Google Earth

Cartographic Skills - Mod 12

This week we used our Mod 10 Dot Density Map to create a shareable web map and tour.  We pared down our Mod 10 dot density map of the population of south Florida to just the absolute essentials to achieve the desired affect we wanted in out Google Earth map.  With that done we used the Map To KML Conversion Tool to convert the map to a .kml file that could be viewed in Google Earth.  Next we used Layer to KML to convert the dot density layer.  Converting this layer with this method ignored most of the symbology settings in the layer, but still retained all the attribute data so it would be available in Google Earth.

Once the .kml files were converted we opened them in Google Earth.  After adding the layer.klm it was possible to click within a county boundary and have a pop-up box pop up with the attributes for that county.  

Part two of this assignment was to then use this map to create a tour of several of the locations on the map.  The process itself is simple enough.  All it takes is placing Placemarks in the locations you want to zoom to, then record the process of zooming from one Placemark to another, entering street view to look around at each location.  Where it gets difficult is entering street view in a location that will allow you to pan around and get the best view, and panning smoothly.  It took quite a bit of trial and error to find locations that would work well for the desired affect, but then selecting that location during the course of recording didn't always go so well so the recording had to be redone many times.  Once in a good location it was difficult to pan around smoothly.  Moving the mouse from one side of the screen to another wasn't too bad, but then the mouse had to be moved back to the first side of the screen to pan any further.  This always caused a bit of back and forth motion and several breaks in the pan.  I'm sure there's a better way to do it, but I was not able to figure that out on this assignment.

Another difficulty I had while recording the tour was turning layers off and on during the zoom process and switching to street view quick enough there wasn't too long a pause.  I finally figure out where best to place my Placemarks so I could use them as a better guide to where to enter street view and that cut down a lot on the delay, but it still wasn't as quick and smooth a transition as I would have liked.  I also ran into delays enter the street view because I wasn't quick enough turning off layers that interfered with the view when close up.  By the final recording I had that pretty well under control though.

I think this lesson was pretty easy to complete, but it will take quite a bit of practice to perform the process smoothly.