Posted by: Mike Morellato | May 9, 2012

Tiger Leaping Gorge Hike Map

I just returned from a week-long trip here in China to Yunnan province in the southwest.   One of the big highlights was the 2-day hike of Tiger Leaping Gorge, were there were great views at almost every turn.  This is one of the deepest gorges in the world, and an area where peaks over 5000m tower over you on the hike.

Chilling out on the Tiger Leaping Gorge hike

You can see a map of my GPS track, some pictures and a bunch more info on the Tiger Leaping Gorge hike  in the new web mapping section that I created, which can also by accessed from the Maps tab above. Another big highlight was checking out Dali and doing some climbing there.  Highly recommended if you’re ever adventuring around in China!

Share

Leave a Comment

Posted in Just for kicks, Web mapping

Posted by: Mike Morellato | April 24, 2012

Easily Create a Location Map for your Website or Blog

When developing your website (especially a business-related site), it’s useful to have a simple location map to embed within your text or on its own page.  If you have a WordPress blog, I’d highly recommend checking out the Comprehensive Google Maps Plugin.  I tried this out recently and created a map very quickly for my About page. It also allows users to find directions to the waypoints you add without having to leave the page – a new box with open automatically underneath where you’ve embedded the map when seeking directions.

As far as free WordPress plugins go, I don’t think I’ve ever been more impressed with a plugin (part of that is my obsession with web mapping I guess).  For a plugin with so much functionality it is very easy to use, has quick help menus at every step and allows you to select custom icons, bring in your own KML files if you wish, and generate code quickly.  After you download it it will add a shortcode builder to your editor screen in WordPress.  Using this you can enter custom map dimensions, multiple addresses (with numerous options for icons) plus much more.  After this you simple click “Send to Editor” to insert code into your post and away you go.  If you’re pleased with how it works, consider a donation to the developer as well :)

The Comprehensive Google Maps plugin for WordPress is easy to use and allows for great customization

If you don’t have a WordPress blog and are looking for a quick HTML map solution, you can go to maps.google.com and type in the location of your business or the entity that you’re trying to highlight with your map.  Then you just click the link button (chain link icon) and it will give you can option to “Paste HTML to embed in website“.  Before copying the code you can also click “Customize and preview embedded map” and it will give you more control over size and other options.  Google’s instructions for this method can be found here.  Unlike the WordPress solution I mentioned, if your user clicks your map waypoint(s) to ask for directions, they will be redirected off your site to the Google Maps page.

For both of these solutions, no API key from Google is needed.  Version 3 of the Google Maps API does not require a key which now makes it quicker to get going with embedded maps. More details on that here.    Finally, if you want to stay away from Google Maps and go for an open source solution such as OpenStreetMaps, you can look at these options.  If you’re not good at toying with code, you may want to stick with the examples I gave earlier or check out another mainstream embedding solution.  Finally, I can’t finish here without mentioning that there’s also a great OSM plugin for WordPress which is easy to use and implement.


Share

Leave a Comment

Posted in Google Maps related, Web mapping | Tags: , , ,

Posted by: Mike Morellato | April 18, 2012

Import a Contour Shapefile to AutoCAD with Elevations

If you work with GIS software a lot, chances are you’ve also worked with AutoCAD and have had to convert between the two many times.  Interoperability can sometimes be a pain, and this is the case when bringing contour shapefiles into AutoCAD and then not being able to create a surface because the elevation data isn’t part of the feature geometry once in CAD.  I often have contours that started in ArcGIS and I’m interested in using them in an AutoCAD project.  If I’m looking to create a surface within AutoCAD after import, I need to follow the steps below.

Querying elevation values, part of the process when bringing contours from shapefile format into AutoCAD

The general procedure is to import contours (in SHP format) into a DWG, close that DWG then open a new one and attach the contours DWG.  Then you conduct a query to attach elevations properly to the contour lines.  There are many posts available on this task so instead of explaining here I will direct you to a couple of step-by-step guides that I’ve used in the past.  One in the form of screenshots and the other in a YouTube video.

Step by step with screenshots  (based on AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010)

 


Hope this helps – if you have problems leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.

Share

Leave a Comment

Posted in Interoperability | Tags: , ,

Posted by: Mike Morellato | April 11, 2012

View Geotagged Images in Google Earth / Sync your GPS and Camera

When you are looking to insert your photographs into Google Earth to vizualize their locations, there are a few different techniques that are available to you.  If you have a GPS-enabled camera, a GPS unit with a camera built into it, or even a current smartphone, the process is easy.  These types of units write latitude and longitude information to the EXIF headers of the images.

If you open any previously geotagged images in Picasa, you can instantly view their location by clicking on the “Places” icon in the lower-right corner of the Picasa window.  If you click on the Geotag button in Picasa, you can have these files appear as thumbnails in Google Earth.   If they aren’t currently geotagged, that tool allows you to shift the screen to where you took them and manually geotag them.

What if you are using a GPS and a camera separately and want to sync your GPS track log with the photos you took?  Try the open source program GPicSync. This is a great free program that works well as long as your camera’s time is synced with the time of your GPS receiver (set these to be identical before you collect data and take photos).  You can sync the track log to your photos and even create a KML file to then view it in Google Earth.

Syncing your GPS track log to your camera's photos using GPicSync and outputting to Google Earth

If you manually geotagged images to their locations using Picasa you can also distribute a single KMZ file containing all the thumbnail photos.  Make sure after you geotag the photos that you drag all the image entries into one logical folder level under “My Places” and then you can right click on the title and choose “Save Place As”.  Save it as a KMZ and all the thumbnails will be directly embedded into the one file.  There will be no need to transfer multiple files or require your end user to have an internet connection to view the photos if they’re in a remote area, for example.

One last tip if you happen to have the Pro version of Google Earth and you are manually geotagging your photos… GE Pro allows direct import of CSV and Shapefiles – so if you have point data or other GIS data that you want to pin your photos to (for a more precise location, for example), you can import it first and then manually pin to it using the Geotag feature of Picasa.

Share

2 Comments

Posted in Free geospatial tools, Google Earth related, GPS | Tags: , , ,

Posted by: Mike Morellato | April 4, 2012

Create Thematic Maps Online with Indiemapper

I heard about Indiemapper earlier this year when they decided to provide much of their site’s function for free, but I just recently tested it out.  Indiemapper is a great tool for those interested in thematic mapping output directly from the web.  The site allows you to upload your own KML, shapefile or GPX file and create maps immediately, with the ability to print the map you create and even save a copy locally for later use.

Indiemapper at work

The site takes some time to get used to, and seems most suited to cartographers or GIS users that have some background in projections, thematic map techniques (e.g. cloropleth vs. dot density) and the use of attributes in the various file types it allows.  For those that don’t have any background, the site does make it easy to create a basic map and there are some useful help dialogs.

IndieMapper is certainly an impressive tool and it’s strengths are obvious:  small scale thematic mapping (E.g. Canada wide map, or even a global map), rather than something I would ever upload my own GPX files to (at a larger scale).  The freely available datasets are very useful, with UNEP data available to load into your map view and the ability to add health, transport or environmental hazard layers (to name a few).  Quickly add a north arrow, a legend and some annotation and you have a great looking map ready for export. Another great feature suitable for cartographers is the ability to export to SVG format, which can be scaled and doctored up in Illustrator, for example.

Share

Leave a Comment

Posted in Cartography, Web mapping | Tags: , ,

Older Posts »

Categories