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7.9

Export to Google Earth

Introduction

KML (Keyhole Markup Language) is an XML format used by Google Earth to load overlays.

KML files can contain point, poly line and polygon data, as well as one or more references to raster overlays.

It is also possible to script complete Google Earth presentations into a KML file.

At this moment, Hydromagic supports point, line and polygon features, as well as attributes, styles and ground overlays.

Hydromagic is able to both import and export Google Earth KML files. This document describes how to export them.

Exporting Data

In Hydromagic, it is possible to convert tracks, vector maps, matrices, boundaries, comments, waypoints and sections to KML files.

When exporting a matrix, an image file is generated and loaded in Google Earth as a so called "ground

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overlay".

To start exporting data, select the "Export KML Data" from the "File" => "Export" menu as shown below:

Selecting data to export

In the dialog that appears, you will see a list of all items that can be converted to KML.

Just check the items you wish to export. By default, all visible items are selected.

To reset the selection, click "Select None", to select all items, click "Select All".

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Select output file

The next step is to select a location to store the exported data. You can save the data as KML or KMZ file.

Click the "Browse..." button to open a save file dialog, and enter the name for the file. In the save file dialog, you can also choose between the "KML" or "KMZ" formats.

When you choose to export a matrix, the file extension will default to "KMZ" which allows you to store the KML and image data into a single KMZ file.

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KML Format

When using the KML file format, a KML file is generated as well as an image file (PNG) for each exported matrix.

The image files are stored in the same folder as the location of the KML file.

When not exporting matrices or large amounts of vector data, KML is probably the best option for you.

KMZ Format

If you are going to export matrices, or large amounts of vector data, KMZ is the best choice.

A KMZ file is a zipped archive containing a main KML file (doc.kml) and, in case of exporting image data such as matrices, some image files.

When using the KMZ file format, you can always transfer the data by distributing a single KMZ file.

Exporting the data

Just click "OK" to start the export. For small files, this takes only a couple of seconds, for large projects it can take a couple of minutes. You can watch the progress in the status bar at the bottom of the screen.

Examples of exported KML files

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Example of a single matrix exported as KMZ file

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