Aerial photos and tracks

[+txmusic]

I'm sure this may have been covered somewhere, but I'm having trouble finding an exact answer to what I'm needing. I purchased some high resolution aerial photos of a lake that I visit often. I am wanting to draw tracks over these photos because they are more detailed than Google Earth and would therefore be more accurate. My ultimate goal is to convert these tracks to boundaries and then overlay them onto my MapSource maps and download them to my Garmin Rino 530HCx. I came across an excellent post by RWS titled "Google Earth Maps to Custom Garmin Map, video tutorial" and will use some of what he recommends, but I was wondering what kind of software to use to insert the aerial photos and then draw tracks over them. I was trying to use GPSMapEdit, but it was telling me that my Jpegs weren't georeferenced. The cd that I bought containing the aerial photos has the files in .met file, .tfw file, and .tif file formats along with an application called "DLGV32V37.EXE" to view the drawings. At some point one of these file formats has to be already georeferenced because I can open them within the provided application and they automatically are placed with the proper coordinates, but that software is limited and won't let me draw tracks. Any ideas? Hopefully all this makes sense.

[+geognerd]

The .met file is likely a metadata file that tells you when the aerial photo was taken, by who, and probably which projection, datum, and coordinate system are being used for the aerial photography. The .tfw file is called a world file, and geospatial software (at least that which is halfway decent) will read this file and know where to position the image. In this case, your TIF. GPSMapEdit is apparently not recognizing the .tfw file.

 

Otherwise, I don't have an easy cheap (read <$1200) solution for you because I am not familiar with making custom maps for Garmins.

[+allory]

In DLGV32V37 you can check the lat/lon of the corners of the image. Its not difficult to create a .kml file which will open Google Earth with the image superimposed in the correct location using that information. At that point you could continue with the instructions you have for using GE.

 

Replace the lat-lon info and the file names in the example below with your info and name the file doc.kml. The 'LookAt' values should be approximately in the center of your image.

 

It should work.

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.1">
<Folder>
<name>doc.kml</name>
		<LookAt>
			<longitude>-106.7660</longitude>
			<latitude>42.53275</latitude>
			<range>15000.0</range>
			<tilt>0.0</tilt>
			<heading>0</heading>
		</LookAt>
<open>1</open>
<Folder>
	<name>Layers</name>
		<open>0</open>
	<GroundOverlay>
		<name>Alcova Geology</name>
		<color>5fffffff</color>
		<Icon>
			<href>geology.jpg</href>
			<viewBoundScale>1.0</viewBoundScale>
		</Icon>
		<LatLonBox>
			<north>42.60518333333334</north>
			<south>42.46085</south>
			<east>-106.6585</east>
			<west>-106.8739166666667</west>
		</LatLonBox>
	</GroundOverlay>
</Folder>
</Folder>
</kml>

[psychosomaticgardener]

i also use mapsource make your routes convert to tracks open areial and the track or route should be there very good for 3d fly through

[+Bus36]

i also use mapsource make your routes convert to tracks open areial and the track or route should be there very good for 3d fly through

If you have jpeg files you can use applications mapman or oziexplorer. These programs will open your jpeg then you simpley calibrate your map base on two points then you can import your tracks. I would use mapman. You will calibrate the map, import your tracks and then you can export them to .mp file that gpsmapedit will open or mapman can make the .img file for you but since I already knew mapedit I stick with it. I misread your post but mapman will allow you to draw whatever tracks you want. I should work fine and it is free for basic version that should do everything you want.

Edited August 2, 2007 by Bus36

[topografix]

GeoBuddy has a scanned maps feature that is pretty easy to use. Once you've calibrated the aerial photo, you can trace features right off the image and create shapes and tracks. You'll need another program to convert from GeoBuddy's GPX format to an .img file for your Garmin, but there are plenty of options out there.

 

http://www.geobuddy.com

[rws]

Try GPS TrackMaker (freeware) to calibrate your jpg map image. I did a test run with it and it worked well.

 

For the test I created a jpg image of a screencapture from Mapsource.

 

I inserted the jpg image in TrackMaker and used the Map Adjust Tool to calibrate it. You would do the same using two known coordinates from your map image. In TrackMaker..click Help...Inserting a Image as Background for instructions how to do this.

 

Then I opened the calibrated map in Google Earth...and the jpg image appeared right where it was supposed to. It would now be ready for tracing and making into a Garmin map following my tutorials Google Earth Maps to Garmin Custom Map 1 and Custom Map 2.

 

Another shot...use transparency slider to vary how much of Google basemap to show through

Edited August 4, 2007 by rws

[+txmusic]

Thanks! I look forward to trying that out!