Beginner Questions about kml files

[jimjam]

Hello there

Fisrt things first, great site guys, i am more and more impressed every day. I tell everyone i meet Firstly about google earth then secondly about google earth hacks. Brilliant

I just have a few newbie questions about the kml files available on the site.

Firstly where should i keep them, shoul i put them into a separate directory.
secondly, once i have loaded them, can i delete them, and do they move to the places section on the left hand side of the screen.

Can you explain the make-up of the kml file, does it contain the image or does it just link to a file on a server.

Thanks and sorry if they sound stupid, bare with me on this one.

Jamie

[felipeboralli]

Originally Posted by jimjam

Hello there

Fisrt things first, great site guys, i am more and more impressed every day. I tell everyone i meet Firstly about google earth then secondly about google earth hacks. Brilliant

I just have a few newbie questions about the kml files available on the site.

Firstly where should i keep them, shoul i put them into a separate directory.
secondly, once i have loaded them, can i delete them, and do they move to the places section on the left hand side of the screen.

Can you explain the make-up of the kml file, does it contain the image or does it just link to a file on a server.

Thanks and sorry if they sound stupid, bare with me on this one.

Jamie

Hi Jamie

I will try to aswer some of your questions. If you don´t understand my aswer, or if I don´t aswer you accordinlly, feel free to ask again.

Most of the files stored in the database are .KMZ (stands for KML Zip), that is a compressed format of .KML, for two reasons: Use of less space, and the possibillity of packing multiple files.

The .KML file itself are just instructions for the GE program to execute, like, placing specific landmarks, paths and so. No image information is inside a .KML file, just Lat/Lon instructions for GE to get information from GE server. (this is a bit less than real, this is just an intro to .kml). The structure of a .kml file is human-readable, just like an HTML pages, with tags and such.

However, there is a function of GE called Image Overlays, that allows you to put a image onto the globe, for your own purposes. (Like a more detailed map, demographic info, etc). And now, the multiple packing property of .KMZ files is useful, because one can use it to distribute many image overlays within a single file. If you use .KML to do this, you will need to hand over also the images of the overlay, or host them in a site, for the user that opens that .KML fetches it from the site.

[Appletom]

Originally Posted by jimjam

Hello there

First things first, great site guys, I am more and more impressed every day. I tell everyone I meet Firstly about Google earth then secondly about Google earth hacks. Brilliant

Thanks, but you have your priorities wrong - tell everybody about GEH, then tell them about GEarth

I just have a few newbie questions about the kml files available on the site.

Firstly where should I keep them, should I put them into a separate directory.
secondly, once I have loaded them, can I delete them, and do they move to the places section on the left hand side of the screen.

You can keep them wherever you would like. I have a folder on my C:\ drive named "GEH" and that is where I drop them. There are two ways of loading a file - when you click on a download link, Firefox will (you are using Firefox instead of IE, aren't you?) give you the option of opening the file in GEarth or saving the file to your hard drive.

If you choose "Open With GEarth" then the file is opened in your temporary places in GEarth. If you close GEarth without moving them to "My Places" they will not be available again.

If you choose to save the file, it will then live in your designated folder. Double clicking on the file will open the file in GEarth, and when you close GEarth, you can get them back later by finding the file saved on your hard drive.

Can you explain the make-up of the kml file, does it contain the image or does it just link to a file on a server.

The file can contain the image, and/or it can link to a file or image on a server somewhere. I will let someone with more knowledge than myself tackle this question.

[Steeefan]

Very interesting explanation both you two.

As for me, I keep the files at 'Google\Google Earth\kml\' and I open them using 'File' - 'Open'.

[araT]

Great description felipeboralli!

Personally I have my browser download KMZ/KML's from websites into the temp folder and automaticly open them in GE, if I like the location I store it in 'My Places'. If i like it but dont need it in 'My Places'; I save it to Program Files/Google/Google Earth/KMZs.. I also keep 2 backups of MyPlaces.kmz, just in case anything goes wrong

T.

[jimjam]

Well guys

what can i say, you've all been the best, and yes i do use firefox.

You've cleared up many unclear things

thanks

jamie