Issue uploading maps to Google Earth.

[AndrewRoberts2]

I'm a GIS student and I have a bunch of historical maps of which I want to upload to Google Earth so they can overlay the specific area which they cover...

Right now I have my maps as .mxd files containing a .jpg of the map which is georeferenced. The data is raster and thats what's giving me the biggest headache.

First I tried the "Map to KML" function in ArcMap v.10 under conversion tools. This worked but unfortunatly, what I believe to be the compression during the conversion, reduces the map's resolution when I open it in Google Earth.

The next thing I tried (because I have access to Google Earth Pro) was to upload the file as a ".tif" so there would be no conversion/compression. This also worked but it was not covering the right area because it was not georeferenced.

So I need to solve one of two issues and I'm hoping someone here can help me out because I can't find anything on these issues.

1.) How to convert a .mxd file (Raster data!) to .KML without the compression or loss of resolution.
OR
2.) How to combine the .tif and .tfw (World file) into a georeference GeoTIFF that I can upload using Google Earth Pro.

So if anyone can point me to a good way of solving either of these problems it would be apprecaited! 🙂

Thanks!!

[AndrewRoberts2]

bump... still haven't found a solution for this issue.

[michaelcollins1]

what did you use for Map Output Scale and Output Image Properties?

[SimonKettle]

Have you attempted to try loading the files in ArcMap with the Bing maps basemap or using ArcExplorer instead of Google Earth?

Adding to Michaels comments above:

Exporting to KML in ArcMap always uses a ZIP compression (which you can't edit as far as I am aware)...so (using Map to KML tool under Conversion Tools and "To KML") I would suggest being careful with the map output scale and if you can use the Extent to export which is the geographic extent of the area to be exported (i.e. lower left and upper right coordinate locations) and also the image size which is the size of image in pixels therefore defining vertical and horizontal resolution of the raster.

Additionally edit the dpi setting which defines the raster dpi.

I hope this helps...

[EricRice]

This thread seems relevant to your question.

http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/5827-Raster-to-KML-problem

Regards,
Eric

[AndrewRoberts2]

Thanks for the advice!

I've been using a scale of 250000 but I've tried it in various other scales (Everything from 15000 to 500000) and it still doesn't change the output KML. No matter what the scale, it still appears in its appropriate location at the appropriate scale in Google Earth.

As for the output image properties I've been using the default settings of 1024 pixels and 96 dpi. I've also attempted to alter these and look for a difference but like the scale above it doesn't appear to change the kml file as viewed through Google Earth.

[AndrewRoberts2]

UPDATE:

I finally got this to work! I sucessfully uploaded my map into Google Earth and it was very simply done. The best thing is that because my image was very large the compression made it blurry but I followed these steps to fix that (encase anyone has the same problem...):

1.) I downloaded FME from www.safe.com (I used the trial verson)
2.) Used the QuickTranslator to create and GeoTIFF file from my existing .jpg
3.) Uploaded the GeoTIFF in Google Earth PRO*** (Normal Google Earth cannot load GeoTIFFs)

Because my image was large Google Earth automatically (and very quickly) creates a, "Super Overlay" which displayed the image perfectly.

Note: I tried to use the quick translator to create a .kml but it was still blurry when i opened it in Google Earth. GeoTIFFs and Google Earth Pro is definatly the quickest and easiest way to go!