Rick Royer just pointed out an even better way to get
topographic maps overlain onto Google Earth. First be sure that the
option "Show web results in external browser"
(Tools/Options/General/Display) is turned off in order for this to
load within Google Earth; otherwise you get it in an external web
browser instead. In the Layers area at the bottom left, click on
Earth Gallery. That brings up a web page with all sorts of add-ons
for Google Earth. Click on the Terrain & Elevation link, and then on
Historical Topographic Maps (USGS). That adds a new Layer of
seamless topo maps similar to the method below, except that the
resolution is better. The opacity can be controlled by the slider,
just as before. Very nice!
Mark
At 03:45 PM 5/21/2013, Mark Minton wrote:
A couple of years ago I posted a method to get seamless
topo map coverage as an overlay in Google Earth. The method
presented there (topomaps.kmz) no longer works, but I've found a
replacement. Go to
<https://productforums.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/gec-dynamic-data-layers/spApcsugU4g>
and get the new file exolife.kml (_not_ the attachment at the end
of the message!). It may install itself into Google Earth
automatically if GE is open; otherwise, just click on the file once
you have it, then right click on it in Google Earth and go to
Properties. Under the Refresh tab, change View-Based Refresh to
After Camera Stops, with a time delay of 4 seconds. This speeds up
loading time for regular views since the topo maps are not
constantly trying to download when you're just moving around. Drag
the topomap overlay from Temporary Places to My Places so that you
will not have to load and configure it next time you want to use it.
This works by linking to a server of topo maps; the actual
maps are not downloaded to your computer except for the view you
have up on the screen, so it does not take up a lot of memory or
storage space. It creates an image overlay of the appropriate topo
map on top of the normal Google Earth satellite view. It works in
combination with any other image overlays you may have, like the
.kml file for a cave line plot (exportable from Compass). You can
vary the transparency of overlays from invisible to opaque using a
slider, so you can have as dark or light amount of topo info as you
want, or you can turn that layer off altogether. This doubles as a
way to have seamless topo map coverage of the entire country. Very handy!
Mark
Please reply to mmin...@caver.net
Permanent email address is mmin...@illinoisalumni.org
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