Totally New

[haseeb786]

Hey,
I am a totally new user of Google earth (runnin on PII, no graphix card, 128 MB ram). its slow but it works!!
Anywayz, I had a couple of questions..
First of all, Why cant i find places on google? e.g. I was looking for Mecca (saudia arabia) and i searched the WHOLE of saudia, bit by bit, but didnt find it! Then I downloaded an overlay from google earth and voila! it was there! Why is that? (for many other places too!). And what is an overlay?
Also: What is a kml file and what is a kmz file? what is the difference and how to create one??
hope i get my answers
Haseeb

[araT]

Hey!

Welcome to GEH! We hope you enjoy it here :D

To answer your first question, an overlay is a photo off the internet (or your hard disk) that sits ontop of the google imagery, you can see things that arent in the current imagery in google earth either because its too old, too new, or in low res.. a great example of this is Palm Island, Dubai (http://www.googleearthhacks.com/dlfile1105/Palm-Island,-Dubai---with-Overlay.htm) :) You can turn them on & off by using the checkbox next to the overlay in your "My Places" section, you can also adjust the opacity by moving the slider at the bottom of the "My Places" window when you have the overlay selected.

Your next question, a KML file is like an xml file but specially made for Google Earth so it knows to open it, it contains the co-ordinates and any other information relating to your placemark so that you can share that spot with other google earth users. A KMZ file is a specially formatted .zip file (again, so google earth knows to open it) which contains a KML file and also any images you may have attached to the placemark. You can make either of these by right-clicking a placemark in 'My Places' and selecting save as, you can then upload it to the site via an attachment on the forums, or to our file archive where one of us mods will approve it and add a thumbnail :)

If you have any further questions please dont hesitate to ask!

Enjoy yourself :D

T.

[araT]

Oh and to answer your first question (I missed it on first read) its very hard to find things from above unless you know exactly where they are.. try starting with things around your local area :)

T.

[haseeb786]

thankx!! that was really helpful.
btw, how does one create overlays (with pictures?) e.g. if i have an aerial view of my home, how would i set and fit it up?
thankx again. gehacks rock. got some fabulous overlays! frm here

[maxxxheimer]

overlays:
i posted it 5 minutes ago here (http://www.googleearthhacks.com/forums/showthread.php?p=18521#post18521) :lol:
happy overlaying also to you,
max

[haseeb786]

Thnkx a lot everyone!!!
btw, one last thing. when I enable the roads layer, usually in my city (and many other) the blue line is messed up. not passing any real roads, in fact passe s through buildings etc...
I want to draw roads on actual ones and name them. howz that possible and how to fix the blue road layer?
thank u

[maxxxheimer]

not possible yet, as far as i know. if you have the pro-version you can paint and draw, but in the free version it's not available. write a mail to google here (http://www.earth.google.com) .

[Stadsman]

GE Plus also allows drawing lines (and is a lot cheaper than the pro version)