Google earth

[jjasilli]

I just blundered into some progress with Google Earth.  At this website you can find & download topographic maps:  https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/
If you download in KMZ format, you can click on the file and the topo map will open in Google Earth.  Next I want to learn to:  i) show property boundaries on the maps; ii) make the topo map a transparent overlay over a Google Earth satellite image of the area; iii) add custom pin markers for hunting stuff; iv) save the maps to open on my phone for GPS w/o internet service; v) better understand switching between Google Maps / Google Earth.

[EL34]

Thanks for the link
I downloaded a few sections
Weird that you can't change the lighting on the topo sections?


The left side is set at 3:04pm
The right side topo is not affected

[shooter]

used to like earth when it lived on my computer, running it from the cloud sucks down way to much expensive bandwidth, so I broke out my county by county books this last trip 

[EL34]

Open Street maps is the way to go
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=5/38.007/-95.844

I ran it on my Android tablet as GPS navigation unit on my last road trip
Plus I am able to edit the maps with my account

[jjasilli]

Thanks for the link
I downloaded a few sections
Weird that you can't change the lighting on the topo sections?


The left side is set at 3:04pm
The right side topo is not affected

Don't know if this helps, but: there are several topo maps for each area which are: 1) in various file formats; 2) in very discrete sections; and 3) at various dates & times over this and the last century. 


You have a PNG format.  I've only used KMZ so far.  If the area you want is at the edge of a map, you may need to download 2 or more maps. which separately, will cover your desired area.  I suspect there is a way to "stitch" the maps together, but am stuck in the learning curve.

[EL34]

Don't know if this helps, but: there are several topo maps for each area which are: 1) in various file formats; 2) in very discrete sections; and 3) at various dates & times over this and the last century. 

You have a PNG format.  I've only used KMZ so far.  If the area you want is at the edge of a map, you may need to download 2 or more maps. which separately, will cover your desired area.  I suspect there is a way to "stitch" the maps together, but am stuck in the learning curve.

No, I downloaded kmz
That is a screen shot from google earth
I was only saying that you cannot apply the Sun lighting to the topo like you can on the other terrain tiles

[jjasilli]

Ok, the same basic thing is happening to me.  I.e., an opaque topo map, with a white background, is being superimposed upon a larger area of Google Earth satellite image.  I think one solution is that somehow the degree of transparency of the superimposed map can be selected, so that the user can then look through the superimposed file and see the main image which is "underneath" it. I'll try to research this more.


The good news is that each of our superimposed maps are perfectly sized & fitted to the image beneath it.  All the roads & terrain features line-up perfectly.  Apparently this is not always the case; then the superimposed image has to be re-sized to fit "well enough".

[jjasilli]

More incremental progress:  on the left side of the Google Earth Screen is the Places panel.  In there are several places to check or un-check the KMZ topo file.  Doing so makes the topo file appear; disappear; or get translucent but without the topo lines.


At the top of the Google Earth screen is a box that allows the selection of an Overlay file along with setting its transparency.

[SILVERGUN]

I apologize for veering wayoff the direction of your thread but just wanted to bring this to your attention.
I noticed this whilst mapping out a motorcycle route...
The only difference in the two similar pics of this bridge is that the one with the unreal looking change in elevation has the "Terrain" box checked

[shooter]

 

had the same issue with angular sun images, I'd find a "great" creek for trying some panning only to get there and have something completely different.  I went back to using software to ballpark, then ordering 7.5 degree maps from the USGS

 

[jjasilli]

Thanks, guys!  I think I just learned the following from YouTube videos.  It seems the transparency feature is used mostly to help re-size and orient your preferred map of photo image over the Google Earth image.  This is useful if your map image is PNG, JPG or some other file format acceptable to Google Earth, other than KMZ.  It seems KMZ auto sizes & orients itself.  Once your map image is oriented you save it in Google Earth.  Then you can then toggle it On/Off in the Google Earth Places Panel. 

[DummyLoad]

we use google earth for our fiber optic cable plant. cool stuff. all our FOC cable paths are saved off in KMZ files.


--pete

[PRR]

> show property boundaries on the maps

IF you can find property maps in digital-data format.

My town hall is a triple-wide off the firehouse. They only have old PDFs on random URLs (I'm amazed they got that far). I can scale-off my property, but only because I have the Deed in hand, and even so I don't trust the drafting too much (there's apparent discrepancies). I even overlaid my property lines on a satellite image before I bought the place. But extracting data for map overlay for *all* properties in town is too much even for Google (and the zillion small-data towns in the country/Earth).

OTOH the City to the north, with a City Hall which would absorb most of my town, has property geo-data files posted. And Google found them and over-laid them.

Here's the city/town border. Note the grey lines in "City" and not in "Town".

BUT: I've walked the lines of a City property with maps and images in hand. The old city data is to a different datum than Google images. The lines fall 20 feet south of obvious landmarks.

AND: people "know" where their line is. Even when they are wrong. There's a city property where the uphill owner didn't maintain the brush, the downhill owner has been mowing and gardening 12 feet over the line, and might dispute the uphill owner's claim to that strip. You go out in the woods with a gun or a gold-pan, you can have 27 GPS laser sightings signed-off by the County Clerk, but Ebenezer thinks you are trespassing "HIS land" you may get a buttload of buckshot.

[PRR]

OK, because I live here I found the specific PDF of the town tax-map, found the corner seen above, rotated to fit. There's at least 7 properties in town in this section. None are known to Google Maps; no property lines anywhere in this town.

The maps are getting old (1986!). "Wickett Good Road" (was a jeep trail) now has a new name and pavement. There's several properties up there, all vacant because of the 2009 mortgage bubble.

[shooter]

None are known to Google Maps

google earth 1.0, prior to 2008 had my property n the one either side of me "fuzzed out", everything else was clear, could count cars n buildings, mine, couldn't tell the house from barn >80' away.   I told those that noticed, "I'm in the witness protection program" 

now google can tell if I mowed AND the pattern I used 

[PRR]

> if I mowed AND the pattern I used 

OMG!! Yes! Early in the summer I mow parallel to the fence inside the fence, then run a path to the chicken shack.

There's no date on this image (and it SURE is not 2020 cuz it's been all white since Xmas), but I can look in my neighbor's yard and see what old cars are where in his yard to date it. The shadows tell the time of day.

[shooter]

my before'99/after'15.  I like mowing bull's eyes behind the barn 

[jjasilli]

Mapping programs such as OnX and Huntstand show property boundaries over satellite photos. They also have a library of dedicated pin markers useful for hunters.


Google Maps does seem to be able to find property boundaries.  But what about Google Earth?  The only sution I can find is to manually draw & save them. 

[EL34]

My county has all the property stuff on line
You can choose a bunch of different overlays

They always do the aerial stuff in the winter when there are no leaves so they can get a good look at your property for taxes

You can see all the tax info, appraisal values, how many beds, baths etc on anyone in the county
After looking at aerial imagery, they came knocking on my door after seeing a couple new decks I added to my property
Of course they measured all the new stuff and added that to my property tax


Here's one of my neighbors
He actually has grass, I don't
They probably taxed his grass

[shooter]

You can see all the tax info

back when MI had revenue'rs my dad would park the ford out by the dump with an old army tarp to cover it 

[jjasilli]

Making slow progress have added shapes and overlays to Google Earth.  Having problems with transparency which seems to work intermittently, especially with US Topo Maps 2019 2D. 


(Also, cannot get Google My Maps to import on overlay.  Do I even want My Maps?)

[sluckey]

Did you forget to connect the green wire to google earth?

[jjasilli]

With some difficulty, I managed to connect the green wire to Earth.   But, where do I connect the other end?


Meanwhile looks like I've  achieved the level of a full fledged functioning novice on Googld Earth. Maybe time to return to LTSpice.

[shooter]

I had it down pretty good til they moved it to the cloud and my antique computer became obsolete