4 replies to this topic

[Esther Mandeno]

Hello All,

It has been awhile since I've visited here, but I had a question that I couldn't figure out on my own and thought...CartoTalk!

Here's the question:
I need to overlay an ortho-rectified, clipped IKONOS image into Google Earth. It's a special snow free image that we bought for our project area. I've been making cool maps with the image (a volcano), and now my co-workers want to use the image in their own maps. However, we do not have ArcMap deployed to all work stations. Just mine. Everyone else uses GoogleEarth for quick maps and reference. So...my question...how do I get my image to come up properly in the non-Pro version of Google Earth? When I try to open the image it puts it smack dab in the center of where I'm viewing and it's completely pixelated. I lose all the great resolution we paid for. When I try to add it to georeference it, it crops the photo to some random extent.

Can I not do this in the free version? Do I need the Pro version to open the image and then create a KMZ out of it?

Exporting the image from inside of ArcMap (using the Layer to KML tool) resulted in the image in the right place, but, again, I lose the resolution. Any clues?

[SteveR]

I don't have any recent experience with Arc/Info, but the freeware program Microdem can do that. You right click on the map and then select Export. The KMZ file will be saved in the KML directory. Maybe somebody else will have a way to do it in ArcMap, but this will work until that solution arrives.

Steve Richardson
2i3D Stereo Imaging

 Time2GE.jpg   335.42K   29 downloads

[David Medeiros]

Hi Esther,

Are you using the overlay function or just exporting as a KML? Importing the image directly as an overlay and repositioning yourself might make the difference. I believe you need the image on a server for this rather than a local file.

http://earth.google....thoverlays.html

If that's your work flow and you are still getting low res images you may have to poke around GE for some raster settings. It may also be the tile sampling GE does, have you zoomed way in and way out? GE will display lower res images at certain scales and load higher res tiles as you zoom in.

[Esther Mandeno]

Thank you Steve and David for responding.

David - yes, that is what I've been doing and the resolution is still very poor (zoomed in or not). Also, why should I have to do that? it is already geo-referenced. Is there no way to get Google Earth to recognize the projection and/or world file?

Steve - technically, ArcMap has a similar function, but, again, when I use it, I get very poor resolution. Just doesn't make sense.

I'll try again, today. Maybe the gremlins in my machine will be looking the other way and I'll get my image out in all its glory.

I'll update this post if I figure it out.

Thanks again,
Esther

[Steven Overstreet]

Hi Esther,

I've been dealing with the exact same issue at work for some time now. My understanding is that ArcGIS will always degrade from high-resolution when converting to a kml (unless you use ArcServer). We have also found overlays to be too time consuming.

Until we find a better solution, we have been creating GeoPDF's and passing them around. It has the coordinates imbedded and is viewed by everyone, but that's about it (can't be manipulated, loaded into Google Earth, etc).

If you find a better way to do this, please let me know!

Thanks,
Steve