Google Earth files?

[Stormforce8]

As the Garmin 'gdb' file thread didn't go anywhere - would it be useful for us to be able to upload Google Earth 'kml' files?

Really easy to use - just click on the file and it will open Google Earth and zoom into the location.

[Zenarchy]

I didn't see your thread about the garmin files, but if it's about route maps on google earth then that sounds like a great idea.

This might be of interest to people with tomtom perhaps (will convert google earty routes into a tom-tom intinery file):

http://houghi.org/tomtom/index.php

[fatowl]

This might be of interest to people with tomtom perhaps (will convert google earty routes into a tom-tom intinery file):

http://houghi.org/tomtom/index.php

This is brilliant! Been looking for something like this. I don't have a tomtom, but I can see how this works, and mod it to do what I want.

I think having a section with GPS co-ords for good routes is a very good idea, not in any manufacturer specific format, but general "csv" format, so anyone can convert and use them.

BTW, I don't neccessarily mean off-road tracks - I know the bad things that can happen once word gets round into the "wrong hands". Tarmac routes are good too!

[Zenarchy]

This is brilliant! Been looking for something like this. I don't have a tomtom, but I can see how this works, and mod it to do what I want.

I think having a section with GPS co-ords for good routes is a very good idea, not in any manufacturer specific format, but general "csv" format, so anyone can convert and use them.

BTW, I don't neccessarily mean off-road tracks - I know the bad things that can happen once word gets round into the "wrong hands". Tarmac routes are good too!

That sounds like a good idea, though maybe there'd need to be a different delimiter to commas as there might be place names with commas in. The way the tomtom format appears to do it with pipe delimiters (|) seems like it wouldn't be bad as a base format as it looks easy to type/compile manually and the pipe character wouldn't be used ordinarily in a place name I'd expect.

That tomtom script seems to be simply parsing the url and splitting it up into a differently formated file for the itinary for tomtom. That's a pretty simple task really (though the start and end-point thing seems a little fiddly to do to make the url in the first place). There may be better ways to do that now though or other scripts an utilities available online elsewhere. I bookmarked that link some time ago.

If an agreed base format was used for all of the files then writing a script to spit out the various GPS files I'd guess would be pretty quick and easy (assuming they're all using the same coordinates ofcourse and their formats aren't encrypted and easy to decipher like this).

There's another site online somewhere that I bookmarked a while back called best biking roads that does something similar I think. I'll try to find a link.

[Zenarchy]

http://www.bestbikingroads.com/index.php - that's the one I was thinking of.

[Falp]

KMLtoGPX

http://www.fish-track.com/?page_id=3

[Lumiya]

What would be nice is if the google maps forum plug-in could handle KML files that way members could enter thier favourite tracks and anyone could download them later..It's been discussed on just about every google map forum plug-in topic I've seen but never been done...YET

Perhaps in the mean time a stickied thread in the Travel section that people can put screen captures of thier KML files being shown in Google Earth with a download link to them...at least then you can see where the track starts finishes and where abouts it is before downloading.

Kymmy

[Dee Duble Yuh]

Haven't noticed this thread before, sorry (nor the one on gdb files). A few observations:

1. There is an accepted format suitable for swapping between GPS devices, known as gpx. It's an implementation of XML.
2. There's a free software that will convert almost and GPS format into almost any other. The GPSBabel utility is basically command-line driven, but there's a GUI front-end for Windows and Mac OS X.
3. I'd consider helping to host this facility if needed.
4. Would it be better to share these via Sunday Morning Rides anyway? They appear to have all this stuff sorted. It's a pity journeys are stored as track logs rather than routes though but otherwise it seems pretty good!

SF8 might recognise this route!? I uploaded it as a gpx and it's available as a gpx, Garmin gdb, Magellan SD, TomTom itn, and Google Earth kml.

[GeoBloke]

As the Garmin 'gdb' file thread didn't go anywhere - would it be useful for us to be able to upload Google Earth 'kml' files?

Really easy to use - just click on the file and it will open Google Earth and zoom into the location.

Just thought I'd add my bit here as well. I've got a handy little mashup file that overlays GoogleEarth imagery in GE with the relevant Ordnance Survey mapping. Good for orienting your position. PM me if you're interested and I'll email you the file. Just open it within GE as you would any kml and see what happens.

GeoBloke