Googleearth

[+user13371]

My wife and I are plannng a trip next weekend, from Portland to Oceanside, Oregon.

 

Using Google Earth and GPSBabel, it took less than 5 minutes to plan the route and get it loaded onto my Lowrance iFinder H2O.

 

I have Lowrance's MapCreate 6.3 and a fully detailed map of Oregon already loaded, and it looks like Google Earth will be as accurate (maybe better) than MapCreate. The real proof will come after the trip, when I can compare the GPS track traced during the trip.

 

Is anyone else using Google Earth in lieu of their GPS maker's mapping product?

[Sagiru]

I'm a huge fan of GoogleEarth... I've wasted many a valuable hour flying about and scanning various locations. But, as a GPS newbie, I'm clueless as to how to download info from GoogleEarth and input it into my GPS (an iFinder H20C). Can you get this info from the free version of GoogleEarth?

 

Jonathan

[Grasscatcher]

In my area (SW Colorado) Googleearth is absolutely worthless. When I try to zoom in any closer than 40,000ft it is so blurry that there are NO details.

So maybe it depends on where you are...

[mhygema]

A few months ago I was a part of a medical service trip to Ecuador. Before we left, I bought a travel guide book for Ecuador and leafed through it, looking for points of interest like touristy spots, bars, embassies, police stations, interesting sounding resturants, road intersections, the works.

After finding those places on the maps in the book, I fired up GoogleEarth and did some looking around and alot of terrain association to find them on GE. Fortunatly GE has a good, detailed view of the major cities or I would not have been able to find the buildings. Bottom line...when we touched down in Quito we had GPS coordinates for everything we needed. True I had to enter it all by hand, but it was definetly worth it.

 

Freaking great tool.

 

 

My wife and I are plannng a trip next weekend, from Portland to Oceanside, Oregon.

 

Using Google Earth and GPSBabel, it took less than 5 minutes to plan the route and get it loaded onto my Lowrance iFinder H2O.

 

I have Lowrance's MapCreate 6.3 and a fully detailed map of Oregon already loaded, and it looks like Google Earth will be as accurate (maybe better) than MapCreate. The real proof will come after the trip, when I can compare the GPS track traced during the trip.

 

Is anyone else using Google Earth in lieu of their GPS maker's mapping product?

[+user13371]

... zoom in any closer than 40,000ft it is so blurry that there are NO details. So maybe it depends on where you are...

The photo resolution varies greatly by area. What hapens when you turn on the "roads" layer - do you at least get decent road maps? Edited March 1, 2006 by lee_rimar

[+user13371]

...clueless as to how to download info from GoogleEarth and input it into my GPS (an iFinder H20C). Can you get this info from the free version of GoogleEarth?

Using Robert Lipe's excellent GPSBabel and a couple of AppleScripts of my own devise, I am able to save information out of Google Earth directly to my SD memory card in a format the iFinder can use.

 

I'm sure a PC user could do something similar, but I don't do Windows at home any more - I get enough of that at work I'm sure Robert or some other babeler would have some pointers.

 

If you have a Mac, and you're comfortable with installing software, and configuring AppleScripts, I might be able to walk you through it. Drop me an email if you're interested.

[Grasscatcher]

... zoom in any closer than 40,000ft it is so blurry that there are NO details. So maybe it depends on where you are...

The photo resolution varies greatly by area. What hapens when you turn on the "roads" layer - do you at least get decent road maps?

 

About the same or worse quality of roads that you would see from a comercial airline flight. Without the yellow "road" lines layer, you couldn't even make out where the roads are.

[+user13371]

... Without the yellow "road" lines layer, you couldn't even make out where the roads are.

Where in Colorado is this - town name or general area? I've been comparing the road layer in G.E. to other online map sources and would be interested to see it,

[+DashHammer]

But, as a GPS newbie, I'm clueless as to how to download info from GoogleEarth and input it into my GPS (an iFinder H20C). Can you get this info from the free version of GoogleEarth?

 

Jonathan

 

This might give you some ideas:

 

http://www.alancurry.com/gpsbabel/route4.php

 

Though it shows GPSBabel running from the command line, you should be able to load a KML file into GSAK.

[+PDOP's]

Bottom line...when we touched down in Quito we had GPS coordinates for everything we needed. True I had to enter it all by hand, but it was definetly worth it.

 

You can save your data as a KML file then use GPSBabel to convert it to whatever format you want or upload it directly to your GPSr.

 

Edit to add that the link provided by allancurry in the post above has good instructions on how to use GPSBabel with Google Earth and Google Local.

Edited March 2, 2006 by PDOP's

[Grasscatcher]

... Without the yellow "road" lines layer, you couldn't even make out where the roads are.

Where in Colorado is this - town name or general area? I've been comparing the road layer in G.E. to other online map sources and would be interested to see it,

 

Lake City, CO....SW part of state

 

UTM Coordinates- 13S 296827mE 4211737mN

[+user13371]

...Lake City, CO....SW part of state

UTM Coordinates- 13S 296827mE 4211737mN

I'm not sure I see what you mean.

 

Google Earth's photo imagery is low-resolution in this area, but the Roads layer looks okay. Pretty much the same as Google Maps (no surprise there) and Yahoo Maps. Both of these draw their maps using Navteq data.

 

MapQuest (using Tele Atlas data) is a little different, as it shows Courthouse Street where neither Google nor Yahoo show it - but Mapquest doesn't show Marshall Street where Yahoo and Google do:

 

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=38...83N+107.314916W

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?city=Lake+City&state=CO

http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?lat=38.0...lon=-107.314916

 

I don't know which of those is the most accurate, but I do think MapQuest is the easiest to read, and Google Earth the least. One thing I wish Google Earth could do is switch off the photo layer if no hi-res imagery is available - it would make the Roads layer easier to read. But when I run into that problem I just switch to Google Maps instead - and it's still better than the MapCreate software from Lowrance.

 

I don't know if the lack of hi-res photos and some of the difference in street detail makes GE "absolutely worthless" as you stated earlier. It seems like it would still be adequate to let me FIND Lake City, and to navigate my way around those two square miles.

 

What kind of GPS do you use, and what software? Do the detail maps that area available for your GPS compare well to the real street layout

[+user13371]

...a trip from Portland to Oceanside, Oregon Using Google Earth and GPSBabel took less than 5 minutes to plan the route and get it loaded onto my Lowrance iFinder H2O...

And a post-trip analysis: Google Earth ROCKS!

 

The track recorded by my GPS almost perfectly matched the track planned by Google Earth. In most places even at maximum zoom, I can't see a difference between the two lines. In the few places where I can see a deviation between the planned & recorded paths, it was usually less than 10 feet, and never more than 45.

 

Hah ... anybody want to buy a copy of Lowrance's MapCreate 6.3?

 

I really think (hope) products like Google Earth will squeeze other software vendors to make better products.

[kerecsen]

I've just been to Bangalore, India. Since there are no electronic maps available for the area (and actually even the paper maps are limited to main arteries), I scanned a city map into MemoryMap on my PocketPC and calibrated it by looking up major intersections on the Google Earth images.

 

To make a long story short, my scanned maps worked beautifully... Another big Thank You to those guys!

[+Mystery Ink]

I like google earth but I also am a big fan of Windows Live Local it has alot of features that I like.

[+user13371]

Windows Live Local ... has alot of features that I like.

Could you give some details, what you like about it?

[+geognerd]

Windows Live Local ... has alot of features that I like.

Could you give some details, what you like about it?

I think Windows Live Local is overhyped. Just another mapping site with aerial imagery (Terraserver's in this case). The bird's eye angled aerial view isn't that useful. I can't seem to get any lat-long formats to work as input either.

[+user13371]

...Windows Live Local is overhyped...

But more importantly, does it do anything relevant to Geocachers of GPS users in general? The thing that impresses me about Google Earth (and was the opening of this topic) is that I can move data easily between my GPS and G.E. Edited March 7, 2006 by lee_rimar

[Grasscatcher]

...Lake City, CO....SW part of state

UTM Coordinates- 13S 296827mE 4211737mN

I'm not sure I see what you mean.

 

I don't know if the lack of hi-res photos and some of the difference in street detail makes GE "absolutely worthless" as you stated earlier. It seems like it would still be adequate to let me FIND Lake City, and to navigate my way around those two square miles.

 

What kind of GPS do you use, and what software? Do the detail maps that area available for your GPS compare well to the real street layout

 

My whole "worthless" point is the lack of hi-res photo availability , because as you (can't) see , there is none. Worthless from that perspective only..... Also as you can see, if you need a map or GPS to navigate around a town of this size , you probably need more "help" than a GPS can give you. I don't even care about "Detailed" maps of "the real street layout"

 

Backcountry detail and trails and unmapped roads detail, which is what I'm interested in, is totally missing.

 

Try USAPhotomaps, or Expert GPS....

 

I have a Garmin Map76CS and use: USAPhotomaps, NG Topo, Expert Gps, MapSource Topo & MetroGuide, ArcView, Arcview Explorer, DNR Garmin, g7towin, nRoute, and probably a couple more that I can't think of.

 

I use what "works" for me,for whatever detail I need at the time. I just haven't found anything I can use GE for.....personal preference only.

 

Please don't "Find" Lake City......we enjoy the peace and small town quietness.

[+atfritz]

In my area (SW Colorado) Googleearth is absolutely worthless. When I try to zoom in any closer than 40,000ft it is so blurry that there are NO details.

So maybe it depends on where you are...

 

Yes, it does depend on where you are. It depends on the state and area. The blury images you see are satellite images from a LANDSAT IMAGER most likely. The detailed aerials are images taken by plane, like in Indiana (my home state). Local and state governments can decide when to sell the rights to Key Hole or Google Earth to display the images. The images from Indiana where a product of Homeland Security and therefore had to be made public.

 

In almost all cases, aerial images in either .tif (mrsid) or jpeg files can be downloaded with spatial references. For example, I have Pike County, KY aerials, the same exact ones on Microsoft Local Live (USGS Orthoquads) and all the USGS topo maps loaded on my computer. I simply add them as layers into ArcView or ArcExplorer (GIS) and I can pan and zoom quickly and easily to locate trails and such. You can use other programs to make route layers that then could be loaded into your GPS. This information, with the right plugin, could all be overlayed into Google Earth.

 

So, in short, yes, it does depend on where you live, but with the right tools, you can add a lot of power to Google Earth.