Speaking of Google Earth (
in my recent post), very interesting post today on Panbo.
GPS to GE, best way?
Panbo reader Ed is looking for a handheld GPS that will save tracks that he can overlay on Google Earth. I don’t know of any common handhelds that will produce .kml files directly (maybe you do?), but there sure are a lot of ways to make the conversion.
Panbo: The Marine Electronics Weblog: GPS to GE, best way?
Goes on to describe testing of GPSBabel, which is freeware (donations encouraged). Here are details from the GPSBabel site:
GPSBabel converts waypoints, tracks, and routes from one format to another, whether that format is a common mapping format like Delorme, Streets and Trips, or even a serial or USB upload or download to a GPS receiver such as those from Garmin and Magellan. By flattening the Tower of Babel that the authors of various programs for manipulating GPS data have imposed upon us, it returns to us the ability to freely move our own waypoint data between the programs and hardware we choose to use.
It contains extensive data manipulation abilities making it a convenient for server-side processing or as the backend for other tools.
It does not convert, transfer, send, or manipulate maps. We process data that may (or may not be) placed on a map, such as waypoints, tracks, and routes.
GPSBabel: convert, upload, download data from GPS and Map programs
Also, a comment follows mentioning GPS Visualizer. Here's more on that one:
GPS Visualizer is a free, easy-to-use online utility that creates maps and profiles from GPS data (tracks and waypoints), street addresses, or simple coordinates. Use it to see where you've been, plan where you're going, or visualize geographic data (business locations, scientific observations, events, customers, real estate, geotagging, etc.).
GPS Visualizer can read data files from many different sources, including but not limited to: GPX, OziExplorer, Geocaching.com (.loc), IGC sailplane logs, Garmin Forerunner (.xml/.hst), Timex Trainer (v1.3+), Cetus GPS, PathAway, cotoGPS, CompeGPS, TomTom (.pgl), IGN Rando (.rdn), Emtac Trine, Suunto X9/X9i (.sdf), NetStumbler/WiFiFoFum, and of course tab-delimited or comma-separated text.
GPS Visualizer can draw maps in SVG, JPEG/PNG, and Google Maps format, and can also create map overlays and KML files for Google Earth. For non-Google maps, JPEGs are easier to deal with, but SVGs are interactive -- to view them, make sure you've installed Adobe's free SVG Viewer plug-in.
GPS Visualizer
Take a look also at a couple of other possibilities mentioned -
GPS Utility, and export from
Coastal Explorer electronic navigation software.
