How to Use Google Earth to Draw a Site Plan

Create a map or story in Google Earth Spider web

Tutorial Contents

• Prerequisites

• Permit's Get Started!

• Create a project and add places

• Adding a identify from Street View

• Preview your finished projection

• Add rich data to your places

• Adding photos, videos and text

• Previewing changes

• Styling placemarks

• Calculation 3D views

• Changing the Info box

• Add information to your second placemark

• Adding videos

• Add together lines and shapes to your project

• Depict a line

• Draw a shape

• Add slides to your project

• Share your project

• To share a link to the projection

• To share the project with specific people for viewing or collaboration

• More with Globe creation tools

• Viewing your projects on spider web and mobile

• Pinning Projects

• Importing your KML files

• Exporting KML

• Give-and-take and Feedback

• What's Next

Prerequisites

• No programming skills needed!
• A Chrome browser (download here), logged into your Google Business relationship. Don't have 1? Sign up here.

Let'southward Get Started!

The new cosmos tools in Google Earth allow you to easily create and share maps and stories near our world as an Earth project. Y'all can create a project on whatever subject of your choosing, drawing placemarks, lines and shapes, calculation rich contextual data to your places (text, links, images, videos, 3D views and Street View), and organizing your project into a narrative catamenia. You can share your project and collaborate with others. In presentation mode, viewers volition wing from i place to the adjacent following the narrative of your projection, immersing them in the journey through Google World's imagery and the custom content you provide.

This tutorial will introduce you to the new creation tools, and walk you through the procedure of creating and sharing your own Earth projection. In club to consummate this tutorial, you will need some text, photo and video content to add to your project. You can employ your ain content or you can use the sample content provided by our friends at the Jane Goodall Plant (JGI). Download the aught file below for the JGI images and excerpt the contents to a binder on your desktop.

JGI_sample_content.zip (249k Aught file)

If you choose to follow along with our Jane Goodall example, you may want to preview the finished sample Jane Goodall story earlier you lot start the tutorial.

---

Create a project and add places

1. Open Google Earth on your computer: https://earth.google.com/spider web
2. Click on the Projects icon in the left-hand navigation.
3. If y'all've never created a Projection before, you lot will click the Create button to create a new projection. If y'all've created World projects before, then you'll see a list of your projects and tin click the New project button to create a new project. If you're non already logged into your Google account, you'll be prompted to do so.

4. In the Project Details panel, click the Edit push button to the right of Untitled Project to edit the project's title and clarification. In this case, we've supplied some text below for you to re-create and paste into these fields.

   Project Title: Jane Goodall'south Journeying to Gombe

   Description:
   Jane Goodall is one of the all-time-known naturalists and conservationists in the world. Her work revolutionized our understanding of chimpanzees. She started the Jane Goodall Plant, which works for chimpanzee conservation across Africa.

   You'll find that your edits are automatically saved in Google Drive equally you piece of work.

5. At present it's time to add your first place to the map. At that place are two means to add a place: dropping a placemark on the map or using Search to find a place. First, we'll try adding a placemark to the map:

   Navigate effectually the globe until y'all see England. Now, click the Add placemark push in the creation toolbar at the bottom left-hand to activate the placemark tool.

   

   Then click on the map, on England, to add together the placemark.

   Tip: If you are not seeing country and other place names on the globe, try changing your Map Style. Click on the Google Earth bill of fare button and select Map Way. Change your Map Way to Exploration and so that yous can see place names on the world.

6. In the Save to project box, click into the Title field and name your placemark "Jane'south Babyhood". The Projection field should exist prepare to "Jane Goodall's Journey to Gombe". Then click Save.

   

   Y'all should see your titled placemark announced in the list of features in the Project Details panel.

7. Now let's add together a placemark using the second method: the Search tool. Click the Search icon in the left-hand navigation and search for "Nairobi National Museum". Click on the showtime search result.

   

8. On the Nairobi National Museum Knowledge Card at right, click the Add to projection button.

   

   Click Save to add the second identify to your project. You lot can close the Knowledge Card by clicking on the X in the superlative-right corner.

Adding a identify from Street View

1. Now let'due south add together a tertiary and final identify - this time a identify in Street View! Use the Search tool once again to wing to "Gombe National Park", but close the Knowledge Bill of fare without adding it to the Project.
2. Click on the Street View pegman in the bottom right corner. Blue lines and dots will appear wherever Street View imagery is available. Click on the blueish line or dot to enter Street View on i of the forested hills in the park.

3. Navigate through the Street View until yous discover the view you'd like to add to the place. Click the Capture this view push.

   

4. Title the placemark "Gombe National Park" and save it to your project.

Preview your finished projection

1. Click the Nowadays button to see your project presented in a narrative format.

   

2. Click next and previous buttons in the Table of Contents at lesser left to fly to each feature in your project. Click the dorsum button - the arrow in the top left corner - to go out the presentation.

   • Tip: Yous tin can also drop a placemark on the globe by clicking the New feature button and select Add together placemark.

   • Tip: To change the narrative order of your project, become to the Project Details panel and reorder the characteristic list by clicking and dragging the features into a new order.

---

Add rich information to your places

Adding photos, videos and text

1. In the Projection Details panel, hover over the first feature in your project and click the Edit push to open the Property Editor panel.

   

2. Click on the Camera push.

   

   Here you will see options to upload an prototype from your computer, choose a photo from your Google Photos albums, search the spider web for images, select an paradigm by URL or add YouTube videos.

   

   Using the search pick, search for images of Bournemouth (Jane'due south childhood home) and select one that y'all like. Click Select to come across the image appear with a thumbnail view in the Holding Editor panel.

   

3. Click the camera button again to add together a 2nd photo. Search for and add a second photo. Adding multiple photos will create an prototype carousel in your Info box.

4. Click the Description field and re-create and paste the beneath text. This box has basic formatting options available, including assuming, italics, underline, bullet lists, indentation, and hyperlinks. Text starting with "http.." will automatically exist hyperlinked.

   Jane Goodall grew upward in Bournemouth, England. Growing up, she was fascinated by all kinds of animals. When she was young, her favorite books were Dr. Dolittle and the Tarzan series. All she wanted to exercise was go to Africa, observe the incredible animals living there, and write books about them.

   

Previewing changes

Click the Preview presentation push to run into your changes in presentation mode. Click the back button to go dorsum to the Property Editor console and proceed editing.

Styling placemarks

1. Scroll down the Property Editor panel and find the Placemark section. Click on the placemark size and change the size to Large.
2. Click on the paint bucket icon to change the placemark color to xanthous.

3. Click on the placemark overflow carte du jour and select Come across more than icons. Search the icons using the word "book" and select the book icon to represent Jane'southward childhood.

   

   Tip: Y'all tin as well add a custom icon (your own icon image file) by clicking the placemark overflow menu and selecting Upload custom icon. Your icons must be in jpg or png file format and nosotros recommend y'all use an epitome size of 128 x 128 pixels or 64 10 64 pixels (extremely large icons may touch on the functioning of the app).

Adding 3D views

Now that nosotros know Jane grew up in Bournemouth, let's make the view in Earth of Jane's childhood more specific and immersive.

1. Click on the placemark and drag the marker to Bournemouth (just west of Southampton along the southern coast of England). You may need to zoom and pan the map to get a better view of the town.
2. Now, tilt and rotate the Earth's surface using the compass or keyboard shortcuts until you find a view of Bournemouth that you like.

3. Click the Capture this view button. This assembly this 3D view with your location, and in presentation style when yous visit this location, the map will fly to this view.

   

Changing the Info box

You can change the way of the Info box that displays your content (text, photos, videos, etc).

1. In the Property Editor panel click the drop down arrow on the right-side of the Info box and modify the Info box from Modest info box to Big info box.
2. Click the Preview presentation push to see the changes. Decide which fashion you like best!

Add information to your second placemark

Now let'southward add information to the other placemarks in your project.

1. Click the back button to go back to the Project Details panel.

2. Hover over the 2d placemark and click the Edit push button .

3. Since we added this placemark from a Knowledge Carte, it displays information from the Google Knowledge Graph (y'all can click the Preview presentation button to run across the default information displayed). You could choose to keep the Knowledge Bill of fare information as is, or you can click "Supercede" in the Holding Editor panel to delete this data and then add your own content. In this instance, let's delete the Google information menu content.

   

4. Keep the title "Nairobi National Museum" given by the Cognition Graph, just add a new description to this placemark:

   In 1957, on a visit to Kenya, Jane met the famous anthropologist and paleontologist Dr. Louis Leakey, and was hired as a secretary. Dr. Leakey was looking for someone to begin a study of chimpanzees to gain insight into human beings' evolutionary past.

5. Add an epitome by uploading the file titled jane_and_leakey.jpg (institute in JGI_sample_content.zip) from your calculator.

6. Set a 3D view and click the Capture this view push button.

   

7. Now edit your third and final placemark, Jane's Peak. Add together the following description:

   Jane Goodall arrived in Gombe in July of 1960. The area was located in what was and then the British protectorate of Tanganyika. Information technology was unheard of at the time for a young woman of 26 to travel into the forests of Africa lonely. Armed only with her binoculars and a notebook, Jane would climb to Gombe'southward highest peak in search of the chimpanzees. Over the years, Jane's research led to many new discoveries, for example that chimpanzees know how to make and employ tools, similar humans exercise. Her research team has studied the beliefs and followed the lives of the chimpanzees of Gombe for many decades at present.

Calculation videos

1. While however in the Property Editor panel for the tertiary placemark, click on the camera button and select YouTube. Y'all may search for a YouTube video or you can access your public YouTube videos. If you accept an unlisted YouTube you lot'd similar to add, you can enter its URL in the search box to select information technology.

2. Search for "jane goodall termite fishing" and select the showtime search issue to add together the video to the place.

---

Add lines and shapes to your project

Describe a line

1. In the Project Details console, click the New feature push button and select Draw line or shape (Annotation: You lot tin also click the Draw line or shape push in the cosmos toolbar at the bottom of your screen).

2. On the map, click to add together a series of points to draw the line. Each time you click, a new segment is added to your line. To finish your line, press enter. For the Jane Goodall project, you might describe the path that a boat would have to become from the nearest city (Kigoma) to the enquiry station in Gombe.

3. In the Add to project box, name your line and click Edit place.

   

4. In the Width and color section, click on the width dropdown and change the line width to 8 pixels.

   

5. Click on the color palette to select crimson for your line color. Alternatively click Custom colors to create your own color swatch (Annotation: the hexadecimal code tin can be edited directly for exact web color matches).

6. Zoom out to so that you tin come across the unabridged line and click Capture this view.

Tip: If you open the Belongings Editor panel for your line, yous will exist able to drag and move your line points to reshape your line, but you can't delete or add segments.

Draw a shape

1. Now, we'll add together a shape. In the Projection Details panel, click the New feature button and select Describe line or shape.

2. On the map, click to add a series of points to draw your shape. Each time you click, a new segment is added to the outline of your shape. To cease your shape, click once more on the first bespeak that was added to shut the shape. For the Jane Goodall projection, yous might draw a shape around the enquiry station in Gombe.

   

3. In the Add together to Project box, proper name your shape and click Edit place.

4. In the Outline width and colour section, change the outline to red.

5. In the Make full color section, alter the make full colour to yellow. Y'all tin also alter the transparency using the drop downward carte du jour to a higher place the color palette.

6. Adjust the view and click Capture this view.

   

Tip: Yous tin can reshape your polygon by clicking and dragging points, but you can't delete segments. You tin not click and drag your entire shape to a new location.

---

Add slides to your project

1. In the Project Details panel, click the New feature button and select Fullscreen slide.

2. Give the slide a title and description.

   Jane Goodall's Journey to Gombe

   This is the story of Jane Goodall and her groundbreaking research with chimpanzees in Gombe National Park.

3. Add an prototype past selecting the Camera button, then Upload and selecting the file entitled jane_peak.jpg (constitute in JGI_sample_content.zip) from your computer.

4. Click the dorsum button to get to the Project Details panel.

5. Click on the slide in the characteristic list and drag it to the superlative of the list of features.

6. Now click the Present button to come across how your new slide introduces your projection.

   

Tip: You can add slides to introduce your project, create chapters or sections, to add together an catastrophe message or credits and more.

Tip: If you choose to use an image as your slide groundwork, your title and description volition appear at the lesser lefthand of your slide. If you choose to employ colour equally your slide background, your title and description will appear centered on your slide.

---

You accept many options when you want to share your Earth project with others. All projects are private by default — just you as the creator of the projection can view or edit information technology. Below you'll acquire how to share the project, every bit well every bit how to collaborate on your project with others.

1. Click the Share button on the Project Details console.

   

2. Click Get shareable link.

   

3. Copy the link. You tin now share this link with others so that they can view your project. Note: if you turn link sharing on, anyone who the link is shared with can view your project. If you'd like to control admission permissions by Google account then you will likely want to utilise the method described straight below instead of turning link sharing on..

Tip: By default, people with the link will only be able to view your projection. If you'd like, you lot can change the permissions so that anyone with the link tin can edit your projection.

1. Click the Share button on the Project Details console.

2. Nether People, blazon in the email addresses of the people you'd like to share the map with directly, or choose from your contacts, and click Washed. Yous can select whether the people y'all invite can edit the projection or just view it. If a person does not accept edit access, they will not see the Edit buttons in the Project Details panel and thus will not accept access to the Holding Editor for any features in the project.

   

---

Viewing your projects on web and mobile

Yous can notice maps and stories you own and that take been shared with you by clicking on Projects in the navigation and looking through the list in the Projects panel. In the list, you'll see maps and stories organized by the categories Pinned to World, KML files and Recent. You tin can also use the New project push to open projects and KML files that practice not automatically appear in your Projects list. You can also open an Earth project directly from Google Drive, or from a shared link.

You can view your projects on a mobile device by opening the Google Earth app, clicking the menu in the upper lefthand corner and selecting Projects. Yous tin can not edit your projects on mobile at this time.

Pinning Projects

In club to ensure that a project ever appears in your list of projects (fifty-fifty if y'all haven't recently opened it), hover over the project in the Projects panel and click the pin icon. The project will now announced in the Pinned to Earth section on your device.,

Tip: Pinned projects are always visible on the globe (unless you toggle off visibility using the Hide project button), even when y'all're exploring a unlike project in presentation mode. You can use this feature to "mash up" several different projects and/or KML files together.

Importing your KML files

If y'all've already created a map using some other mapping tool such equally Google My Maps, Bout Architect or Earth Pro and saved information technology as a KML or KMZ file, you lot tin can import the KML or KMZ to view and edit in Google Earth (with some limitations):

Currently, you are able to import your KMLs only as local files. Local files are projects stored in your local browser storage on your computer. Local files are not stored in the Google Cloud. Local files cannot exist shared with others and cannot exist shared across devices. Local files are stored only in the local browser storage on the computer used to import the file.

Before you can import your KML files, you must plow on KML import in your Google Earth settings.

1. Click the Google Earth menu button and select Settings.

2. Scroll to the bottom of the Settings menu and toggle the setting for "Turn on KML file import" to on.

3. Click Save.

Now yous can import a KML file.

1. Go to the Projects panel and click the New project button. Before you turned on KML file import, clicking this button only allowed you to create a new projection or open up a projection from Google Drive. Now you volition encounter options to create a KML file and to import a KML file from your calculator or Google Bulldoze.
2. Select Import KML file from computer.
3. Select the KML file from your computer and click Open.
4. Your KML file volition appear in your Projects console. You tin at present explore and edit your KML.

Tip: You may experience some issues importing more complex KML files. For example, some advanced KML features currently don't work well or at all in the new Google Earth for spider web and mobile, including 3D models, tours, tracks, time-based KML, and photo overlays. Likewise, very large KML files or complex features (eg: polygons with many vertices) may not import or render well.

Tip: If yous create or import KML files, you will non be able to convert them to Earth projects (stored in the Cloud), so you will non be able to share your KML files with others.

Exporting KML

To export a KML of your projection, get to the Project Details panel and click the overflow card , then select Consign equally KML file.

---

Give-and-take and Feedback

Have questions nearly this tutorial? Desire to requite us some feedback? Visit the Google Earth Aid Community to discuss information technology with others.

---

What'due south Adjacent

• See all tutorials.

rodgersitak1978.blogspot.com

Source: http://www.google.com/earth/outreach/learn/create-a-map-or-story-in-google-earth-web/

Share this post