shapefile of the USA that I downloaded off of the internet.

This shapefile has a lot of attribute data associated with it. Opening the attribute table (below) shows all of the different data that is available for each state.

After I have explored the different attribute data that I can use for my map, I open the Export Shapefile to KML application within MapWindow GIS. I am going to use some of the attribute information to act as the height for each of the state features. This will, in effect, turn my map of the USA in Google Earth into a chart. Below, I have selected HOUSEHOLDS as the value I am going to use as my height source

Once I have done this, I will select the Load As Link button on my form. As you may recall from my previous description of this application, this button creates a Google Earth Network Link that references the data KML that represents the actual map data. This will allow me to reload the data again after I have made any changes. Below is the result of this KML conversion.

Next, I decide that I want to see the states listed by number of mobile homes. All I have to do is bring back up the Export Shapefile to KML form, select MOBILEHOME as the height attribute, and click on the Reload Link button. This will rewrite the KML and reload it into Google Earth automatically (see below).

I can also use the attributes the modify the color scheme using MapWindow GIS. Below, I have given each state a unique color value.

I can then go back to my Export Shapefile to KML form and hit Reload Link. Below, I have selected NO_FARMS87 as my height value before reloading the KML into Google Earth.

Finally, I can put it all together. Before making the map below, I set the colors in MapWindow GIS to be a continuous ramp from red to yellow using UNITS50_UP as the attribute value. I then used the same attribute field for my height.

These are just some simple examples of being able to modify and load shapefiles into Google Earth using open source GIS and my shapefile to KML conversion tool.

Shapefile to KML using Open Source GIS

2006-02-28T20:24:00.000-08:00

[Note: The work described below has resulted in an application named Shape2Earth, which is now available for download.]

One of the things that I have been working on lately (or .. whenever I get the chance) is a Shapefile to KML writer for viewing GIS data in Google Earth that uses open source GIS components. I gained a lot of experience with KML while prototyping an ESRI ArcMap based toolset that used ArcObjects, and thought that an open source equivalent would be worth pursuing.

There were three main reasons that I decided to work on this project. 1) It sounded like a lot of fun, 2) I have been increasingly interested in open source GIS, and 3) the emergence of Google Earth (as well as Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, and Microsoft Live Local) has led to an enormous interest in geospatial visualization outside of the traditional GIS community. There is a massive amount of GIS data available to the public in the form of shapefiles, and a cheap, license free, toolset to get the data into Google Earth might be useful to a lot of people. I also really like the idea of having my own, royalty free, toolset for creating Google Earth based applications.

There are several good open source GIS packages available today, and while none of them come close to matching a professional GIS, quite a few of them are powerful enough to be useful. My personal favorites are OpenJUMP, Quantum GIS (QGIS), and MapWindow GIS. As you might expect, each of these has their strong and weak points. In fact, I have found that if you are willing to jump back and forth between each of them, you can do an enormous amount of serious GIS work.

To develop my Shapefile to KML tool, I decided to use MapWindow GIS. The main reason for choosing this open source GIS was it’s development environment (.NET), the ease with which it was possible to create plugins, and its re-projecting capability (very important if you want to get all of your shapefiles into Google Earths projection system). MapWindow GIS also lets users make shapefiles from scratch pretty quickly, though its editing tools are not as robust as OpenJump or QGIS (which I have often used for editing shapefiles to be converted in MapWindow GIS).

To get an idea of the status of this open source KML initiative (I will certainly have to come up with a better name than that), I thought I would walk through a typical scenario of taking a shapefile off of the internet and placing it in Google Earth.

I’ll start at a web page for accessing GIS data for Austin, Texas (and the regional area) and downloading a shapefile representing School Districts. This shapefile has no projection information, but MapWindow GIS allows us to assign a projection to the shapefile.

In this case, the web site points out that “All data sets are projected into the Texas State Plane Central NAD 83 survey feet coordinate system unless otherwise stated.” So we enter this in the “Choose Projection” form in MapWindow GIS.

We have one more step to go, however, as Google Earth has its own projection System. Now that the shapefile knows what its projection system is, it can convert to WGS84 to be compatible with Google Earth using MapWindow GIS’s “Reproject a Shapefile” tool.

The way that MapWindow GIS handles re-projecting data is to create a new shapefile and write it to the same directory as the shapefile that is being re-projected. The new shapefile has the same name with “_Reprojected” tacked on the end (so, in this case, the school district shapefile I downloaded named “schldist” is re-projected to a new shapefile named “schldist_Reprojected”).

Now that my data is in the proper projection, I can go ahead and add it to Google Earth using MapWindow GIS.

Once the data is in MapWindow GIS, I can make whatever symbolic changes I might want by accessing the layer properties. MapWindow GIS offers the basic coloring schemes that you would find in a typical GIS, such as coloring features by attribute. Once I find a color I am happy with, I can access the Shapefile2KML tool from the menu bar.

At this point in development, I have some pretty basic KML parameter options I can set. The Layer Name is the name that is visible in the table of contents in Google Earth, and the Layer Opacity determines to what degree you can see through the layer. There are currently two ways to determine a height value for each feature. Either a common number can be set that is applied to all features, or a numeric attibute field can be used. The color for each feature is determined by the symbology used in MapWindow GIS.

Once the parameters have been set, I can convert the data to KML. I have a couple of options here as well. I can simply save the KML to the hard drive, or I can save it and have it be automatically loaded into Google Earth. If I want to play around with the data a bit to see how it looks in Google Earth, I can select "Load As Link". This writes and loads a Network Link into Google Earth that references, and therefore, loads the data KML file that was saved on your hard drive. The interesting thing about using this method is that opening a Network Link in Google Earth has a different behaviour than opening a regular KML file. This requires a brief explanation.

If you were to write a function that loads a KML file, and hit it 10 times, it would load that same file 10 time. If you do the same thing with a Network Link, however, it will not load that same file 10 times. Each time you hit the button, the Network Link is reloaded. That means that if you rewrite the Network Link to point to a different KML file before loading it, you would remove the KML data that is currently visible in Google Earth, and replace it with the new KML data.

What this means to us in this case, is that we can keep modifying our shapefile symbology in MapWindow GIS and keep reloading it in Google Earth by selecting the "Reload Link" button. I have found this to be quite handy, and will describe its functionality more later on.

For our demonstration here, I select the "Save and Load" button. After the KML file is written, a dialog box opens to ask me where it should be saved. After I select a location on my hard drive, the KML file is save and then automatically loaded into Google Earth.

This is neat for data that already exists, but I wanted to also take advantage of the creation and editing ability of MapWindow GIS (and other open source GIS systems as well). One way to do this is to find available imagery to digitize off of. I plan to look into using the web service offered by Microsofts TerraServer, but for my initial personal use, I used Google Earth's API to capture their view and write a world file to georeference it for use in GIS.

Currently, I can select "Get Image from GE" from MapWindow GIS (or access a stand-alone version from my desktop) which opens a simple dialog box. I can then zoom into the scene I want in Google Earth and select "Capture View" from the form. If the scenes tilt and orentiation to north are not correct for GIS, I am alerted that the scene needs to change to meet these criteria (which are required for proper alignment in GIS). If I select OK, the scene is automatically moved to zero tilt and zero degrees to north. Selecting "Capture View" again lets me save the view to my hard drive in the form of a jpeg file. Here, I have zoomed into the campus of the University of Northern Iowa and captured my view.

While the resolution of this image is not fantastic, it allows me to do some general sketching using the image as a background reference.

I can load the image into MapWindow GIS, create a brand new shapefile (in this case, a polygon), and start digitizing new polygon features on top of the image. Below, I have traced the outline of one of the buildings on the UNI campus.

I can also load the imagery into other GIS packages for editing. After saving my edited shapefile in MapWindow GIS, I have loaded the image and shapefile into QGIS (below). Once in QGIS, I added another feature and saved my edits.

After I am finished editing my new shapefile, I loaded it back into MapWindow GIS to convert it into KML. Below, I have set the color of the features to silver, set my KML parameters, and then click "Load As Link".

After the data KML is written, I am prompted to save the file to my hard drive. But because I used the "Load As Link" tool, a second file (the Network Link) is also saved. The Network Link KML has the same name as the data KML file with a "_link" added to it. This is the KML file that is actually loaded in Google Earth as soon as I save the file. When the Network Link is loaded into Google Earth, it automatically loads the data KML file that it references.

The interesting thing about this (as described above) is that I can rapidly make modifications to the shapefile and quickly re-load it into Google Earth. The graphics below demonstrate this. I can change the color and KML values, and simply hit "Reload Link" to replace the data into Google Earth

This is just a quick view on the current status of my open source GIS / Google Earth project. Later, I'll describe some additional feature I plan to implement.

Using Google Earth as an Emergency Response Viewer

2006-02-27T13:37:00.000-08:00

[NOTE: The process of using Google Earth as an emergency response viewer, described below, can now be done entirely within Google Earth. Refer to Google Earth as a GIS for more details.]

One of the main reasons that I originally started working on an ESRI based extension to translate GIS data into KML for viewing in Google Earth (GE) was to test the viability of using GE as a spatial viewer during an emergency. By the time I was seriously in to my ArcObjects/KML toolset, GE had already been used for Hurricanes Katrina.

During an event (fire, accident, environmental, threat, attack, etc), those in charge need a picture of what is going on in order to make critical decisions. Examples of the kinds of information that they want to see is a cordon around the affected area, the ability to view impacted buildings and other assets, the location of traffic control points, and the location of their first responders (often using Automated Vehicle Location [AVL] technology).

I wanted to build a tool that would work with any ESRI ArcMap based tool. To do this, I built an XML based configuration wizard that is used to define what datasets listed in ArcMap’s table of contents are to be exported to KML on demand. The XML configuration file can also hold symbology information for each of the KML layers. While the ArcObjects extension can use the cartographic information from ArcMap to symbolize features, I have found that colors that work well in ArcMap do not always work as well in GE.

Whenever any data is modified (creation of a cordon, adjustments to a buildings status as people are evacuated), it can be instantly published to KML. The use of a configuration file allows a user to set it up for any ArcMap application. It simply exports all feature classes listed in the configuration file on demand. This allows any emergency response application based on ArcMap to use this tool.

My first test on the system used CH2M HILL’s iCIT emergency management application. As iCIT managed the application, the GE extension would publish the data for viewing in a command center in GE. The KML files were securely sent to the GE client machine using a secure Instant Messenger type of technology. Once the files were update on the client machine, a web service was used to reload the altered file in Google Earth.

iCIT Emergency Management System

GIS Data Dynamically Posted to Google Earth

Google Earth has proven to be an excellent, high level, visualization platform for people who need to make decisions. Most of my current testing has dealt with events that are limited in scope (view samples). I should be able to get my hands on a couple of other ArcMap based command and control application for testing. I would really love to see this type of capability used on a much larger scale to see how it might work.

I also have been working on the plumbing to be able to sit GE on top of a GIS package, and use it to create the datasets that have typically been generated by GIS software (buffers, unions, intersects, selection sets, etc.). I plan to look into using ArcEngine, ArcServer, and/or a combination of open source geospatial processing packages to create much of the functionality currently offered by GIS software using GE itself.

One item of recent interest from the Air Force is the use of the Commercial Joint Mapping Toolkit (C/JMTK) as the geoprocessing power behind GE.

I plan to follow up on this post with some work I have been involved with at the US Air Force Academy with automated vehicle location (AVL) and and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with streaming video into ArcMap and Google Earth.

Google Earth as My Ubiquitous GIS Interface

2006-02-26T20:08:00.000-08:00

I have been working with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for over 10 years, and have spent the last six working primarily with the DoD (mostly the Air Force). I started off creating geospatial strategic plans for 13 Air Force Base Civil Engineer organizations and a Marine Corps Base in early 2000. That is the year that I also started honing my skills on becoming a more skilled GIS programmer, initially starting with VB 6 and ArcObjects, and then moving on to .NET. In April of 2003, I took a job with CH2M HILL, and started working on-site at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs helping them implement the US Air Force GeoBase Program.

I have had quite a bit of experience with the organizational aspects of GIS, and have struggled to make it relevant to as many people as possible. This has not always been easy. The simple fact is that the great majority of geospatial users in an organization (such as an Air Force installation) need nothing more than a good visualization of their area of interest. This has not always been the strong suite of many GIS packages. I needed something that was simpler and more intuitive than the web-base GIS systems we had typically been deploying.

GIS is used extensively at the Academy. In fact, virtually every cadet there has ESRI’s ArcEditor loaded on their Government issued laptop, and the cadets are required to take introductory GIS courses that become more advanced as they pursue their major.

GIS Day has become a rather large event at the Academy, and is well attended by a number of vendors. One of the vendors that was in attendance on GIS Day 2003 was the Federal Sales representative for Keyhole (now known as Google Earth). The Keyhole demonstration was by far the most popular demonstration for the cadets, as they lined up to plug their address into the Keyhole client and zoom to their homes.

The next year, the same Keyhole representative was in attendance. I had planned to ask more about importing GIS data into the client, but most of the talk centered on Google’s purchase of Keyhole.

This set the stage for 2005. By this time, I had become very interested in open source geospatial capabilities. It started when a colleague of mine asked me to look at JUMP GIS. At that time, I had no idea on the depth of open source capabilities that were out there. The more research I did on the topic of open source GIS, the more excited I became.

This interest coincided with the release of Google Maps, which was followed closely by the free release of the newly christened Google Earth (GE). This, of course, was followed closely by Yahoo Maps and Microsoft’s Virtual Earth. I was, and continue to be, truly amazed by the visualization capabilities that these products provide.

I was also jealous that my ArcIMS and ArcSDE/Oracle system could not operate as smoothly and efficiently as the Google products. Now granted, these are not GIS products, and only have a fraction the power that is available with ArcGIS (I won’t be giving it up anytime soon), but they made me think about my constant wish to have a very simple and pleasing interface for all of the people I wished to serve maps to. If only I could get my data into Google Earth.

In September 2005, while having lunch in downtown Colorado Springs with a number of people from our local CH2M HILL office, I started talking about Google Earth with one of our Enterprise Spatial Solutions Vice Presidents. As our conversation worked its way towards the many ways that Google Earth could help the Air Force mission, he commented “you know that Google Earth has its own language don’t you? It’s called KML, for Keyhole Markup Language.”

I had not known that.

That evening, I downloaded the KML Tutorial off of the Google Earth Forum website.

The next day, I created my first point, line, and polygon in the free version of Google Earth using KML.

The day after that, I started to frantically write ArcObjects code to export the Academy’s building feature class into 3D buildings in Google Earth.

By the end of October, I had a full blown ArcObjects extension with a suite of tools that dynamically convert any ESRI based vector data set to its KML equivalent. I also had started creating Google Earth applications with the Google Earth API using .NET and JavaScript.

One of these applications demonstrates the capability that this technology offers the Air Force, and has been used to brief close to 30 General Officers and the Under-Secretary of the Air Force. I also had (what I consider to be) the unique honor of showing this same application to Google Earth’s General Manager, Strategic Sales Manager, and Chief Engineer at the Google Headquarters in Mountain View, CA in November 2005.

By Christmas, I had started developing plans for creating a license free KML creator. I selected an open source GIS, and wrote an extension to convert shapefiles into KML. I have been very pleased with this experience, and am now interested in creating a complete geospatial visualization system solution using Open Source GIS and Google Earth as the use interface.

As it stands, I believe that I have found the user interface that I have wanted for so long. I also feel that 2005 changed a lot of things in the geospatial world, and I am more than a little bit excited about the way that new and more freely accessible technology is allowing us to view information using our planet as the interface.

One interesting thing that happened during my Google Earth research was that I stumbled on to the concept of BLOGs. There are several very good ones dealing with Google Earth, and I have used them all. I have no intention of trying to replicate them. My primary interest is to talk about methods to make Google Earth more relevant to individuals and business who want to see their own personal data displayed in a way that makes sense to them.

I should have started this BLOG last June. Since I did not, I anticipate that it will take me a while to figure out how to use this effectively. I hope that I’ll eventually publish something here that will be helpful to someone.

Well … here it goes.