Post by BuckSkin on Nov 5, 2021 19:32:15 GMT
For reasons fathomable only to the powers that be, in a recent update, the very important and extremely helpful County Lines are now GONE from Google Earth Pro.
I use Google Earth Pro extensively in my photographic endeavors and in pinpoint locating coordinates for photos from cameras that lack GPS stamping ability (get yourself a Canon 7DMkII, you will never forget me suggesting this and thank me a hundred times over after you do).
I was trying to identify which county a particular barn image was in; I had the barn located and looking right at it; I knew it could easily have been in either county; but, much to my dismay, no matter how far in any direction I panned, no county line ever showed up.
Thinking something may have gone awry with my installation, I went to the internet for a solution.
I found the problem all right = Google Earth Pro has removed the County Lines feature and representatives say they are never coming back ----- it is a MAP ----- let's just take away the roads, rivers, and streams as well ----- why on earth would we need them anyway; they are just muddying up the MAP and in the way of a good viewing experience.
A few years ago, people would have caught any such culprit, tarred and feathered them, and rode them out on a rail --- a fence rail, not the RxR. (I saw one guy tarred and feathered at a NFO meeting and he carried the scars the rest of his life).
Anyhow, I did find a couple solutions; the first one from the Census Bureau I have been using; the second choice from the FCC I have not yet tried.
The county line KML from the Census Bureau:
www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/kml-cartographic-boundary-files.html
www.census.gov/programs-surveys/geography/technical-documentation/naming-convention/cartographic-boundary-file.html
At the first link, scroll down to where it says "County"; there should be three downloadable files; I chose the first/largest choice; I don't know how the two smaller choices would have differed; but, whether it is chainsaws, guns, trucks, tractors, cows, hogs, or women, bigger is usually better, so I chose the larger file.
KML are extremely simple to install; just drag the KML file on top of whichever folder in the Google Earth Pro side pane that you want it in and drop it there; I put it at the very top, My Places.
Don't put it anywhere in or below Temporary Places, else it will disappear whenever the program is closed and you will have to reinstate it again.
When activated/(box is checked), along with displaying all county lines in the US, it places an annoying dim pale blue filter over the map; this is not annoying enough that I don't like the program, but it is there and it is annoying; I seem to have read somewhere how to turn off the pale blue filter, but I cannot find the information now that I need it.
There is one extremely handy feature that the Census version of county lines has that is very useful, and could very well be cause for the pale blue filter.
With the old county lines (now gone) of Google Earth Pro, I often (always) had to zoom out and search for the tiny name of the county, stamped in only a single spot somewhere within the boundaries.
With this Census version, wherever you click, anywhere you click, no matter where you are when you click, a window will pop up with the county name in bold and a whole host of information about that county; this beats the daylights out of having to zoom out and search for the name.
From the FCC:
www.fcc.gov/media/radio/us-county-overlays-kml
I could not make any sense of just what and how to go about downloading from the FCC site; if you can figure it out, please enlighten me.
I use Google Earth Pro extensively in my photographic endeavors and in pinpoint locating coordinates for photos from cameras that lack GPS stamping ability (get yourself a Canon 7DMkII, you will never forget me suggesting this and thank me a hundred times over after you do).
I was trying to identify which county a particular barn image was in; I had the barn located and looking right at it; I knew it could easily have been in either county; but, much to my dismay, no matter how far in any direction I panned, no county line ever showed up.
Thinking something may have gone awry with my installation, I went to the internet for a solution.
I found the problem all right = Google Earth Pro has removed the County Lines feature and representatives say they are never coming back ----- it is a MAP ----- let's just take away the roads, rivers, and streams as well ----- why on earth would we need them anyway; they are just muddying up the MAP and in the way of a good viewing experience.
A few years ago, people would have caught any such culprit, tarred and feathered them, and rode them out on a rail --- a fence rail, not the RxR. (I saw one guy tarred and feathered at a NFO meeting and he carried the scars the rest of his life).
Anyhow, I did find a couple solutions; the first one from the Census Bureau I have been using; the second choice from the FCC I have not yet tried.
The county line KML from the Census Bureau:
www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/kml-cartographic-boundary-files.html
www.census.gov/programs-surveys/geography/technical-documentation/naming-convention/cartographic-boundary-file.html
At the first link, scroll down to where it says "County"; there should be three downloadable files; I chose the first/largest choice; I don't know how the two smaller choices would have differed; but, whether it is chainsaws, guns, trucks, tractors, cows, hogs, or women, bigger is usually better, so I chose the larger file.
KML are extremely simple to install; just drag the KML file on top of whichever folder in the Google Earth Pro side pane that you want it in and drop it there; I put it at the very top, My Places.
Don't put it anywhere in or below Temporary Places, else it will disappear whenever the program is closed and you will have to reinstate it again.
When activated/(box is checked), along with displaying all county lines in the US, it places an annoying dim pale blue filter over the map; this is not annoying enough that I don't like the program, but it is there and it is annoying; I seem to have read somewhere how to turn off the pale blue filter, but I cannot find the information now that I need it.
There is one extremely handy feature that the Census version of county lines has that is very useful, and could very well be cause for the pale blue filter.
With the old county lines (now gone) of Google Earth Pro, I often (always) had to zoom out and search for the tiny name of the county, stamped in only a single spot somewhere within the boundaries.
With this Census version, wherever you click, anywhere you click, no matter where you are when you click, a window will pop up with the county name in bold and a whole host of information about that county; this beats the daylights out of having to zoom out and search for the name.
From the FCC:
www.fcc.gov/media/radio/us-county-overlays-kml
I could not make any sense of just what and how to go about downloading from the FCC site; if you can figure it out, please enlighten me.
