Google Earth Baja 1k overlay

[HTTP404]

I made a quickie overlay of the current race map for Google Earth. It's a little rough around the edges but you can follow along and see much of the course on the satellite image layer. I made this primarily as an example of how we may exploit the usefulness of Google Earth. The upgraded version of Google Earth integrates with many GPS plotters but I haven't tried it yet.

Just thought some of you folks might find this useful.

Google earth is avail at http://earth.google.com

the overlay I made is found

http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/download.php?Number=168409


Tim

Oh yeah,

Not affiliated, your mileage may vary, not for navagational purposes, may be void in some states, pick up your trash, use at your own risk. yadda yadda yadda.

[Boston Mangler]

What program do you need to open it?

Thanks

[ChuckH]

go to http://earth.google.com and click "Get Google Earth" in the top right corner.

Another very cool piece of software

[Boston Mangler]

Ahh Yes!

Very cool piece of software! I like how you can edit the transparency level of the overlay!

Thanks For The File Tim!

p.s. i think i remember reading something about this on cnn.com that the goverment was concerned about security issues with this and how it could so easily be used for not so legal things

very cool nonetheless

[DELETED..]

whoaaaaaaaaa.. very cool.... we need a school on all the things you can do with this great program.

how do you make a transperancy like that??

[Chase 2]

When I open the file I get a "bubble" describing your overlay centered over Valle De Trinidad but I see no course. zoomin in didn't help. What am I doing wrong or not doing?

[ChuckH]

I don't think the free version lets you see GPS data, doesn't look like they have as good a resolution for MX as many other places too.

I dont see the track either

[HTTP404]

When I open the file I get a "bubble" describing your overlay centered over Valle De Trinidad but I see no course. zoomin in didn't help. What am I doing wrong or not doing?

If you've downloaded the overlay you should see it in your list of 'places' on the left hand side. If you highlight the Baja map item you will see a little slider control at the bottom of the list box. By sliding this you change the opacity of the layer and make it more or less visible.


I didn't spend much time scaling Sal's map to the google map so there is some discrepancy between the marked route and the actual road on the sat image. But even with the quickie scaling job it's easy to identify the actual course road/trail on the sat image. If you had the GPS #'s for the various spots you could do much more detailed mapping and recon.

Someone upgrade to the GPS version and let us know what it does.

[HTTP404]

I don't think the free version lets you see GPS data, doesn't look like they have as good a resolution for MX as many other places too.

I dont see the track either

The only GPS info you get is on the status bar (bottom) and it reflects the #s of where the cursor is pointing.

I scouted some areas I wanted to fish with it and could identify underwater structure. I made a placemark on the spots I wanted to check out. I used the #s it was showing for the spots as the name for each placemark and printed out the page to take along. When we got to the #'s the sonor would mark the structure right on the money.

[HTTP404]

I've been playing with the program for a while. If anyone wants to get up to speed so they can make use of it send me a PM and we can hook up on the phone for a quick tutorial.

Tim

[ChuckH]

Damn complicated computers :D

Ok now i see it, good job, if a person wanted to they could put the map in photoshop and cutout the white part and make it into a transparent GIF.

YOu can see pretty good if you move the slider one notch and zoom in, cool.

[Boston Mangler]

Nice work on the Google Earth Overlay! This is could be the start of something huge! Damn is that program cool!

Also, If anyone wants a Garmin Mapsource file with the course and waypoints loaded let me know. I converted the Lowrance file from the Score site into a Garmin format so it can be uploaded to Garmin units.

I made a 1400 point track of the course with the RM's in it.

PM me if you want a copy to load to a Garmin unit.

[Chase 2]

If you've downloaded the overlay you should see it in your list of 'places' on the left hand side. If you highlight the Baja map item you will see a little slider control at the bottom of the list box. By sliding this you change the opacity of the layer and make it more or less visible.


Thats it! Thanks.

[HTTP404]

Damn complicated computers :D

Ok now i see it, good job, if a person wanted to they could put the map in photoshop and cutout the white part and make it into a transparent GIF.

YOu can see pretty good if you move the slider one notch and zoom in, cool.

That is what I did but for some reason the transp areas showed as white when I imported the image. I'll have to mess with it some more. It should support transp. gifs.

[Tazz]

Here is my version with the course plotted out as gps routes and a lot of the roads also as gps routes in pdf format. The back ground is a series of digital images align and calibrated to use in Ozi as a map. Roads are in Blue and the race route is in yellow & red.

It's close but I still have some tweeking to do. I'm currently updating the image with town names, roads over laid as perminant features and other land marks added also. Baja Norte is reasonably complete and I'm currently working on the Baja Sur.

If any one has gps routes of other roads I would appriciate them.

Beware the file is 4mb and prints full size to about 32" X 32" usable on a 36" X 48" in paper. http://oldhorseracing.com/1-05racecourse%26roads.pdf

I put it together so our new member on chase could have a visual.

Give me your comments

Dan

[Chase 2]

Tazz, that is really nice. You could easily chase from your map, I like it a lot!!! Now if I just had a printer that would do it on one page.

[MikeLeung]

We use Google Earth Pro at work. If you want send me the overlay and I and put it on a much higher resolution then the free verison.

[Boston Mangler]

Tazz,

I just printed out a copy of that on the huge plotter @ work on the 32"x32" setting!

Nice work man!

Mike Leung, a higher res copy would be cool, send it on over! :D

[ChuckH]

Great work Tazz

You lucky dog Boston M, that would look great hanging in a shop

I just bought Google pro earth, tomorrow im going to import the GPS data in and see if the people with the free version can use it after i save it to a file

[Boston Mangler]

You lucky dog Boston M, that would look great hanging in a shop

Bingo, i will be hanging one in my garage and bringing one with us chasing! If no one at my office bitches about me plotting some of more of these (they use a TON of ink!), i will try to get 2 or 3 more copies once this thing is dialed in. I could probably send ya one.



I just bought Google pro earth, tomorrow im going to import the GPS data in and see if the people with the free version can use it after i save it to a file

Very cool, post up what you get!

You can probably save or export it to some generic format like a .pdf or something that could be opened and printed/plotted by anyone!

[GWS282]

Beware the file is 4mb and prints full size to about 32" X 32" usable on a 36" X 48" in paper.

That is awesome. We tried to print it 22"x36" but it was hard to read. So we printed it in full size and it came out great. Going to get it laminated so we can use dry erase marker to make a pit plan. Our office has been using GoogleEarth for months , but never thought of this. Thank you for your time and effort(and sharing) and let us know when you have the finished product.

Greg
Protruck #282

[Boston Mangler]

That is awesome. We tried to print it 22"x36" but it was hard to read. So we printed it in full size and it came out great. Going to get it laminated so we can use dry erase marker to make a pit plan. Our office has been using GoogleEarth for months , but never thought of this. Thank you for your time and effort(and sharing) and let us know when you have the finished product.

Greg
Protruck #282

Hey Greg

What size did you end up printing out that it came out clean? I did 32"x32" and it came out very good, but i was curious if we can it get better? Not sure how big the plotters in my office go, at least it give me something to do tomorrow! :D

i am curious to see how clear we can get it when Mike Leung tries a hi-res version

[Tazz]

Hey Greg

What size did you end up printing out that it came out clean? I did 32"x32" and it came out very good, but i was curious if we can it get better? Not sure how big the plotters in my office go, at least it give me something to do tomorrow! :D

i am curious to see how clear we can get it when Mike Leung tries a hi-res version

Print it full size 36" X 48, that is the size it is plotted to when it is full size. The actual image size will be about 35 X 40 (I was wrong on my original sizing) .It waste some paper but I can't print pdf to off size sheets.

Also if anyone is using OziExplorer and would like the map file, send me a pm and I'll get it to you. . It is calibrated, so all you will have to do is put the image and map file in C:\OziExplore\Maps and load it as a map. I got tired of looking at gps points without the visual of the map background.

Dan

[HTTP404]

Just messing around some more.

9278

[transformed]

That's a great view

[jesusgatos]

No mac version yet...

[racer951]

Mike, how much higher resolution is the pro version?

I was messing around with the program last night and "pre-ran" just about the entire Barstow A course visually, but got mixed up in the southern section with all the different trails. I tried to overlay a course map from MORE but no matter how i stretched it, the highways (15 and 247) wouldnt match up (I don't think the map was proportioned correctly) so I knew the course wouldnt either. This is definitely cool.

[Chase 2]

Did you guys have any luck with the high res?

[MikeLeung]

Mike, how much higher resolution is the pro version?

I was messing around with the program last night and "pre-ran" just about the entire Barstow A course visually, but got mixed up in the southern section with all the different trails. I tried to overlay a course map from MORE but no matter how i stretched it, the highways (15 and 247) wouldnt match up (I don't think the map was proportioned correctly) so I knew the course wouldnt either. This is definitely cool.

I haven't recieved any overlays from anybody. However I did look at the course...unforturely the high res is only in the Ensenada area.

Another feature of the Pro version is the ablility to have a printer output at 1200x1200 resolution.

So if anybody has a overlay made...send it to me at:
mleung@redpointdevelopment.com

[ChuckH]

Google doesn't allow you to import GPS data unless its on a real GPS receiver and i dont have one, i did make a overlay file by other means, it might need tweeking to make it a clear Gif)

I included a Sat pic with the course thats acurate, i have it in a 2.5 meg file, if you want it PM me a email address

I also included a road and track pic with citys (roads are in red)

[FlyHiFlyLo]

No mac version yet...

I think The Sony BetaMax version is located on the same shelf.

[ChuckH]

Here is the big sat pic, Its 5 meg and 4080x3799

Choose free then wait 20 seconds
http://rapidshare.de/files/6894297/satBig.jpg.html

You can upload files here up to 50 megs and have them hosted free.
http://rapidshare.de

[Tazz]

Google doesn't allow you to import GPS data unless its on a real GPS receiver and i dont have one, i did make a overlay file by other means, it might need tweeking to make it a clear Gif)



Yes it will. If you have Earth plus or Pro. If the orginal is a .gpx .loc or .mps ,if not then in an around about way use OziExplorer or another program that will save the orginal GPS file to a .gpx. Then go File/open in the drop down box for "file type" scroll down to GPS find it and open it. It will then display.
Save it as a KMZ and then you can play it as a tour and do a fly by along the course.

Or here they are already converted to KMZ file and uploaded as a zip file www.oldhorseracing.com/05-baja1000kmz.zip Just right click save as.

Dan

[ChuckH]

Thanks i haven't had much time to learn the software, to bad it couldn't just import/open a "usr" file, it can read them off a GPS.

To bad the Sat data is only clear for the 1st part and a few other places, this will be a great prerunning tool one day

[stuckthrottle]

If you have a couple of hours to kill, check this out:
http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/

[Boston Mangler]

Or here they are already converted to KMZ file and uploaded as a zip file www.oldhorseracing.com/05-baja1000kmz.zip Just right click save as.
Dan

WOW that is cool! Good work Dan!