Spatially Adjusted

Tag: google earth

  • ArcGIS Explorer and the uphill climb

    Link – Google Earth vs. ArcGIS Explorer

    Google Earth vs ArcGIS Explorer

    As tired as some are of all the ArcGIS Explorer noise they have been hearing, it isn’t even a dent into the amount of Google Earth posts. This just shows that ESRI doesn’t have a hill to climb, but a mountain. In fact beyond a few blogs in our little GIS circle, not a peep has shown up on more mainstream blogs and sites. Most of the non-stop spin we saw was just repeating of the same stories. Matt Waite saw it and called it the “GIS geek world echo chamber” and what a small echo chamber it is.

  • Google Earth Mac OS Alternatives

    Link – Google Earth for Mac, alternatives

    It seems a lot of Mac owners, like me, are anticipating the arrival of the Google Earth client for Mac. Alas, it is nowhere in sight. But do not despair. Actually, there are alternatives available, here’s three I can think of. “Virtual PC for Mac”, “Remote Desktop Client for Mac” and “Google Maps”.

    My choice has been Virtual PC, but it really lags compared to my PC. Hopefully when Intel based Powerbooks are available, I’ll be able to triple boot Mac OS X, Windows XP and Red Hat on the same laptop. One thing for all us Mac users to remember, Google is more “Windows centric” than even Microsoft is. Not exactly a “Web 2.0” company if you ask me.

  • Glenn Letham tries to stir the pot with FUD

    Link – Will Google Earth Replace the need for costly GIS software and license fees?

    This was a recent topic of discussion on the Google BBS… no doubt you’ve also been wondering… why invest deeply in a pricey IMS, GIS site license and support costs etc… “Lets take a look how much ArcGIS software we would need on one desktop to replicate the functionality of Google Earth. First you would need ArcView for $1,500, then add a license of 3D Analyst for $2,500. So now we are at $4,000 dollars just for software and don’t forget to add the yearly $1,300 dollar maintenance fee also. Now you need to pay for ArcWeb services so that you have data (which there aren’t even prices on website). Add in ArcIMS and ArcSDE servers and your talking the GNP of some third world countries.”

    First off Glenn, lets try and include links with your posts. For those who want to see the reference post in Glenn’s blog entry click here.

    I won’t spend too much time responding here to this charge that to get the functionality of Google Earth, you need to spend $4,000. One doesn’t buy a backhoe to dig a hole for a plant in your front yard, but this is what the writer above is proposing. The best response to people who post information like this above is, “To get the functionality of ArcView and 3D Analyst in Google Earth, you’d have to buy ArcView and 3D Analyst. Google Earth is nothing more than a 3D Map Viewer. ArcGIS is a professional GIS suite. Has Photoshop been hurt by Picasa since Google released the free version? Probably not any more than ESRI will be affected by Google Earth in its current state. ArcView is overkill for many, and Google Earth probably fits the bill for them, but to expect GE to replace the scientific quality analysis that ArcGIS provides is laughable considering how they can’t even get the alignment of their data correct. Maybe in the future Google Earth will add more data support, but the years of experience that ESRI has with spatial analysis will be hard to compete with. Many of us long time GIS professionals remember the press all said ArcView was dead the day that Microsoft released MapPoint. That didn’t happen and I just don’t see Google Earth making any dent into ESRI’s core business.

    Oh and the writer of that post above that Glenn linked to? He posted this in the same thread.

    As a side note ESRI is now saying that the free viewer ArcExplorer will include ArcScene, their 3D environment. Not sure if Google Earth had anything to do with it but competition is nice.

    Seems that even he realizes that ESRI is still a force to be reckoned with even if Glenn doesn’t.

  • Portland Maps search now supports Google Earth

    I had posted about the Portland Maps Advanced Search last week and how it integrated Google Maps into the user interface to allow users to see where their results were located before going to more detailed mapping of each site. Richard Davies just posted to let us know that he’s gotten the export to Google Earth working and now your results can be view in the Google Earth application. Go ahead and search using the Portland Maps Advanced Search tool. When the results are return, you’ll see a little Google Earth KML icon in the lower left portion of the page.

    Portlandmaps ge export

    Just click on that to download the KML file into your Google Earth.

    Portlandmaps ge

    This is really slick, compared to most municipal web mapping sites, Portland really has their ducks in a row with the latest technology. Great job guys!

  • More About Google Earth the Data Shift

    I’ve been working with Brian Flood to determine how and why the data won’t line up in Google Earth when exported out of ArcGIS into a KML/KMZ file. Brian figured out the following:

    there definitely seems to be a shift in GE’s aerials in some places (e.g. none in NJ, mild in Nevada, somewhat severe in your area). However, it looks like the WGS cords returned by GE are correct, so its overlaying your data correctly, its just its other base data is slightly shifted. I suspect this is QA/QC issue for GE

    For the next build, I added a xy shift variable that can be controlled by the user, essentially making up for the GE base data errors.

    Not a great story but if GE is used purely as a viewer it works. I also will mark the KML with comments so the shift can be undone at a later date (or simply re-exported)

    This isn’t good/bad news really as one can manually adjust the x/y shift, but it adds a step to the export that shouldn’t be there and this is compounded by the fact that the shift isn’t constant across the globe. At least now we know what the issue is and hopefully all ArcMap to KML extensions will add the ability to adjust the x/y shift soon.

  • Andrew Hallam Stops KML Related Development

    Link – KML Related Development on Hold

    Previous posts on this blog suggest that I’ve been playing around with software that generates KML. ‘Tis true, but I’ve decided to put the development of those tools on hold…

    I’ve noticed the same issue with vector alignment on Google Earth with my datasets also. We are usually working with small areas so these are the ones that are most affected by this shift that happens when importing vector layers into Google Earth. There are projects that aren’t affected as the area of concern is large enough that you don’t notice the x/y shift, but we too have decided that Google Earth is not going to be right for many of our clients. Hopefully there will be a work around or Google will fix this problem in the near future.

  • Issues with 3D models in Google Earth

    Link – Google Earth St Paul’s and Digital Elevation Model

    I’ve been focused on using Google Earth for a GIS viewer, but some others have been looking at using it for 3D models.

    …problems have arisen with the Google Digital Elevation model (DEM). St Paul’s is located on a natural hill in London but the resolution of the DEM is not enough to compensate for the building size and structure.

    By default Google Earth drapes the models to the landscape, resulting in a model which slopes, losing the straight lines and introducing distortion. To get around this it can be placed absolute to the ground, resulting in a 11 metre difference between the front and the rear of the building – as it sits on a hill. This has been compensated for in the model but it throws out the actual building height relative to the skyline.

    Interesting. I’ve noticed some problems with a x/y shift going on when I try and create 3D views of buildings in Google Earth, but it looks like those who work with 3D Studio Max and ArcScene are also left wondering how/if Google might fix their issues with Google Earth.

  • Sportsim Begins to Use Google Maps/Earth

    Link – Sportsim with Google Maps and Google Earth Add On

    The introduction of free mapping services from Google Inc. with Google Maps and Google Earth in the last months has revolutionized the way we view maps on the Internet.

    Sportsim has today released a new software version with these Google add-ons:

    • Create your own Google Maps web site with 2D map view of GPS track.

    • Create your own Google Earth file and fly in 3D terrain over your GPS track.

    • Import Map layers from Sportsim to Google Earth.

    You may remember many of my posts about Sportsim over the past few months. I really like the product and I think Gjermund Weisz’s business model is refreshing. He had noted that he needed better satellite imagery for his product when I met with him at the 2005 UC and he was really interested in looking at what Google Maps/Earth offered him. Well it now looks like he’s pulled the trigger on Google Maps/Earth support with the latest version of Sportsim. Gjermund was at the User Conference because Sportsim was the third-place winner in the ArcWeb Services Challenge. Between National Geographic and Sportsim, you have one the biggest users of ArcWeb (NGS) and an award winning application (Sportsim) moving away from exploring other options than ArcWeb and turn toward newer services by Google. As one of my friends told me:

    ouch

    Update – Gjermund was kind enough to clarify what actually is happening here.

    James, to set the record straight, Sportsim does not move away from the ESRI ArcWeb Services, we add on Google Maps and Google Earth as external web service add-ons to the software itself. The software and it’s functionality will still run on maps and images from ESRI ArcWeb Services. Also, according to Google Maps API terms we are NOT allowed to bring their maps into the application, they can only be browser based.

    What is really cool about what Sportsim is doing is that they are overlaying ArcWeb Services on top of Google Earth (see image below). It was so subtle that I didn’t even see it until I read what he wrote. So Gjermund is leveraging the best parts of ArcWeb Services and Google Earth to make a much better product. Hows that for a mashup?

    Sportsim ge

  • Why Google Earth Won’t Be the Default Viewer for GIS Information

    I’ve been talking quite a bit over the past few weeks about why I think Google Earth will become the default GIS viewer in the next year, but I thought I’d also post about what might keep it from coming that viewer.

    • Support for projections – Sure one can always change the projection of files, but I shouldn’t have to do that. GE should be able to handle different projections on the fly. ArcGIS has done this for years and I think it is a requirement for any GIS data viewer. Because most of our work is for the U.S. Department of Defense, we deal in UTM and State Plane most of the time. I’d just rather not have to worry about changing projections (or have an ArcGIS extension do this for me).

    • Customization – I’ve seen some really nice attempts at creating an interface inside GE (the National Geographic example is great), but I’d like to have an API exposed so I can add buttons and forms so I can add or subtract features I don’t need. Google Earth is simple, but sometimes I need something even more simple.

    • Printing – I know you can upgrade to a paid version of Google Earth that allows better printing, but I’d like to be able to set up templates that would standardize how maps are being printed. Some will say this isn’t what Google Earth is about, but I say any competitor to ArcReader/ArcExplorer should be able to print maps as I want them to be.

    • Advanced Query Tool – As we load up more complex information into Google Earth, we’ll need a better “Find” dialog to get at this data. I’m not sure how Google will view this since they are all about “I feel lucky”, but I know many Engineers and Planners who will want this capability.

    • Metadata – I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. We need better information about what the acquire date of the satellite imagery is and the source of the road information. I don’t want phone calls from clients telling me that the photo is out of date when at the bottom of the screen it says “Copyright 2005 Google”.

    I know what you are thinking as you are reading this and I agree. Google Earth is a “geoviewer”, not an analysis tool. GE is about a 70% solution toward a great GIS tool, but its limitations are showing up in how I’d like to deploy it for my clients. I can see many cases when Google Earth is all they would need, but I suspect unless Google Earth opens up more on many of the above points as well as their planned updates to the datasets, I’ll probably be looking more toward ArcExplorer (I say this without even having a test drive so I reserve the right to say I don’t like ArcExplorer in the future) which will do many and more of what I want/need in a GIS viewer rather than Google Earth on its own.

    More Google Earth Wishlist Items.

    From Matt Perry

    • Support for other file formats– importing shapefiles, sde layers, wms, wfs would prevent forcing users to convert their data (and consquently have to maintain two datasets). Another route is that some real-time conversion utilities will arise that will let you add these disparate data sources with some server-side logic allowing you to maintain the data in it’s native format while serving it up as KML on-the-fly
    • Support for large vector datasets – I recently converted a 60,000 feature line shapefile into KML and the display totally choked. I cut it down to 600 and it was fine. The stock Google road layer doesn’t even render properly at all scales/angles. (At least not on my machine). If GE is going to be for real, they need to gracefully handle big vector datasets.

  • National Geographic and Google Earth

    National Geographic has been one of the most prolific ESRI users out there, but they have begun to utilize Google Earth. Now appearing in the Google Earth layers are Features Articles and & Photograph, Sights & Sounds, African Megaflyover and Live Wildcam. The Map Machine has been using ESRI server software for years, but could we be seeing a change where companies are rushing to make sure their information is available inside Google Earth. Check out a couple screen shots below.

    Google Earth is becoming a GIS “browser” where you can find information from all over the world, perfect for the NGS.

    Ng ge 4

     

    Ng ge

     

    Ng ge 2

    Ng ge 3